Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Lake Erie's Shores and Islands
    Lake Erie's Shores and Islands
    Lake Erie's Shores and Islands
    Ebook184 pages54 minutes

    Lake Erie's Shores and Islands

    By H. John Hildebrandt and Marie Hildebrandt

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    For 150 years, people have come to rest, relax, and recharge in the area from Vermilion to Port Clinton, south to Milan, Bellevue, and Fremont, and north to Sandusky, Cedar Point, the Marblehead Peninsula, and the Lake Erie Islands. Lake Erie is the constant in this fascinating story, the natural resource that gives the region its character and charm. Quaint wineries, world-class roller coasters, amusement parks, water toboggans, indoor and outdoor water parks, lake steamers and jet boats, cottage communities, sportfishing, swimming, sailing, boating, camping, historical sites, caverns, museums, beaches, Civil War history, resort hotels, religious retreats, and natural wonders--Lake Erie's shores and islands have a rich tourism and recreation history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 27, 2015
    ISBN9781439651049
    Lake Erie's Shores and Islands

    Read more from H. John Hildebrandt

    Related to Lake Erie's Shores and Islands

    Related ebooks

    Photography For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Hiking Into The Past

      Mar 1, 2022

      Hiking Into The Past
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Flesh and Bone

      Jul 17, 2023

      Flesh and Bone
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      When Lunch Is Free

      Jun 1, 2024

      When Lunch Is Free
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Good Bad Man

      Mar 1, 2023

      A Good Bad Man
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Letters

      Jan 1, 2024

      Letters
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Relationship Advice

      Jan 16, 2024

      Q: My sister (42F) and I (46M) have drifted apart as adults and I miss the closeness we had when growing up. I’ve tried to get it back by spending more time with her, but it’s been hard for us to click or even to get along. We’ve had disagreements an

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      On The Wind

      May 12, 2022

      On The Wind
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Wakeup Call

      Oct 4, 2022

      Wakeup Call
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Puckety Chute

      Mar 1, 2018

      Puckety Chute
      17 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Climate Underground

      Sep 1, 2022

      The Climate Underground
      20 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Living History

      May 23, 2024

      Living History
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Kelpie Country

      Apr 26, 2023

      Kelpie Country
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Watery Waymaking

      Sep 24, 2019

      Watery Waymaking
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Road Trip Diaries

      Sep 28, 2021

      Road Trip Diaries
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Tundra Provides

      Aug 1, 2024

      The Tundra Provides
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Canal Fever

      May 16, 2023

      Canal Fever
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why Your Cat Doesn’t Have a Sweet Tooth: Moles don’t see, whales can’t smell, and snakes can’t hear a thing.

      Aug 14, 2014

      Humans are a self-centered lot. We take our senses for granted and generally assume that other creatures possess the same ones we do—sight, hearing, smell, taste, or more complex perceptions such as the ability to tell apart the seasons. But just lik

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Lemon Squeezer

      Sep 1, 2023

      The Lemon Squeezer
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      2022 Texas Bucket List

      Dec 23, 2021

      2022 Texas Bucket List
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Maine

      Jun 21, 2022

      Maine
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      First Nations

      Mar 1, 2022

      First Nations
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      To Get To The Other Side

      Sep 1, 2023

      There are the snowshoe hare years when the furred lumps of their bodies spot the roads where I live in Homer, Alaska, like some kind of terrible acne. Usually, all you can identify amid the hairy mess is a single hind foot—in life, a miracle of engin

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Queen Of The South

      May 29, 2019

      Queen Of The South
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2022

      Books With The Most Impact
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Dozens Are Dead And Hundreds Feared Missing From Migrant Ship Sinking Off Greece

      Jun 15, 2023

      Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece.

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Lake Erie's Shores and Islands

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Lake Erie's Shores and Islands - H. John Hildebrandt

      (SLARC).

      INTRODUCTION

      From the observation deck on Perry’s Monument, 317 feet above Put-in-Bay Harbor, the view to the east reveals Kelleys Island, then nothing but a blue horizon leading off to Buffalo, approximately 210 lake miles away. To the south is the soft green line of the Marblehead Peninsula. To the west is a necklace of small islands: Rattlesnake, Green, Sugar, and East Sister. If it is clear, Monroe, Michigan, and the mouth of the Detroit River can be seen. To the north are Middle and North Bass Islands, and just seven miles away is the southernmost point of the second largest country in the world: Middle Island, Canada. Below the observation deck is the village of Put-in-Bay, its harbor filled with boats, and Gibraltar Island, the turret of Cooke’s Castle sticking up through the trees. The vista is dazzling, the equal of any on the Great Lakes.

      A short 14 miles southeast, from the summit of one of Cedar Point’s majestic roller coasters, the view is equally impressive: blue water, sky, green-robed islands, specks of boats and their trailing wakes, and the invisible line that separates Canada from the United States.

      For 150 years, this region of Ohio has had a special allure for visitors. The area from Vermilion on the east to Port Clinton on the west, south to Milan, Bellevue, and Fremont, north to include Sandusky, Marblehead, Catawba, and the Lake Erie islands has been labeled Ohio’s Vacationland, and Lake Erie Land, and now Lake Erie Shores and Islands.

      For Myrtle Beach, the attraction is the beach. For the Poconos, it is the mountains. Here, it is Lake Erie, the natural resource that gives the area its character and charm. The shores and islands area is approximately 1,250 square miles, 60 percent of which is water.

      Beginning in the 1860s, visitors came to the islands of South Bass and Middle Bass by steamer from Detroit and Toledo to sample island wines and enjoy the natural beauty of the islands. The climate favored grape growing (and still does), and a large wine industry grew up on the islands and on the mainland.

      Jay Cooke, Civil War financier and Sandusky native, was one of the first to recognize the appeal of the Lake Erie islands. In 1864, he bought Gibraltar Island, which forms the northern boundary of Put-in-Bay Harbor, and built a magnificent summer home called Cooke’s Castle. For the next 50 years, his family spent summers on the island. It is now owned by The Ohio State University, where it operates Stone Laboratory for Great Lakes Research.

      Cedar Point traces its first season as a resort to 1870, when the steamer Young Reindeer offered trips to residents to swim and picnic on the beach. Visitors loved the natural beauty of the Cedar Point Peninsula; within a few years, the owners of the property began adding amusements: band concerts, dancing, boat rentals, and food concessions. In 1888, they opened the Grand Pavilion on the Cedar Point beach, which housed a cavernous main hall, bowling alleys, a photography studio, a large barroom, a fully equipped kitchen, and even three gas-operated chandeliers. Although much modified, the building is the oldest existing structure at Cedar Point and has operated for parts of three centuries.

      Who were the visitors to Put-In-Bay and Cedar Point in these early years? Geographically, they were mostly residents of Ohio, Michigan, and surrounding states and the fast-growing cities of Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Akron, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Columbus. Demographically, they represented the growing American middle class, who in the years after the Civil War enjoyed more time for leisure activities.

      In the years leading up to the turn of the century, South Bass and Middle Bass Islands enjoyed a golden age of tourism development. Many of the hotels and resorts on the islands catered to the upper class. In 1874, a group of businessmen from the Toledo area built a clubhouse on Middle Bass to create a summer retreat. Several families built large summer homes on the island. The Middle Bass Club offered bowling, tennis, boating, and weekend bands for dancing.

      The Hotel Victory, built in 1892 on a bluff on the west side of South Bass Island, staked a claim as the largest summer hotel in the United States. It had 625 rooms (including 85 with private baths). The main dining room was 155 feet by 85 feet, and the hotel could feed up to 1,250 guests in one sitting. Located a mile and a half from the steamboat docks at Put-In-Bay, it was served by an electric streetcar line. Never a financial success, the Hotel Victory burned to the ground on the night of August 14, 1919.

      Transportation played a key role in tourism development in the region. Steamships carried passengers and cargo to and from the islands and the ports along the Lake Erie shores for nearly a century, starting in the 1850s and 1860s. The last steamships were scrapped after World War II. In the summer, the harbors of Put-in-Bay and Sandusky were filled with Lake Erie steamers, connecting Sandusky, Cedar Point, Lakeside, the islands, Toledo, Detroit, and Cleveland. During this period, photographs taken of the piers in Sandusky or Put-in-Bay often show three or more steamers in the process of boarding passengers. As mud-filled roads were upgraded and new infrastructure added, including the Sandusky Bay Bridge in 1929, the shores and islands region also became more accessible via automobile.

      Everything changed for Cedar Point when it was purchased by Indiana entrepreneur George A. Boeckling in 1899. The years leading up to the turn of the century had been lean ones for Cedar Point, but Boeckling was convinced that the resort had unlimited potential. In less than 10 years, he turned Cedar Point into a thriving amusement park as well as a resort, adding a midway with rides and building the 600-room Hotel Breakers in 1905 and the Coliseum in 1906. Boeckling was a very effective promoter. He brought in vaudeville acts and brass bands, staged championship boxing matches, and even sponsored the Glenn Curtiss flight from Euclid Beach to Cedar Point—at 65

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1