Deaths Door

So where does the name Door County come from? You can trace it to the area's most dangerous, mythical feature - Porte des Morts, or as it's now called, Death's .
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But like a fierce squall that blurs the line between sea and sky, the potent legacy of Death's Door obscures the line between fact and fancy.

The precise origins of the passage's name remain shrouded in legend. One story recounts the destruction of a large Native American war party in a sudden storm. Early French and American travelers' accounts contain similar stories.

Death's Door () - IMDb

However, these earliest written accounts mention nothing of a war party per se. They say only that "there were a hundred Indians dashed against these rocks and killed in a single storm" an account , or that a band of Indians, travelling in canoes to a French trading post, were resting on a rock shelf in the Door when a sudden storm trapped and drowned them. A French document from refers to the passage as Cap a la Mort. Thus, any actual events that may have inspired the name must have occurred before One author contends that a frightful legend was concocted by the French to discourage English exploration.

This French connection is reflected in modern charts that identify the passage as Porte des Morts.

According to Conan Eaton's Death's Door: While "Porte" may perhaps have followed a poetic Indian name, it as possibly was coined by the French on their canoe-borne travels. Three of Death's Door's victims, the J.

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Glimore left , the A. Nichols right , and the remains of the Forest between dock in foreground and the Gilmore ashore on Pilot Island, October Read more about them. Beyond question, the Death's Door legend refuses to die. Indeed, within recent times it has done better than stay alive; nurtured by modern minstrels who bathe it in vivid color In all, hundreds of warriors died, giving the thin stretch of water its name.

French explorers named the passage after hearing the Native American accounts and sailing the waters themselves.

Porte des Morts

Some say that the French named the passage to discourage British exploration and fur traders through the strait. After all, it was the only way to get from the trading post at modern-day Green Bay to the rest of the Great Lakes. Whether any of these accounts is absolutely true is unclear, but none will deny that it is home to scores of shipwrecks, perhaps the most of any freshwater in the world. The passage claimed 24 sailing vessels between and and nearly 40 in the nearby waters in the same period.

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The destruction was so apparent that it contributed to the decision to build the canal through Sturgeon Bay in Not only could a ship cut miles off their journey, but they could avoid the swirling waters and dark memories. While the legend is still shrouded in mystery, it has lived on in the culture of the county.

It has inspired the name of beer, spirits and even a barbeque festival on Washington Island each August.

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