Ghosts of the Past: Door County Farms

Door County is well known for its history as well as beauty.With history comes artifacts left behind as the times change.

Some of the biggest reminders of the ever changing times are the many unoccupied farmhouses dotting our country roads and fields. They represent a way of life that Door County was built on. Agriculture was once a driving force in our economy before we were discovered as a vacation destination. What remains are these icons of the past as they offer a look back into another life.

These overgrown homesteads can be found throughout the county.  Huge barns stand the test of time showing only faded paint and sagging beams reminding us that things were built to last back then. The fields surrounding these giants have grown only prairie flowers and grass for many years.

The orchards no longer maintained hold only mangled apple or cherry trees still producing small crops, never to be harvested.  On chilly fall mornings, these skeletons lurk in the fog that fills the low flat farmland. Growing up on one of these abandoned orchards, I can remember many mornings looking out over the ridge and seeing these ghosts of what once was a thriving beautiful farm.  My mother and I used to ride her horses through these winding trails of apple trees struggling to hold on.  These trees must’ve been 40 years old and they were still producing apples!

Every farm was once home to a family and therefore has a story to tell. My imagination always ran wild as I walked around the old buildings out at Toft’s Point in Baileys Harbor. A family had in fact lived there, they had done chores, had done schoolwork, and survived on the land. When I was little, I used to pretend that I was living in that time. These old buildings bring out an innocent playful side to even the most solemn of visitors. One can’t help but wonder what life would have been like back then.

As children, we would talk about how this one farm in particular was haunted, not that we had ever known the true history of it. One summer night, we decided to go check it out. The farm looked like the family just left one day and never returned. There was still a child’s bike in the yard and a tire swing hanging from the big maple in the front. After spending hours snooping, we had come up with this elaborate story of what happened.  To this day, I’ve never found out why that family left but my childhood imagination has made it so I don’t really want to know.

There is a curiosity that comes with exploring new places and in Door County; there is no shortage of places to discover.  These old farmsteads offer a look into the past and a way to explore a time when life was much simpler, not easier but less complicated.  The easiest way to look into that life is to visit The Corner of the Past and Old Anderson House Museum located in Sister Bay. It features an original 1875 Anderson family farmhouse with late 1800’s furnishings, historical photographs, and artifacts depicting Sister Bay’s history. Authentic buildings such as a large barn, granary, machine shop, two log cabins, and migrant worker’s cabin, summer kitchen, sawmill and blacksmith’s barn have been relocated & renovated to contribute their share of history. The machine shop photo gallery and other buildings on the site feature photographs dating back to the early settlers, merchants, the destructive 1912 fire, the steamships at Roeser Dock, and early logging and ice cutting. All of these historic buildings are open for visitation throughout the summer.