Old Peninsula Days

Book excerpt: Most of Hjalmar Rued Holand’s adult life could well be called a 65-year love affair with the woods and waters of the Door Peninsula of northeastern Wisconsin. Born on a farm in Norway just a hundred years ago, Hjalmar Holand was brought to the United States as an orphaned child of 12 by an older sister. He was reared in a brother’s home on the west side of Chicago. Getting a vision of a college education, he worked his way through the University of Wisconsin, winning his bachelor’s degree in 1898. The ensuing summer, intrigued by the look of the Door Peninsula on maps, he pedalled his way on bicycle up the stony roads of the Peninsula. It was love at first sight. Before he returned to Wisconsin to get his master’s degree, he had bought 57 acres of shore and cliffland in what is now the Peninsula State Park. Two years later, in June 1900, he brought his bride to his newly built log house facing Eagle Harbor. For the next sixty years, Hjalmar and Theresa Holand lived the good life at Ephraim together. Here he wrote a dozen historical works and scores of magazine articles.