Native American burial site on Washington Island. Etymology The name of the peninsula and the county comes from the name of a route between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Humans, whether Native Americans, early explorers, or American ship captains, have been well aware of the dangerous water passage that lies between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island, connecting the bay to the rest of Lake Michigan. It was named by the Native Americans and translated into French as Porte des Morts: in English, "Death's Door". The earliest known written reference to this comes from a 1728 mention of "Cap a la Mort" ("Cape of Death") in French. The Menominee name for the peninsula was "Kenatao", meaning "cape". Potawatomi and Menominee Before and during the 19th century, various Native Americans occupied the Door Peninsula and nearby islands. 17th-century French explorers made contact with various tribes in the area. In 1634, the Jean Nicolet expedition landed at Rock Island. This is considered the first visit by a European to what is now Wisconsin. There are competing claims to the landing site of French explorer Jean Nicolet in 1634, who was searching for a water route through North America to Asia: Horseshoe Island, which is part of Peninsula State Park, and Red Banks, which is about 7 miles north of what is now Green Bay. Nicolet is remembered in Wisconsin lore for having mistaken the Ho-Chunk Indians for Asians and celebrating, believing he had reached the Far East. Nicolet had heard long before coming that the people living along these shores were called Winnebago ("the people from the stinking water") and, perhaps erroneously, "the People of the Sea". He concluded that this name meant they were from or living near the Pacific Ocean with its aromatic salt air and that they would be a direct link to the people of China, if not from China. In 1665, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers spent the winter with the Potawatomi. Explaining his travels, Radisson reported that We embarked ourselves on the delightfullest lake of the world. I tooke notice of their Cottages & of the journeys of our navigation, for because that the country was so pleasant, so beautifull & fruitfull that it grieved me to see that the world could not discover such inticing countrys to live in. This I say because that the Europeans fight for a rock in the sea against