Sturgeon Bay

Understand

Prior to the area being founded in 1851, Sturgeon Bay was inhabited by the Ho-Chunk and Menominee. The nearby ship canal is a heavy proponent of the development of the city, and the city grew to having two shipyards (one of which is still in operation to this day), with a population in 2020 just slightly below 10,000 people.

Get in

By plane

• Door County Cherryland Airport is a local airport, though commercial flight & rental car services can be found at Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) in Green Bay.

By car

The most popular way of getting around from town to town, Sturgeon Bay is served by two state highways (WIS 42 and WIS 57) and numerous county highways that connect the area to other nearby communities and villages. WIS 42 comes in from Manitowoc to the south and ends at Northport further north in Door County while serving bayshore villages. WIS 57 connects Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay as an expressway and connects the city with other lakeside villages as a generic two-lane road before ending at WIS 42 in Sister Bay.

Get around

By car

Streets on the west side going north/south are generally named after cities and those going east/west are named after tree types. Across the bay, they are numbered and named after states respectively. In terms of driving, the main route through the city center is Business WIS 42/57, the original alignment of WIS 42/57 through Sturgeon Bay before being rerouted in 1978.

WIS 42/57 Business Route

Business WIS 42/57 follows Green Bay Road northeast of the half interchange before turning north on the west side as Madison Avenue before turning northeast and crossing the Sturgeon Bay Bridge to enter the main downtown district as Michigan St. At 3rd Avenue, the route turns left onto 3rd Ave before turning northeast onto Jefferson Ave, curving north onto 8th Street, and finally northeast again as Egg Harbor Road where it keeps the name until rejoining WIS 42/57 on the northeast side of the city.

On foot

Many streets, especially those in the downtown, will have sidewalks on both sides of the streets. The Ice Age Trail generally follows Madison Avenue and the walkway along the bay of Sturgeon Bay at Bay View Park. South of here, it picks up the Ahnapee State Trail all the way to Algoma.

Crossings of the Sturgeon Bay

The city is home to three drawbridges, all of which are maintained by the state of Wisconsin. The newest bridge is the Oregon-Maple Street Bridge (2008) which carries the business routes over the bay alongside the historic 1931 Sturgeon Bay Bridge (or the Michigan Street Bridge, or simply Steel Bridge). The 1978 Bay View Bridge carries WIS 42/57 over the Sturgeon Bay, built as a bypass of Sturgeon Bay for long-distance travel. Previously there was a swing bridge built in 1884 and removed in 1970 known as the Ahnapee & Western Railroad Bridge; this bridge largely fell into disuse and was removed beginning in 1960 after a Swedish vessel collided with an important lift mechanism on the Sturgeon Bay Bridge, that caused minor physical damage but disconnected the east side of the city from the west.

Go next

• There is more to Door County, especially north of Sturgeon Bay.
• Green Bay has numerous sightseeing options, like the National Railway Museum and Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
• Manitowoc to the south is another maritime city along Lake Michigan, about 60 miles to the south.

Nearby communities

There are several smaller communities that are in close proximity to Sturgeon Bay, including:

• Carlsville — small unincorporated community along WIS 42 with some shops.
• Forestville — small village southwest of Sturgeon Bay also along WIS 42 in an agricultural part of Door County.
• Jacksonport — unincorporated community along WIS 57 on Lake Michigan
• Little Sturgeon — small unincorporated community to the west of Sturgeon Bay on County Road C.
• Valmy — small unincorporated community along WIS 57 that is the gateway to area parks.