Yesterday's Stories Submit your story about The Town of Gibraltar here. We will post stories of general interest about the Town of Gibraltar on this page. Click here to tell your story. If you have photos of the Town of Gibraltar you want to share, bring them to the Fish Creek Visitor's bureau for scanning or if you have digital images mail them on CD to ... Selected photos will be posted on this page and our 150th Editors will select 150 photos and stories for publication at the end of the year. Memories of Fish Creek Graded School in the 1950s center on my favorite teacher Ray Slaby (grades 5-8 in “The Big Room”). He extended recess to complete baseball games when he pitched...awarded ribbons to winning arrangements at our autumn flower shows...cooked the smelt we caught and brought to school in spring ...organized Halloween parties at Town Hall...directed Christmas pageants in which every single student had a role...tuned the rad’o to “Let’s Sing” on Wisconsin School-of-the-Air...expected our best behavior during visits of the County Superintendent of Schools...drilled us for county-wide 8th grade exams...expected the best of which we were capable. He made learning fun and instilled good citizenship. I still sense his displeasure when I miss an annual town meeting (which we attended as part of 8th grade civics class) and his approval when I enter the voting booth! If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter School in the 1950s.
The July 7, 1894 Door County Advocate reported: “Arthur Sutherland was marshall of the Fourth of July parade at Fish Creek where revelers participated in a tub race, pound boat race, running races, tug-of-war and an evening dance with music by Nick’Kihl’s Juddville String Band.” By my youth, Baileys Harbor had the corner on July 4th, but we had charter boat races, kids swiming for floating watermelons and a parade for “Old Peninsula Days”. Mom designed many elaborate floats on Uncle Leon Jarman’s equipment trailers. Part of my 1962 summer job at the information office was to organize the parade. While more than 30 floats assembled at the high school, a front blew through, destroying carefully applied decorations and signs! Throughout the entire length of the parade Joel, my little brother, and I shouted “Thorp Hotel 1862-1962” to explain our attire and the anniversary we represented! If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter Old Peninsula Days.
“Looking Back Through Advocate Files” recounts that in 1894 “Arthur Sutherland was marshall of the Fourth of July parade at Fish Creek where revelers participated in a tub race, pound boat race, running races, tug-of-war and an evening dance with music by Nick Kihl’s Juddville String Band.” While Baileys Harbor was the center of July 4th in my childhood as now, we, in Fish Creek, had “Old Peninsula Days” with charter boat racing, kids diving for floating watermelons…and parades. Mom (Leora Jarman) designed elaborate floats on Uncle Leon’s heavy equipment trailers. In 1962 I organized a parade of more than 30 units as part of my job at the information center. After a front blew through as we lined up at the high school, Joel and I had to shout “Thorp Hotel 1862-1962” all through town to explain the anniversary our blown-away banners had meant to announce! If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter Old Peninsula Days Parades.
In the ’20s Robert Seiler, Fish Creek farmer, on Highland Rd. took his 1/2 ton truck across the Bay to Menomenee and then Marinette once the ice allowed to haul two way frieght. A “white out” blinded the drivers and got them lost. Thinking they were saved by the smoke from Marinette factories they headed toward the smoke. What a surprise when they alomost brushed up against a full sized steamer only yards ahead in the open channel that was kept open all winter. Only feet from the waters edge they stopped in time to head along the edge to safety and Menomenee. Blinded and fooled, only luck saved them from drowning in the frozen waters. Such was a work day in Fish Creek. If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter Freight over the Bay..
Julie and I and our two sons, Nathan and Aaron vacationed in Fish Creek every year from 1978 to 2000 when we moved here full time. Mr. Hill rented his “Hill Cottages” to our family and the Rentmeester and Hier families just south of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. His cordiality and reverence for the Fish Creek founding days dated back to the Mayflower days of this country. He was a teacher and role model we miss very much. We visit his grave in Blossomburg Cemetery often. If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter Harwood Hill, the Hill family.
Sometime in the late 1930s a friend of my father offered him 40 acres near Fish Creek for free. Times were hard during the depression and money for taxes was hard to come by. My mother, the big city girl, said “No way” and that was the end of that. If you have anything to add to this story, please contact The Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Commity and make the subject of your letter Free Land Near Fish Creek.
The Town Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Committee copyright © 2008, The Town Gibraltar Sesquicentennial Committee, Last update on: December 3, 2007 |
