EARLIEST NATIVE PEOPLES

Approximately 150 sites on or near the Door Peninsula have been identified as once being inhabited by humans who lived during the major archaeological periods shown below. These periods span the time from the melting of the glaciers to the arrival of the French explorers and missionaries in the 1600s.

• Early Paleo-Indian (9500 – 8000 B.C.
• Late Paleo-Indian (8000 – 6000 B.C.)
• Archaic ( 6000 – circa 100 B.C.)
• Woodland (800B.C. – 1200A.D./Contact in Northern Wisconsin).
• Oneota (1200AD – Contact in Southern Wisconsin).

(Source: Moran, Joseph M., and Edward J. Hopkins. Wisconsin’s Weather and Climate, University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, p. 24. https://books.google.com/books?id=LxajGKR4ZKkC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=%22door+county%22+near+archaeology+indian+paleo&source=bl&ots=0ccHFEf_pc&sig=xP3y9Rt0epa9S-2Wh9VDDvgKW3Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim1uCts4_PAhWGQyYKHYbIC_AQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q=%22door%20county%22%20near%20archaeology%20indian%20paleo&f=false)

The Early and Late Paleo-Indians were nomadic hunters and gatherers who engaged in a subsistence economy. Much of what is known of Paleo-Indians in Door County has come from fluted points – stone arrowheads, spearheads and other tools crafted by hand thousands of years ago. Door County farmers have unearthed many such implements plowing their fields in recent decades.

During the Archaic period, fish became a key dietary component.

By around 1000AD, during the Woodland period, agriculture and the creation of pottery became key occupations for Native Americans. Crops planted by Native Americans in northeastern Wisconsin included corn, bean and squash. The fields planted ranged in area from less than a single acre to 100 acres. Native American communities transitioned from moving seasonally to staying in one specific location. Three Northern Door locations that appear to have been permanent Native American community sites from this era are Richter, Mero and Heins Creek.

(Source: Perlman, Sam. “The First Door County Residents: Native American Tribes in Door County”. Door County Living, September 1, 2006. https://doorcountypulse.com/the-first-door-county-residents/)

1624 – 1875

Native American tribes in Door County during this time period included the Potawatomi, the Menominee, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Petun, Huron, Ho-Chunk, and Sauk.

(Source: Perlman, Sam. “The First Door County Residents: Native American Tribes in Door County”. Door County Living, September 1, 2006. https://doorcountypulse.com/the-first-door-county-residents/)

Jean Nicolet

The Potawatomi settled on Washington and Rock Islands in the early 17th century. In 1634, Jean Nicolet came to these islands, made contact with the native people, and fur trading began between the tribe and the French, with traded goods from the islands being sent as far as Montreal in eastern Canada.

Nicolet, in that same year, probably passed by the shores of Juddville in his canoe on his way to and from a settlement of three thousand Winnebagos at Red Banks, on the western shore of the peninsula, just northeast of the city of Green Bay. It is also reported that he may have stopped on Horseshoe Island during his canoe travels in Green Bay.

Nicolet was followed decades later by many more European explorers and fur traders. Fur trading, first with the French and then with the English, ultimately brought profound cultural and economic changes to the Native Americans of Door County. Over the next two centuries, the native people in Door County and their culture would be displaced by the white settlers coming primarily from the eastern U.S. and Europe.

(Source: “The Discovery of Door County”. Destination Door County website, April 30, 2016. https://www.doorcounty.com/newsletter/may-2016/the-discovery-of-door-county)

(Source: “Horseshoe Island (Wisconsin)”. Wikipedia website, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Island_(Wisconsin))

1800s

Maps created as recently as 1820 indicate that Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi settlements existed throughout the entire Door Peninsula at that time, including on Detroit and Washington Islands. Fifty years later, only a single Potawatomi village still existed on the peninsula. (Source: Perlman, Sam. “The First Door County Residents: Native American Tribes in Door County”. Door County Living, September 1, 2006. https://doorcountypulse.com/the-first-door-county-residents/)

Historically, the Potawatomi hunted, fished, and gathered food during the summer months. Additionally, gardens of corn, beans, and squash were cultivated and women gathered a large variety of wild plants. Hunting of deer, elk and beaver was done by small native groups using bow and arrow. In the late fall, the people divided up into smaller groups and relocated to their respective winter hunting territories. In the spring, the people would come back to their more populated warm weather location for communal hunting or early fishing in the streams that fed into Lake Michigan. Canoes were used for water travel, and as fur trading became more prevalent, horses also became a popular mode of transportation. (Source: “Potawatomi”. Milwaukee Public Museum website. https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-56)

Throughout the mid-1800s, the Native Americans of Door County were relocated by the U.S. Government to reservations, many of them far from their native peninsula. For example, the Potawatomi were moved from Wisconsin to Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and ultimately ended their relocation in Oklahoma in 1867. (Source: “Potawatomi”. Milwaukee Public Museum website. https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-56)

The Town of Egg Harbor was founded on July 9, 1861. In the town’s first few years, the majority of Egg Harbor’s population were Belgians and Native Americans who were employed by the first settlers of Egg Harbor in the production of cord wood. (Source:  “Welcome to the Town of Egg Harbor”. Town of Egg Harbor website. http://www.townofeggharbor.org/)

Otto Anderson, an early Juddville settler, shared his new farm property with a camp of Native Americans his family described as “good neighbors” during his first year on the property, which was probably in the late 1870s. (Source: Isaksson, Eric. Vetlanda, Sweden. “Meeting with Emigrants’ Descendants in USA – 1961 and 1973”. 1973. Provided by Gary Schulze of Islandview Rd, Juddville, WI)

As of July 1, 2021, about 0.8 percent of Door County’s population is identified as Native American or Alaska Native alone. (Source: “Quick Facts Door County, Wisconsin”. “Race and Hispanic Origin” Section, United States Census Bureau website.  https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/doorcountywisconsin)

NATIVE AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES 

Juddville. No evidence of Native American archaeological sites in Juddville were found during the research for this website. But information was uncovered that a Native American camp existed on Otto Anderson’s property the first year he lived on that property. That would have probably been in the late 1870s. (See “1800s” above on this web page.)

Egg Harbor Site. “About the year 1850, according to old settlers, a small band of Indians camped for several years on the south side of Egg Harbor, about one-half mile west of the dock. These native people hunted and fished from that location. There are no indications, however, of any permanent settlement in the Egg Harbor area. Numerous arrow points, stone axes, and celts have been found by farmers around Egg Harbor.  A cache of five small socketed copper spears now in Mr. Schumacher’s collection were found in the ledge east of the pier.  Doctor Eames of Egg Harbor also has a small collection of stone implements recovered in this vicinity.” (Source: Holand, Hjalmar R. “Chapter III: Indian Remains in Door County”. History of Door County, Wisconsin, The County Beautiful, Vol. I, reprinted by William Caxton Ltd, Ellison Bay, 1917, p. 16. http://genealogytrails.com/wis/door/history/history1917.htm)

Fish Creek Site. “On the east end of the Harbor at Fish Creek, on the south bank of the creek, S. E. ¼ of the S. E. ¼, Sec. 29, T. 31, R. 26, are indications of a site of a small camp and a few provision pits.  Mr. Skiller found a copper spear, a bone drill and some flint arrow points here.  The large villages near Hein’s Creek on the east side of the peninsula were about six miles from Egg Harbor, and it is quite likely the specimens found were lost by Indian from those villages.” (Source: Holand, Hjalmar R. “Chapter III: Indian Remains in Door County”. History of Door County, Wisconsin, The County Beautiful, Vol. I, reprinted by William Caxton Ltd, Ellison Bay, 1917, p. 16. http://genealogytrails.com/wis/door/history/history1917.htm)

(Source: Weber, Magill. “Door County Outdoors: A Guide to the Best Hiking, Biking, Paddling, Beaches and Natural Places”. University of Wisconsin Press, October 21, 2011.)

State Park Site. “In the State Park on the east shore of Shanty Bay, a small bay on Eagle Bay, are indications of a site of a good sized village on the N. W. ¼ of the S. W. ¼ of the N. E. ¼, Sec. 16, T. 31, R. 27.  There being only a small clearing and most of that in grass, a close observation of this site has not been made. Several arrow points of common chert, a scraper, an unfinished drill and some ornamented potsherds have been found here.” (Source: Holand, Hjalmar R. “Chapter III: Indian Remains in Door County”. History of Door County, Wisconsin, The County Beautiful, Vol. I, reprinted by William Caxton Ltd, Ellison Bay, 1917, p. 16. http://genealogytrails.com/wis/door/history/history1917.htm)

Archeologists believe humans have lived on the peninsula for approximately 11,000 years. There is a village site at Nicolet Bay Beach (previously known as Shanty Bay) where Native American inhabitants lived until 1300 AD. Victoria Dirst, a Wisconsin state archeologist, performed a dig at Nicolet Bay in 1994 and uncovered relics from the Early, Middle, and Late Woodland and Oneota Native American cultures (400 BC). (Source: “History: Peninsula State Park”, “Native American Cultures”. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources web site. https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/parks/peninsula/history)

Chambers Island. Based on burial mounds and artifacts such as decorated pottery and copper knives,  it is estimated that native peoples lived on Chambers island as early as 800 A.D. (Source: Slattery, Sally. “Door County’s Islands”. Door County Living, July 1, 2014. https://doorcountypulse.com/islands-around-us/)

A carved mammoth’s rib dated at 10,000 years old was found on the island, along with Native American burial grounds. (Source: Williamson, Patty. “Forgotten Charms of Chambers Island”. Peninsula Pulse. August 25, 2017. https://doorcountypulse.com/forgotten-charms-of-chambers-island/)