So Why the Tornado Tavern Gallery?

The building that houses the gallery stands on what was probably the edge of a settlement named Williamsonville. The small settlement grew around a cedar shingle making company owned by the Williamson family. In the early days, in the period starting around 1850 to the early 1870’s the main way to make a living was as a fisherman, lumberjack or farming the land that had been cleared for lumber and shingles. The Williamson’s Mill supplied cedar shingles to Green Bay and many towns south to Milwaukee.

The weather in 1871 was very dry and hot throughout the nation. In Wisconsin the crops failed and dried in the fields in Door County. The common logging practice was to leave the unwanted wood where it fell and this dried scrap wood added to the waiting danger. The wetlands were dried up and people were concerned about the small fires that kept popping up during the summer and fall seasons.

On the other side of Green Bay the new railroad used fire to clear the trees from the railroad right of way. This practice caused multiple fires in 1871 the smoke often causing extremely poor visibility. By late September the fires became more intense and some had gone underground. Then during the late evening of October 8^th 1871 the weather changed, the humidity plummeted and the wind gusted to near 60 miles. These conditions created vortexes, generating fire tornadoes and finally a firestorm near Peshtigo.

Very similar weather conditions existed on the East side of the bay. The firestorm started later during the night hours of October 8^th with fire balls and fire whirlwinds. Reports are unclear about where the fire tornado originated but it is of little consequence. The result was an intense firestorm from the south that raced over western Door County that destroyed the Williansonville community and nearly all of its members. The fire, to different degrees, damaged the areas of Union, Brussels, Forestville, Gardner, Nasewaupee, Clay Banks, and Sturgeon Bay. The towns in the Northern part of this area were partially protected by the swamps that burned earlier in the year. The next day it finally rained, the rain lasting most of the day and with enough volume to extinguish the fires.

The community of Williamsonville was never rebuilt but the legacy of the fire is still remembered. For a while the Post Office district was called Tornado, in 1945 this building was either built or converted into a tavern and named Tornado Tavern. The road closest to this building to the “South” is named Tornado Road. Finally, about ¼ mile to the “North” is a memorial park at what was probably the center of Williamsonville. In the park there is a marker where the well is believed to have been where seven people took refuge to avoid the fire, five survived.

Note: The “Present Highway” is now County Road DK

There were three major fires on October 8^th 1871, Chicago and the Great Michigan Fire that cut a wide strip across Michigan proper. The fires in Wisconsin and Michigan had a significant affect on the lumber industry and may have contributed to the depression of 1873.

During my research of the fire I learned that many logs and beams with charred exteriors can be found in the older buildings of the Sturgeon Bay area. I investigated the beams in this building and found a number of them charred and as far as I know this building was never involved in a fire. The picture below is the Tornado Tavern in 1947, a year or two years after it was opened.

I placed the direction in quotes (three paragraphs above) because people who come to Door County frequently become, at least partially, directionally disorientated. The front of the Tornado Tavern actually faces north but since Highway 57 runs north and south most of the time we can become disorientated, particularly when the sun is not visible.