Anton Amundson was born in 1855 shortly after his parents immigrated to Ephraim with other Moravians. His angling skills and maritime survival stories were legendary. Door County historian Hjalmar Holand immortalized him and fishing partner Anton Olson in Old Peninsula Days. Holand described one adventure that began at Chambers Island.

The men were pulling lake trout in the winter of 1890. Suddenly, the ice broke up and a large floe carried them northward all through the dark, cold night. They reached Whaleback Shoal, a long jumble of gravel and angled ice slabs southwest of Washington Island. The dolostone reef stretched across part of Green Bay, like a shattered rib. To find out how the men survived dust off your copy of Old Peninsula Days.

Search the Door County Library’s newspaper archives to read “The Champion Fisherman,” March 28, 1925, page 16, Door County Advocate.

Submitted by Kathleen Harris, EHF Educator in 2020. Revised in 2024 with additional photos.