Our Six Put-in-Bay Webcams Give You Unique Perspectives Of South Bass Island
We’re realists here at putinbay.com. As much as we’d like you all to drop everything you’re doing and come see us every weekend, we know that for most people, one trip to Put-in-Bay is the most we’re going to get out of you. And we get it, which is why we want to be able to bring you as much of the island we all love, all of those times that you can’t be here with us. And that’s the genesis of the idea for our Put-in-Bay webcams! We want to send the spirit of our little island out all around the world, because we know that when people just see it, they’ll realize what an amazing place we’ve got here!
(Assorted shots from our webcams. They are usually interesting rain or shine!)
Put-in-Bay Webcams Locations And Fast Facts
In total, we’ve got six webcams showcasing Put-in-Bay. The Boardwalk Lobster Bisque Cam shows great views of the Put-in-Bay Harbor, and Mr. Ed’s Hi Mom Cam puts you right in the heart of the action in downtown Put-in-Bay. The Put-in-Bay Condos Cam gives us great low level views of Lake Erie facing eastward, and the Benson Ford Ship House Cam does the same to the west. And finally we’ve got the crown jewels of our collection, our two monument cameras, one facing in each direction, from the highest point for miles in any direction. They’re our most prestigious cameras not only for the views they broadcast, but the difficulty in getting them there and maintaining them. Perry’s Monument is, obviously, government property, leading to plenty more red tape to get the cameras up in the first place, and it’s also a much more significant ordeal to get up there to do maintenance when required, so we’re especially proud of them!
Use These Quick Links To Plan Your 2024 PIB Trip!
- Things To Do At Put-in-Bay
- 2024 Put-in-Bay Event Calendar
- Our Favorite Places To Eat At PIB
- Put-in-Bay Ferry Service
There’s Eyes On Our Webcams 24/7/365!
We celebrated The Boardwalk Lobster Bisque Cam eclipsing 1 million views this past summer, and it won’t take very long into the 2024 spring season at the Bay for the west-facing Monument Cam and Mr. Ed’s Hi Mom Cam to hit that milestone as well. As you can imagine, most of our viewership comes from the United States and Canada, but we’ve had viewership from all over the globe. People have tuned in from every country in Europe except for Latvia and Kosovo, (who we hope check us out soon!) and most countries in South America and Asia have checked us out as well. We’ll likely never know the story of the one person who has watched our webcams from Senegal, but we’d sure like to!
Big Numbers Tune In For Winter Weather Events
Our most viewership by far is during adverse weather events at the Bay in the winter. South Bass Island gets battered by winter storms, and we also have incredibly unique weather occurrences like seiches. In fact, twice already this year, we’ve had a storm lead to days that eclipse 10,000 views, for a really bad winter storm on January 13th, and a monster storm from January 18-23 that included a seiche. During the latter, we had over 40,000 views during the duration of the storm.
When It’s Time To Come To The Bay In Person, These Are Our Top Lodging Picks
- Island Club Rentals (islandclub.com) – 216-898-9951
- Commodore Resort (commodoreresort.com) – 419-285-3101
- Bird’s Nest Resort (birdsnestresort.com) – 419-285-6119
- Put-in-Bay Condos (putinbaycondos.com) 216-898-1105
- Victory Station Hotel (putinbayvictorystation.com) 419-285-0120
(The webcams need pretty frequent maintenance and cleaning, but the putinbay.com team is up to the task, and we definitely think it’s worth it!)
Speaking Of Winter, How Do We Maintain These Things?
You may be wondering, if the boats stop running and one of these cameras goes down, how does the team get them fixed? Does putinbay.com have a staff member on the island full time? And the answer to that is definitely no! Only about 150 people live on the island year round, and none are employees. So the answer is, we fly over! And that’s why sometimes in the offseason it can take some time to do a camera repair. Our Mr. Ed’s camera was down for a long time this off-season because we needed someone not only from putinbay.com, but from Mr. Ed’s to get us access to the camera! It’s all much easier in summer!
The Webcams Are Great, But Nothing Beats An In-Person Trip To The Bay!
We do all this because we love being able to provide a year-round, 24/7 window into what’s going on at Put-in-Bay. But no matter how many cameras we put up, or how high the resolution is, absolutely nothing compares to coming to spend some time with us in person at Put-in-Bay! So for the next couple of months, let our webcams tide you over, but when you head to putinbay.com to check them out, spend a couple extra minutes taking a look at our 2024 Put-in-Bay event calendar, our top lodging picks, and information on Put-in-Bay golf cart rentals, and see Put-in-Bay with your own eyes in 2024! We can’t wait to see you at the Bay!!!