Blessed with good farmland and a deep water port, Egg Harbor has thrived since its beginning in 1861. In its early years it served fishermen, farmers, and lumbermen, and it was the first community in Door County to hard surface its road. The Kewaunee House, a tavern and boarding house, was the village gathering place where residents and travelers swapped stories. According to legend, Egg Harbor got its name in 1825 when a fleet of boats carrying furs from Green Bay to the Mackinac Island trading post stopped at the unnamed harbor for the night, the crews raced to shore, and an egg fight broke out that continued until the eggs were gone. John Bertschinger bought the Kewaunee House in 1904, added dining and hotel accommodations, and renamed it the Harbor Inn. In 1922, he and his brother Paul opened the Alpine Resort on 300 acres overlooking Green Bay, where guests arrived by steamboat from Chicago and Milwaukee for golf, fishing, boating, horseback riding, lodging, and meals. The fertile lands around Egg Harbor also supported productive farms and orchards. Horseshoe Bay Farms, just south of the village, dates to 1917; this progressive dairy farm was once a breeding site for Holstein-Friesian purebred stock, its orchard operation was the largest fruit producer on the peninsula, and in the early 1920s it was Door County's largest employer.