Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

NOTEWORTHY HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES:
In 1835, Increase Claflin built the first white man’s house on the peninsula in the area at the
mouth of Little Sturgeon Bay. A village of Menominee Indians, with whom Claflin got along well, was
located on the opposite side of the bay on what is now called Squaw Point. Several years later Claflin left
and traveled up the peninsula to settle in an area north of the present village of Fish Creek (Holand 1925).
Construction of lime kilns in the area began in the mid 1860’s. These were furnaces used to
reduce limestone to lime. E. B. Gardner was a major supplier of lime into the Chicago area as part of the
rebuilding effort after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. For many years vessels made weekly trips to
Chicago carrying much of his kilns daily capacity of 160 barrels (Holand 1925). Several kiln sites remain
and can be seen along the shoreline of the bay of Green Bay. Gardner was among the first shipbuilders
on a large scale in the county and for a long period employed around 100 ship carpenters. Little Sturgeon
was a very active place for many years, with at least one vessel per day leaving with lumber, lime or other
products. When Joseph Harris started the Door County Advocate, in 1862, it was seriously debated
whether the printing place should be located at Little Sturgeon Bay or at the county seat (Holand 1925).
SITE FEATURES:
Brussels Hill
Brussels Hill, located in the Town of Brussels, is a prominent scenic and natural area located 10 miles
southwest of Sturgeon Bay and approximately 2 miles northeast of Brussels. Brussels Hill covers 2,194
acres, and is a two square mile dolostone outcrop extending 200 feet above the surrounding lowlands.
• Land use surrounding the hill consists primarily of agriculture, with lesser amounts of woodlots,
residential area, roads (Hwy 57 and Hwy K), a radio tower, and a town dump.
• The Niagara Escarpment extends from New York State and Canada to central Wisconsin. Brussels
Hill forms a dolostone outcrop of this escarpment in Door County. Fissures, sinkholes, outcrops and
pit caves are characteristic karst formations found at Brussels Hill. Karst formations were formed by
solution processes and modified by glacial activity (Kirk 1999).
• The state’s deepest pit cave is located on private property near the southern portion of Brussels Hill.
This cave was found to contain the remains of animals ranging in size from land snails to black bear.
Analysis of the skeletal remains reveals a variety of species ranging in age from modern times to presettlement
fauna of 600 – 1200 BP (Kox et al. 1986).
• Soils are generally shallow to deep, well drained, and nearly level to moderately steep slopes. A
sandy loam or loam subsoil covers sandy loam or fine sandy loam till or in the case of Brussels Hill
dolostone bedrock (USDA SCS 1978). Springs are located throughout the area.
• A large, contiguous block of hardwood forest dominated by sugar maple (Acer saccharum), basswood
(Tilia americana), red oak (Quercus rubra), hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), aspen (Populus
tremuloides), beech (Fagus grandifolia), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), and white cedar (Thuja
occidentalis) characterizes the tree species at Brussels Hill (Clark 1999).
• A unique assemblage of animals is supported by ancient rock formations including several species of
snails. Upland forest birds and mammals are found in the area (Zimmerman 1989).
• Two rare plant species include state threatened handsome sedge (Carex formosa) and the Wisconsin
special concern species long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata) (Clark 1999). There are three globally
rare snails including Succinea bakeri, Catinella gelida, and Vertigo hubrichtii (Kirk 1999). The state
threatened Red-shoulder Hawk is also found at Brussels Hill (Clark 1999).
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Brussels Hill / Kayes Creek / Gardner Swamp Complex