Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

Sturgeon Bay is the gateway to one of America’s freshwater wonderlands–Door County. Midway on an eighty-mile-long peninsula, the town straddles a scenic little bay and canal that connects the surrounding waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Hundreds of miles of shoreline include towering limestone bluffs and sandy beaches backed by lush woodlands. Settlement began in the 1850s with lumber mills. After the canal opened in 1881, shipbuilding and freighter traffic contributed to growth, along with fishing, pleasure boating, cherry and apple orchards, and dairy farms.

While all are still important a century later, the town’s destiny as a travel gateway is finally apparent. Many buildings from the prosperous past now house galleries, specialty shops, restaurants featuring local products, and nostalgic inns in the charming, compact downtown. Nearby, intimate resorts serve as bases for enjoying all sorts of water recreation in town and in quaint villages along the picturesque shoreline.

For more information, check with the local Chamber of Commerce.