Door County

Door County, Wisconsin
Door County Government Center
Location in the U.S. state of Wisconsin
Wisconsin's location in the U.S.
Founded	1861
Named for	Door Peninsula
Seat	Sturgeon Bay
Largest city	Sturgeon Bay
Area
• Total	2,370 sq mi (6,138 km2)
• Land	482 sq mi (1,248 km2)
• Water	1,888 sq mi (4,890 km2), 80%
Population
• (2010)	27,785
• Density	58/sq mi (22/km²)
Congressional district	8th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.co.door.wi.gov

Door County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,785. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay.

The county was created in 1851 and organized in 1861. It is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The dangerous passage, which is now scattered with shipwrecks, was known to early French explorers and local Native Americans.

Door County is a popular vacation and tourist destination, especially for residents of Wisconsin and Illinois.

The Door County peninsula has been inhabited for about 11,000 years. Artifacts from an ancient village site at Nicolet Bay Beach have been dated to about 400 BCE. This site was occupied by various cultures until about 1300 CE.

Door County's namesake came from "Porte des Morte", anglicized as "Death's Door", or the passage between the tip of the Door County Peninsula and Washington Island. It's a common misconception that the name "Death's Door", or "Porte des Morts", arose from the number of shipwrecks associated with the passage. It was instead the result of native-American tales, heard by early French Explorers, related to a failed raid by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) tribe to capture Washington Island from the rival Pottawatomie tribe in the early 1600s. A storm arose as the war party was halfway across, capsizing and killing about a third of the Ho-Chunk tribe in the process.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw the immigration and settlement of pioneers, mariners, fishermen and farmers, with the first white settler being Increase Claflin. Economic sustenance came from lumbering and tourism.

During the 19th century, various groups of Native Americans occupied the area that would become Door County and its islands. Beginning in mid-century, these Indians, mostly Potawatomi, were removed from the peninsula by the federal government under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Later in the 19th century, a fairly large-scale immigration of Belgian Walloons populated a small region in the county.