At the very northern end of the Door Peninsula lies Gills Rock, which some have dubbed the jumping-off place because it is surrounded by water on three sides and kind of looks like the end of the world. Actually, this little hamlet was originally named
HedgehogHarbor, and the harbor still bears that name. The postmaster general of the
United States wrote the local postmaster, Gottlieb Voight, that
HedgehogHarbor wouldn't fit on a stamp and asked him to rename the village. Voight named it Gillsrock (all one word) in honor of a good friend. How it became Gills Rock is not known to this writer.
As one approaches from the south, on the left you can see an old cement ramp going down to the water. This is the old ferry landing. To the right of the landing is an old building where one could buy delicious smoked fish.
Shoreline Marina, Restaurant, & Motel
Up the road a piece is the Shoreline Motel. Here the dining room faces the Bay. Sightseeing cruises can be booked here as well as fishing tours, and for the brave at heart, scuba diving to some of the wrecks of ships sunk in days past.
Continuing around the corner on Highway 42 we come to the
MaritimeMuseum which is a branch of the
DoorCountyMaritimeMuseum in
SturgeonBay. The emphasis of this museum is fishing, and, indeed, the old fishing tug, the Hope, is inside the museum for all to explore. There is a video showing how nets were hauled aboard the tugs and one of a net dryer, which is four wooden racks mounted on a wheel which turned as the fishermen put the nets on or took them off. Among the memorabilia are artifacts from the Edmund Fitzgerald, old dishes pots and pans, chains, anchors, etc. There is also an interactive video on
Great Lakes shipwrecks.
There is quite a large display of outboard motors, going back in time to the thirties. An old Kahlenberg engine which was built in Two Rivers for a yacht in 1910 (Honest! They had yachts in 1910). The display explains how the oil instead of circulating as it does in our auto engines, went thru the engine once and then into the bilge water. The bilge water, of course, eventually went into the
Lake.
Fishing boat at Gills Rock
Another video shows the construction of the ferry, Arni Richter, at Bay Shipbuilding in
SturgeonBay. In 1940 and thereabouts, the ferry didn't run in winter, so cars drove over the ice when they wanted to go to
Washington Island. After World War II the
Griffin was built to be able to run year around; it held eight cars! Tim Graul, a Naval Architect in
SturgeonBay, designed the Arni Richter. So, now we were able to run the ferries all year around, but one problem remained. That old ferry dock we saw on our way is on the west side of the peninsula and many times strong northwest winds prevented the ferries from landing. So the new ferry dock, which is the one being used presently, was built on the east side "at the end of 42" as the radio commercial for the ferry puts it.
Take the Island Clipper to Washington Island
On your way to the ferry dock, do stop at Bea's Homemade Jams. Here you'll find imported delicacies you never heard of, as well as pickles, jams, and jellies of every kind known to man.
Besides the new dock, there is a nice restaurant called the Shoreline Restaurant at the end of 42. If your ride back wasn't too rough, you might want to stop in for a meal of fresh whitefish, shrimp, or scallops to top off your nautical day in
DoorCounty.
