The Village of Ephraim hopes you rein in a Door County tradition when you visit Anderson Dock. The famous painted walls of the Hardy Gallery have been a popular spot for geocaching and social media enthusiasts for years. Over the past two years, visitors have begun painting in other spots on the dock like the jersey barriers installed during the recent seasons of high water. Part of its discussions with the Hardy Gallery to renew their lease would be to paint one of the walls of the building while the village would clean up the rest of the graffiti on the dock. The correct color for the building would have to be coordinated with the village. Ephraim Village Administrator Brent Bristol says the hope is that the blank canvas would still inspire people to leave their mark in a specific spot.

The conversation was a part of last week’s Ephraim Village Board meeting as a part of future planning with the operators of the Hardy Gallery, who have a lease for the building until next year. Bristol says there are no-cost estimates on how much the village will have to pay to clean up its portion of the graffiti. Most of the cost would be removing the jersey barriers, which would take a lot of the graffiti with it. The Village Board is expected to discuss taking Anderson Dock off of geocaching databases as the activity is to blame for much of the graffiti. It is currently listed as the number one geocache site in Door County.