Ridges Road Timeline · Harbor Ridges Association

Compiled by the Baileys Harbor Historical Society. Also as a PDF.

Year
1848	Captain Justice Bailey, seeking a safe harbor during a storm, discovers Baileys Harbor.
1849–1851	Alanson Sweet, businessman and Bailey’s employer, seeks to develop the harbor in a big way. He manages to have the Door Peninsula set aside as a separate county, establishes Gibraltar (Baileys Harbor) as the county seat, and earns the commission to build the Old Baileys Harbor (“birdcage”) Lighthouse from local materials.
1852	The lighthouse is complete and operating.
1869–1870	The Old Lighthouse is decommissioned due to ineffectiveness. The Range Lights are built and put into service at the beginning of the 1870 navigation season.
1871	Thomas Toft comes to work at Wing & Buckley’s Mud Bay quarry.
1874–1906	Wing & Buckley go bankrupt, and Toft begins acquiring the land that will eventually be known as Toft Point. Toft is determined to retain the old-growth trees that grow there.
1896	The Treasury Department establishes a U.S. Lifesaving Station near the current junction of Harbor Lane and Ridges Road.
1915	The U.S. Coast Guard is formed from the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service. The Lifesaving Station becomes a Coast Guard Station.
1923	The North Point Reserve Co. (also called Lighthouse Point Reserve Co.) is formed by prominent Sturgeon Bay businessmen, and land along the harbor and Lake Michigan shore is parceled into lots. Selling points included a telephone at the Coast Guard station and daily mail delivered to convenient locations. The Old Lighthouse is sold to a private individual; a 1926 tax bill shows a valuation of $400 and a tax of $9.84.
1931–1974	Cliff Wenniger starts his fishery just south of the Old Lighthouse land. Wenniger was a successful and respected businessman known for converting old autos into flat-bed haulers and other labor-saving devices.
1935	The U.S. Commerce Department deeds the 40 acres around the Range Lights to Door County. The County Parks Commission manages the land for the people of Door County, including 400 feet of sand beach across from the lower range light.
1935	George and Jac Schmitz build a summer resort, Schmitz Gazebos, from small cabins bought and renovated from the Coast Guard Station. They expand in 1948 when the station closes. By the early 1950s they could house 45 people in studio or one-bedroom cabins with hot and cold running water. After George Schmitz died in 1965, his niece Irene sold the resort to Aribert Wild.
1937	The Ridges Sanctuary is established, after great controversy over a County plan for a travel-trailer park on the land. Albert Fuller, chief botanist of the Milwaukee Public Museum, becomes a forceful advocate for preserving the area.
1948	The Coast Guard Station is closed.
Early 1960s	The Sands Motel (Carl Jonas) and the Sandpiper Restaurant (Bob Herbst) are built at the entry to Ridges Road.
1965	Hickey Brothers Fishery is established.
1967	Toft Point Natural Area is established.
1969–1993	Baileys Harbor Yacht Club is opened by Aribert Wild, with a marina large enough to dock 85-foot boats and a helicopter pad.
1970	The Range Lights are replaced by a single leading light on a steel tower.