The Door to Wisconsin's Best Kept Secret

What do cherries and shipwrecks have in common? How about ice caves and lighthouses? Fish boils and apple orchards? This isn’t a riddle. Wisconsinites know — Door County. The tourist hotspot affectionately referred to as the “Cape Cod of the Midwest” outgrows its reputation by the minute. It isn’t a place that is any one thing. Actually, while I get why people think it’s like Cape Cod, I don’t even believe it’s like that at all. 

There is so much more to Door. It has no equivalent. 

Door County is located on a 70-mile-long stretch of Wisconsin that juts out into Lake Michigan, an extended pinkie finger if the state were a hand. An apropos metaphor for a place known for cushy vacations and comfort food, Door County is a warm cherry pie cooling on the windowsill. Radiating warmth as the à la mode vanilla ice cream trickles along the sides of a flaky, buttery crust, pooling at the bottom of the dish. A reward for a life well lived. 

Travelers will refer to Door County as if it were one big town. But it isn’t. It’s a bunch of towns all strung together along the peninsula. It’s a quick jaunt window shopping in Bailey’s Harbor, meandering the halls of the Maritime Museum, or playing in the woods with the folks at Northern Sky Theater. Did you know that Northern Sky creates original musicals? Not only that, but many of them encompass the stories and histories of the area. Showing audiences that no one story captures what it means to be a Wisconsinite or a Midwesterner. They preserve our Midwestern history, you betcha.* 

For those who haven’t been to Wisconsin, it’s hard to imagine the Dairy State as anything more than home of The Pack, bratwurst, cheese, and beer. Yet for creative minds, it is a place of inspiration. More than 100 art galleries call Door County home, as well as four professional theater companies. It’s little wonder, surrounded by water, that this peninsula is a creative haven. A place where people come from all over the country just for a break — a moment to really savor that pie — and a chance to hear themselves think again. 

Just take one look at The Dome House. This place, also aptly nicknamed The Mushroom House or The Hobbit House, has become home to the Al & Mickey Quinlan Residency where Midwestern artists can retreat and create. Built into the dunescape in the 1970s, The Dome House is like stepping into another world, one that centers a quiet life of creating over the rat race running its course beyond those walls.  

Considering how enamored Frank Lloyd Wright was with Wisconsin, I’m not surprised at all that a place as magnificent as Door could inspire such unique dwellings or beckon artists to its sandy (or rocky) shores. 

Having grown up in Wisconsin and lived there for 25 years of my life, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for this state. Squeaky cheese curds. Supper clubs. A brandy Old Fashioned, sweet. That’s my language. The folks in Door? Well, they’re fluent in it. It is a place brimming with that warmhearted Midwestern hospitality I’ve known all my life, combined with an artistic stick-to-itiveness that is also deeply Midwestern. 

In many ways, Door feels like a hidden gem. Oh, I loathe that phrase, but even so, it’s true. People may know about it, but it so often feels like they don’t know about it. That Door’s distinct towns, villages, and singular city all have their own personalities. The county around them is simply an amalgamation of them. 

Truth be told, I’ve never been a Packers fan (sorry Mom and Dad) or a sports fan for that matter. Instead, I’m a fan of magical places.  More and more, I find myself being a fan of Door County. The unwavering passion others have for their home team mirrors the feelings I have for a place that reminds me of home. 

It is a place that shows tourists some of the best there is of the culture I grew up on, the one I still run to time and time again. I hope that every person who walks through the door leaves with more than they came with. A sense of home, creative inspiration, or just a moment in the sun on the lakeshore.

Writer’s note: In addition to personal visits to Door County, the writer has also been hosted by Destination Door County on two occasions. That said, all opinions/recommendations shared within are their own. 

*Ope. One of the writer’s closest friends is the current marketing director at Northern Sky Theater. That changes nothing about the sentiment shared above or the power of original theatrical storytelling. 

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