Scandinavian Wood Carving © 2008 Bo Mackison

I have admired these wood carvings since I first visited Sister Bay, a town in Door County in the northeastern part of Wisconsin, more than three decades ago. There are at least six statues I have examined, each maybe 3 or 4 feet in height, each carved and painted and polished. When I first saw them, they looked old. Every time I return, the cracks are a little deeper, but the figures’ eyes still peer with a glimmer of character.

Sister Bay was founded by Scandinavians in the 1850s and has a strong cultural heritage. I have asked many people, the people who live in the towns up and down the Door Peninsula, for information about these traditional carvings. No one seems to have any clue. Obviously, I’m asking the wrong people. Some one must know their history.

Finally, I decided to do a Google search, confident information would turn up. After all, isn’t everything on the Internet. Seems the answer to that is no. I can find nothing. Not a thing. They remain a big mystery.

So I’m hoping that by throwing this out into the Internet universe, someone may stumble on it, and shed some light to these mysterious carvings. They are just way too cool to remain so anonymous.