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A boat house blasted out of rock sits underneath Thordarson's Icelandic Castle on Rock Island.
The restored lighthouse on Rock Island is open for tours during the summer. It was built in 1836 and served until 1988.
The watertower built for Chester Thordarson's planned vacation home on Rock Island still stands.
A Chester Thordarson cabin still stands on Rock Island. An electrical inventor and entrepreneur, he built cabins and a central hall on Rock Island in the early 1900s.
This undated photo from Rock Island shows the steps and dock from the lakeshore to the lighthouse on Rock Island's north side.
The fireplace in Thordarson's great hall holds 8-foot logs. Guests stayed in cabins and gathered in the hall for meals and socialization.
Thordarson remodels a cabin for guests at his Rock Island paradise. It was known as the haunted house.
The north side of Rock Island consists of steep cliffs, as shown in a 1924 photo. -- photographer Ferdinand Hotz
Chester Thordarson, a native of Iceland spent a couple of winters in North Dakota reading a physics book when not doing farm chores.
DOOR COUNTY, Wis. – Before trains, planes, and automobiles – back when Wisconsin was a wilderness – transportation meant walking, paddling or horseback. That’s why the Mississippi waterways and the Great Lakes were first to be settled.
LeeAnne Bulman
LeeAnne Bulman writes about agriculture from her farm overlooking the beautiful Danuser Valley on Wisconsin’s west coast. Email genwim2@gmail.com to reach her.
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