Befitting its role as Wisconsin's thumb, Door County has its own unique pulse. It is the "Door of the Dead," which some historians blame for more shipwrecks than any other body of freshwater in the world.

It is also the idyllic paradise "north of the tension line," that sends many unsuspecting tourists spiraling into an addiction that lands them in a summer home. The variety of nature's splendors and terrors is matched by the cast of characters that has risen up among them. In Door County Tales, these characters are given free rein, which seems only proper in a place where one might walk out of a restaurant and see goats grazing on the roof.