- Door County -

Door county is situated in the northeastern portion of Wisconsin, occupying most of a finger-like peninsula which extends northeasterly into Lake Michigan and includes many islands, the largest of which is Washington Island. It is bounded by Green Bay on the west, Lake Michigan on the east and Kewaunee county on the south. Green Bay meets the open water of Lake Michigan at "Death's Door," a dangerous passage between northern tip of the Door peninsula and Washington Island. Door county has a total area of 2,370 square miles but 1,888 square miles of it is water.

The first white settler of any record was Increase Claflin who settled at Little Sturgeon Point in 1835 and relocated to Fish Creek in 1844. The county was created in 1851 and attached to Manitowoc for judicial purposes. In 1855 it was detached from Manitowoc and attached to Brown county. The boundaries were described as "Beginning on the west shore of Lake Michigan, where the south line of township 26 intersects Lake Michigan; running thence west on the township line to the center of Green Bay; thence northeasterly along the center of the main channel of Green Bay to the boundary line between the State of Michigan and State of Wisconsin to a point in Lake Michigan, where the east and west line on the south side of township 26, extended easterly, would intersect the eastern boundary of the State of Wisconsin; and from thence west to the place of beginning." The county was organized in 1861. The county seat, and largest city, is Sturgeon Bay.