Business & Learning Centers

Crossroads at Big Creek Historical & Environmental Learning Preserve
The Crossroads at Big Creek - Historical and Environmental Learning Preserve began in 1991 when a group of eight grade students presented a program for the Door County Historical Society. The young people described their experience with pioneer living at Old Victoria, a restored mining community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A group of historical society members immediately began dreaming of a place where Door County history could be brought to life. At the same time, teachers in the Sturgeon Bay School District were seriously exploring the possibility of establishing a school environmental education center.

This intersection of dreams resulted in CROSSROADS AT BIG CREEK – now a 97 acre property located midway between the five school districts of Door County. 

While progress has been made in creating an environmental education facility, members of the Door County Historical Society have scoured the county, looking for historical buildings which will be part of a 1900’s “Crossroads” village. The Vignes School, Peterson Granary, and a fish house have already been moved to the historical village and plans are being made for several buildings to e included on the site. 

The most exciting project at the Crossroads has begun this fall – The Environmental Learning Center.

The Learning Center will be a location where a number of activities can take place, including:
• Activities of the local schools
• Guest lectures
• Course programs for the general public
• Field workshops for the general public offered on weekends and during the summer.
• Leif Everson Astronomical Observatory will have the capability of viewing astronomical events in real time.
• Connection to NASA’s Spacelink Television via satellite.
• Space to display local student project work.
• Meeting rooms available to groups concerned with environmental, historical and astronomical affairs.

The Crossroads at Big Creek is located at the corner of Highway 42-57 and Michigan Street (County TT) and is open to hiking, cross country skiing, and just enjoying the natural beauty of Door County.

A Brief History: Sturgeon Bay has always been a popular area visited and settled by many Native American tribes due primarily to the relatively short portage between Lake Michigan and Green Bay. The Menominee, Winnebago, Outagamie, Iroquois, Sauk, Ottawa, Illinois, Chippewa, and Pottawatomi tribes were all know to have frequented this area.
1634 – Nicolet lands on Door County Islands
1658 – Radisson & Grosseliers winter in Sturgeon Bay with the Pottawatomi
1674 – Fr. James Marquette, Missionary and Explorer, stops for 3 months
1676 – Fr. Claude Allouez winters with the Pottawatomi – first to mention Sturgeon Bay, writing "La Portage des Eturgeons"
1679 – Robert LaSalle visits on ship the "Griffin"
1720 – Fr. Xavier de Charlevoix , a Jesuit Missionary, visited and wrote of the area
1835 – First European settlers, Increase & MaryAnne Claflin, build cabin at Little Sturgeon
1850 – First house built in Sturgeon Bay Oliver Graham
1850 – Lumbering of Pine & Cedar begins in Sturgeon Bay and continues for 40 years
1850 – Norwegian Moravians settle in Sturgeon Bay and Ephraim
1851 – An act of Legislature creates Door County which had formerly belonged to Brown County
1855 – First sawmill started by F.B. Gardener in Little Sturgeon
1856 – First Public School is built in Sturgeon Bay
1860 – First courthouse is built in Sturgeon Bay
1862 – Sturgeon Bay residents Joseph Zettle & Robert Laurie start the first orchard in Door County, they plant apple trees.
1862 – The county’s first newspaper, the "Door County Advocate", is started by Joseph Harris, Sr. in Sturgeon Bay
1872 – The first Telegraph lines in Door County are installed from Two Rivers to Sturgeon Bay
1878 – New courthouse built in Sturgeon Bay (torn down in 1991)
1880 – The Sturgeon Bay Canal is finished (work began in 1872)
1880 – First bank is established in Sturgeon Bay by Shimmel & Kozishek
1894 – The Ahnapee & Western Railroad is completed and runs from Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay
1895 – Tourism begins in Door County spurred by the enticing scenery
1896 – The first canning company, "Reynolds Preserving," is started in Sturgeon Bay
1906 – Highway improvements encourage tourism
1908 – The county’s first State Park, "Peninsula State Park" is opened
1917 – The first milk processing plant in Sturgeon Bay is built
1917 – The first cherry canning by Reynolds Canning in Sturgeon Bay
1931 – The first Highway bridge is built across Sturgeon Bay
History Information provided by The Door County Museum