There’s a reason Door County is so popular among Chicago-area weekend warriors: It’s lovely. There are antiques to hunt, cherries to pick and fish to boil; there’s a breeze, trees and B&Bs. For nature-deprived city folk who’ve been holed up with cubicle fever all summer, Door County is ridiculously appealing, primarily because it’s everything Chicago is not.
But with popular destinations come crowds, and with crowds come traffic. Fortunately, Door County doesn’t stop where most tourists do: to gawk at the goats grazing on the roof of Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant, causing a traffic jam where Wisconsin Highways 42 and 57 bottleneck into Sister Bay. Geographically, it’s almost as if Door County’s eponymous peninsula is pointing the most perceptive of observers in the direction of something even better than those crazy goats. Positioned 4 miles off the tip of the peninsula, creating a water passage so dangerous, its infamous name — Death’s Door — has stuck for centuries, there’s a remote mass of land that lures the wisest of those weekend warriors to stow away to its shores.
One caveat: Washington Island is not tropical. But it is a kind of paradise.
What it lacks in coconut palms and white-sand beaches, it makes up for in wild sweet peas and nature trails. In place of tortoises and dolphins, there are lake whitefish and lawyers (fish, not suits). Ordering a mai tai is a faux pas, but every restaurant and pub serves Capital Brewery’s Island Wheat Ale, brewed from wheat grown on most of the farms here.
Best of all, Washington Island is still Door County, so there remain the antiques, cherries and fish boils — sans crowds, sans traffic.
Spanning just about 24 square miles, Washington Island is the largest of six islands off Door Peninsula that together make up the Town of Washington. Keep in mind, though, nobody ever says, “I’m headed up to Washington this weekend,” reason being that the town is virtually synonymous with the main island. It’s the only truly populated one (home to about 700 people) of those that lay in a haphazard archipelago here. The others — Rock Island (1.5 square miles), Detroit Island (0.99 square miles), Plum Island (about 0.5 square miles) and teeny-tiny Pilot and Hog Islands (each about 2 acres) — are, quite literally, for the birds: Rock Island is a deserted state park, perfect for lakeside camping, and the others are bird sanctuaries.
A few miles north, Green Bay and Lake Michigan swirl together along an invisible Wisconsin-Michigan border. The time zone jumps from Central to Eastern and the waters widen, distancing themselves from the collective islands’ notorious natural roadblocks.
In primitive seafaring days of yore, many of the ships that tried to pass between Wisconsin’s jagged peninsula and Washington Island — a.k.a. Death’s Door Passage — simply didn’t make it. There are remnants of shipwrecks. Hundreds of ’em. Door County’s Visitors’ Bureau likes to brag that there are more shipwrecks here than any other section of fresh water in the world. During the warmer months, divers flock to Death’s Door to go deep, exploring what’s left of the legendary wreckage. And during the winter, chunky ice caps clutter the passage, reminding passengers on the Washington Island Ferry (also known as Death’s Door Ferry) that, in all honesty, the 6-mile crossing is entirely in the hands of the elements.
The allure of an island is often weighed by how difficult it is to get there. But while Wisconsin’s relatively unknown retreat is an easy six-hour drive from the Loop, its vibe isn’t unlike that of Washington state’s remote San Juan Islands or the smaller islands of Hawaii. Life moves slowly here. Cars cruise at a snail’s pace, their drivers pausing for scenic snapshots; families of cyclists rule the dozen or so roads that divide the island’s interior into a neatly planned grid. Many shops are open seasonally — or when they feel like it. There’s one ATM machine; there are two gas stations. People here stop to smell the wildflowers and take in the sunsets.
And, as is the case on any island, weather dictates just about everything. Get here in the next month or so, and Washington Island is at its prime, before dropping temperatures and fall color succumb to early winter gales. Especially on the northern and western sides, which face relatively balmy Green Bay, dips in the water are a must.
Pack a picnic and head to rocky, limestone-laden Washington Harbor and Schoolhouse Beach, which, on a recent Sunday afternoon, was populated by half a dozen or so lazy swimmers and sunbathers.
Cut through the woods on a trail from South Shore Drive to the remote Sand Dunes Beach, bring a book and a blanket and plant yourself against the shelf of sand overlooking Lake Michigan. There will be no crowds, if there’s anyone there at all.
Like much of the Midwest, Washington Island is virtually flat, which makes for spectacular vantage points. Climb the 184 steps up to the Mountain Park Lookout Tower in the center of the island — its highest point — and green patches of farmland and forests meet the blue-green of Green Bay to the north and the deeper blue of Lake Michigan to the south.
It’s remote; it’s gorgeous.
It’s hard to believe that this is the same state — let alone country — famous for birthing grown men who, for four consecutive months a year, sport giant foam hats shaped like wedges of cheese.
Not that cheese is any less important here. This is Wisconsin, after all.
The best place to sample cheese on this island, or any number of organic meals, is the restaurant at the Washington Hotel, home to the Washington Hotel Culinary School. Located just east of Detroit Harbor, a quick five-minute drive from the ferry dock, the 104-year-old building sits regally at the rear of an oversized grassy lot punctuated by a pair of horseshoe pits and Adirondack chairs.
Chilled cucumber soup, smoked whitefish crepes and asparagus quiche are among the selections that grace the ever-changing menu prepared by chefs-in-training here. The setting, like the food, is delicious. Across the road facing Detroit Harbor is a tiny private dock for hotel and restaurant guests. The intimate inn, with eight quaint, tastefully restored rooms sharing two luxury baths, is one of the least expensive lodging options on the island.
Then again, everything here, from the restaurants to the resorts, caters to budget-conscious Midwesterners . . . with a Scandinavian accent.
Shortly after the island was incorporated as part of Washington Township in 1850, an influx of Icelandic fishermen arrived; today it’s the largest settlement of Icelanders in the States. Evidence of that is everywhere, from Field Wood Farm’s Icelandic pony rides through the woods to the deliciously filling barkram pankaka (Icelandic crepes stuffed with yogurt cream sauce and cherries), served at the Sunset Resort on West Harbor, which is run by the same Norwegian-Icelandic family that opened it in 1902.
Scandinavian culture is further preserved at the Jacobson Museum, named for Jens Jacobson, the pioneering Dane who immigrated in 1881 and built a museum on the island’s aptly named Little Lake in 1931. The island is also home to one of only six stavkirke r (stave churches) in the country. The one here, nestled against the trees across from the Trinity Lutheran Church on Town Line Road, is modeled after the original Borgund, Norway, stavkirke built around 1150.
Like a small city-state, Washington Island has managed to create a wealth of culture for itself on a relatively small plot of land, with an even smaller population. Sievers School of Fiber Arts offers weeklong and weekend classes in handcrafts; Red Barn Park and Gislason Beach host outdoor music and theater events during the warmer months; elsewhere are the Trueblood Performing Arts Center and a handful of fine-arts galleries.
And then, of course, there is the land itself. Acres of it. It’s flat, but vast, best explored in a car or on a bike.
If you’ve got neither, there’s always Washington Island’s Cherry Train Tours, which are stationed at the ferry dock and lead tours of the west side packed with mainland day-trippers. The tour makes a mandatory stop at the Double K-W Ostrich Farm on West Harbor Road, where a tiny zoo offers photo ops with the leggy creatures and then some. (For a more literal taste of K-W’s residents, check out the menu at the Ship’s Wheel Restaurant just west of the ferry dock. See “If You Go.”)
Back in mainland Door County, there’s considerably more wildlife. And antiques and cherries and fish boils. And civilization, which isn’t always a good thing. Next time, after passing Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant on that crowded main road, keep going. Head for the Washington Island Ferry at Northport Pier. Don’t look back.
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IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Washington Island is about 4 miles (as the crow flies) northeast of the Door Peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin, approximately 290 miles north of the Loop. There is one airport, Washington Island Airport, but it does not service commercial airlines.
The island is accessible via the Washington Island Ferry, which, in addition to having its own theme song, makes daily trips year round from Door Peninsula’s Northport Pier, where Wisconsin Highway 42 ends. Round trips for automobiles are $24. That does not include fares for passengers, which are $11 per adult and $5.50 per child aged 6-11. Through Oct. 26, the ferry runs on the hour from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with additional trips on Friday nights. Return trips from the island run on the hour from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with additional trips on Friday nights. Ferries run less frequently starting Oct. 27. For the complete schedule and fares, call 800-223-2094 or visit www.wisferry.com/schedule.html.
WHERE TO STAY
Bathrooms are shared, but a night or two at the beautifully restored Washington Hotel (920-847-2169; www.the
washingtonhotel.com), originally built in 1904 as an inn overlooking Detroit Harbor, is well worth it. Eight quaint king and queen rooms start at $89, a few of them with hand sinks. A nice continental breakfast is included, but plan to indulge in a full meal at the restaurant downstairs (see Where to Eat).
Perched on West Harbor, the Sunset Resort (920-847-2531; www.sunsetresortwi.com) was opened in 1902 by a Scandinavian family who still runs it. The resort, which includes tennis courts and private docking facilities, has a summer camp feel; its dozen rooms are simply furnished and start at $94.
WHERE TO EAT
The best — and most expensive — meals on the island can be found at the Washington Hotel Culinary School (920-847-2169; www.thewashing
tonhotel.com), which serves delectable six-course dinners Thursday-through-Saturday nights through Oct. 13. Year-round a la carte dinners and lunches are served Monday through Saturday.
For a traditional fish boil, which originated in Door County, head downtown to K.K. Fiske Restaurant (920-847-2121), which serves lawyer (burbot) and whitefish boils from 6-9 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Whitefish is the word at Karly’s Bar and Cellar Restaurant (920-847-2655), where $14.50 gets you a tasty, no-frills whitefish dinner, your choice of potato and a soup or salad.
For a true taste of the island, order a Double K-W Ostrich sandwich at the Ship’s Wheel (920-847-2640; www.kaps
marina.com/restau
rant.html), on the marina right next to the ferry dock.
You can order a pint of Capital Brewery Island Wheat Ale just about anywhere, but the place to go is Nelsen’s Hall (920-847-2496), a homey, wood-paneled oasis built in 1899 by Danish immigrant Tom Nelsen.
INFORMATION
Washington Island Chamber of Commerce: 920-847-2179, www.washingtonislandcham
ber.com; Door County Chamber of Commerce: 920-743-4456; www.doorcounty.com.
— Lauren Viera
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lviera@tribune.com
