This book by Trygvie Jensen (2007) presents, "A complete history of an industry that sustained many communities around Lake Michigan and Door County for over 150 years. Today the commercial fishery is a mere shadow of what it once was, and is nearing the end of a once great era. Read about the lives of these iron men who fished in the wooden boats."
Excerpts from authors description of book contents include:
"This book will take you back in time and show how the fisheries were an integral part of the Door County and Washington Island communities, and will give the reader an inside look at how a fishery operates. It also gives insight and a personal view of a day in the life of a fisherman. It covers every facet of the industry, from the evolution of the boats, common types of gear used in the last one hundred-fifty years, the species of fish that made up the great harvests, and the invader species that almost wiped out the industry in the mid to latter part of the twentieth century."
"The harrowing stories of fishermen caught in violent storms, ice shoves, and many other stories will that will give the reader insight to what a commercial fisherman went through to eek out a living on the Great Lakes. It will also give the reader a better understanding of what sort of challenges that befell commercial fishermen in the last century and a half and what the future may hold for the fisheries in the next century, through many interviews and reflections by the few remaining commercial fishermen. "
"The data for this book was compiled through several hundred hours of research through various personal interviews with fisher families, history gathered from archives, historical societies, books, published and unpublished manuscripts, databases, periodicals, and online sources."