Ten Things You May Not Know About the Lake Erie Islands

1. South Bass Island was once known as Ross Island.

2. Indian burial sites have been found on the islands.

3. The first grapes were planted on the Lake Erie Islands in the 1850s.

4. After the War of 1812, a survey team was sent out to survey the Lake Erie islands to establish boundaries for the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war.

5. If you extended the Airport Rd. heading from the Lime Kiln Dock to where it bends at Toledo and could keep going straight, you would end up at the turnaround at the end of East Point.

6. There is a collection of files in the Hayes Memorial Library that document the personal and family histories of many old island families.

7. The cannons along Bayview Ave. in DeRivera Park have been there for more than 100 years.

8. Before Put-in-Bay School was built in the 1920s, the island school was located in a building in the woods just southwest of today’s Goat Soup and Whiskey on Catawba Ave.

9. Many years ago, the Morrison family from Put-in-Bay had a dwelling on East Sister Island that they used while commercial fishing.

10. Sugar Island was once subdivided into many small lots, but is now entirely owned by the Keny family.

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