Little Wisconsin: Clay Banks

Town of Clay Banks, Door County
Established February 1859

Population: 410

Clay Banks Snippets

★ A large part of Door County was originally covered with white pine. Some of the largest pines in the state were cut at Clay Banks. Hjalmar R. Holand reported in his History of Door County (1917) a story told by C. L. Fellows of cutting a pine which was "no doubt the biggest in the county. Fellows claimed: "In the winter of 1872 A. D. Eveland of Algoma and myself were engaged in getting out spars in the southeastern part of Clay Banks" when they brought down a tree that Fellows estimated would "scale very close to 10,000 feet".

★ In 1917 Clay Banks was reported as "one of the best sections for farming" in Door County -- where the "rich clay soil" went down 100 feet or more. The land was gently rolling, easily tillable and not "overburdened" with stone, and produced bumper crops.

★ In its heyday in the mid-to-late 1800s, Clay Banks was a busy seaport village "where long piers extended far into the lake, where the hum of the sawmills and the click of the telegraph once was heard, but where now nothing breaks the silence and solitude of nature but the chirp of the crickets and the wash of the waves".

Tanun Forest Evangelical Lutheran Church

Door County Pulse: Tanum Forest Lutheran Church Celebrates Fall With Lefse
by Jim Lundstrom, October 27, 2017

Clay Banks is located in Door County.

Robert LaSalle's Landing Historical Marker
Click here for more information.

1862 Tanum Ev. Lutheran Congregation 1972 Historical Marker
Click here for more information.

Tanun Evangelical Lutheran Church

Held annually the last Saturday in October.

I attended the event in 2018.
Everyone was so welcoming and friendly!
The sweets I purchased were delicious!
I really enjoyed myself.