Guided Hike

Hiking into History: Discovering the "Ghost Port" of Clay Banks

Thursday, September 3, 2026 9:00 am - 11:00 am

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Narrow dirt trail winding through tall meadow grasses and shrubs at dusk, with a pastel sunset sky over Legacy Preserve at Clay Banks — © Jim Perry

Join us for a one-mile guided hike at Legacy Nature Preserve at Clay Banks to explore the rise and fall of a Door County “ghost port.” Learn how landforms, massive timber, and shoreline access shaped early settlement, industry, and survival on this rugged frontier. Discover why shipwrecks rest just offshore and experience the preserve as it looked more than 165 years ago.

Program Leader

Kris Smith

About This Preserve

Legacy Preserve at Clay Banks

This 91-acre preserve offers nearly 3,000 feet of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline, dramatic clay bluffs formed in the Ice Age, and a landscape rich with grassland birds, shorebirds, and rarely encountered wildflowers.

91 acres1 mi of trailsTown of Clay Banks

A curving sand and pebble shoreline traces the edge of Lake Michigan beneath a bright blue sky streaked with drifting clouds.

Autumn birches and evergreens stand along a bluff, framing the vast blue expanse of Lake Michigan stretching to the horizon.

A blazing orange maple and slender white birch glow against a cool autumn sky, with Lake Michigan visible through the trees.

An open green meadow rolls toward a distant tree line and the gray-blue horizon of Lake Michigan under a soft overcast sky.

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Terrain

EasyNatural surface

Accessibility

✓ beach

What You'll See

ForestShorelineGrasslandWetlandlake-accessclay-bluffsshipwrecksScenic overlook

Facilities

🅿️ Parking

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