Lake Sturgeon - Those Really Big Fish Make a Comeback!

Courtesy of Dept. of Natural Resources

Having grown up fishing on Ohio's Portage River, my heart was warmed when I learned of the restocking of sturgeon hatchlings in the Sandusky River. Eric Weimer, Ohio DNR fishery biologist, who manages the restocking, says there are no plans to restock the Portage because of its proximity to the Sandusky. However, it was one of Ohio's four rivers to once host a breeding population of lake sturgeon. He hopes, as do I, that some hatchlings make it to the Portage on their own. 

During mid-October the Ohio DNR continued its successful restocking efforts in the Cuyahoga, Maumee, and Sandusky Rivers.  Students from Clyde, Liberty Benton, and Whitmer High Schools helped release 750 baby sturgeon  into the Sandusky River. Restocking will continue for the next 25 years when the sturgeon population of Lake Erie will hopefully be reestablished.  
 

Courtesy of Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources

The largest fish in the Great  Lakes, sturgeon can grow to  9 feet and weigh more than 300 pounds, and live for 150 years. Contemporaries of the dinosaurs, sturgeon, with their shark-like tails, rows of  armored plates, and protruding mouths are an impressive site.

The return of these docile giants to Lake Erie is encouraging, but their numbers are a mere fraction of those reported by pioneers of Northwest Ohio.  Early Fremont, Ohio newspaper editor Isaac Keeler reported that sturgeon weighing 70 - 100 pounds were common in the 1850s.  It is reported  that anywhere from 330,000 to 1.1 million were believed to have lived in the waters of Lake Erie in the  early 17th century.

Native Americans revered the lake sturgeon as part of their traditional spiritual culture. But early commercial fishermen slaughtered them by the thousands.  Sturgeon were considered a nuisance because they frequently destroyed fishing nets.   Keeler reported that sturgeon were hauled from the waters, and killed like "sticking a pig." When the carcasses dried, they were piled up and set afire like "pitch-pine logs." All along the Great Lakes sturgeon were stacked like cordwood and used for fuel for the early steamships. 

Still plentiful in the 1870s, sturgeon began to find a place in the commercial market. Port Clinton, Ohio, fishermen Nassler and Detlefson opened a "fish house" and wharf there in 1874. They processed caviar, fish oil, and smoked sturgeon. According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Great Lakes catch peaked a decade later at 8.6 million pounds. Over-fishing, pollution, and the construction of dams sent sturgeon numbers plummeting. The Ballville Dam in the Sandusky River was removed in 2018, allowing them to reach further up the tributary during spawning.

A portion of  this post (written by me)appears on Paper Trail on the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums' web site. Pictured there is an image of a 180-pound sturgeon caught on April 29, 1935, near Kelleys Island by Alfred McKillips, Albert Kugler, and Sylvester Dwelle. Fishermen claimed it was one of the largest fish ever pulled from the waters of Lake Erie. The photograph is part of the Captain Frank Hamilton Album 1.  

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Mouse Island, Lake Erie, For Sale

Mouse Island, Lake Erie

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

This photo of Mouse Island in western Lake Erie was part of the Platt Studios Collection preserved by the late Charles E.  Frohman at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums.  The island was owned by President Hayes and his descendants until it was sold in 1966.  As of July of this year, the seven-acre island is once again for sale.  You can see it on Zillow

To read more about Mouse Island's history and the Hayes family,  see my 2015 blog post researched among the Hayes family documents and photographs.

Mass Baptism at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio

 Mass Baptism at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, 1922

Ernst Niebergall Photograph Collection

This photograph of the mass baptism in Lake Erie is part of the Ernst Niebergall Collection preserved by the late Charles E. Frohman  at the Rutherford B Hayes Library and Museums.  It is dated 1919, but according to the Watch Tower History of the Jehovah's Witness International Bible School Association, it was one of the photographs taken during the nine-day convention held at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, from September 5th through the 13th in 1922.

The baptism in Lake Erie of some 200 delegates took place on September 6th at sunrise during an open-air, praise and prayer service. The baptism was conducted by the vice president of the association Pastor C. A. Wise of Indianapolis. Participants waded into Lake Erie where volunteers assisted with their immersion. More than 6,000 onlookers attended the baptism. 

More than 10,000 delegates from the U.S., Canada, and Europe gathered to hear talks given simultaneously in 11 different languages.  The Breakers Hotel was packed to "overflowing." Cedar Point management housed attendees in other buildings on the grounds.

                                       

Brother Joseph F. Rutherford speaking in the Coliseum

 

According to the history, the high point of the convention took place on the 8th when some 8,000 people gathered in the Coliseum to hear Brother Rutherford's famous speech "The Kingdom" which urged delegates to "advertise the King and the Kingdom." The audience was "electrified" when a banner above the stage was unfurled and proclaimed those very words.

At this convention a resolution was passed to oppose war, revolution, anarchy, and violence in any form. Members opposed WWI and would do so again during WWII.  It was not until 1946 and 1953 Supreme Court cases exempted members from military service

The convention was filmed, but it has never been located.

 

The Heady Days of Lake Erie’s Middle Island

Lake Erie's Middle Island

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Lake Erie’s Middle Island is Canada’s southernmost possession, lying just south of Pelee Island. Over seen by Parks Canada, the 45-acre island is home to hundreds of heron gulls, thousands of cormorants, even pelicans, and warblers during spring migration.

Middle Island Lighthouse Before it Burned

Charles E. Frohman Collection

During Prohibition, Middle Island served as an important way station and haven for rumrunners, smuggling whiskey and premium beers across the lake from Canada to the U. S. mainland. Toledo underworld figure Joe Roscoe, who had ties to the Purple Gang in Detroit, owned a large portion of the island. He built an air strip and a plush hotel that he called “The Lake Erie Fishing Club” although there was little fishing going on. It featured 7 bedrooms, fireplaces, electricity, large, beautifully-situated verandahs. The basement, carved deep into the bedrock, sported a casino.

Roscoe hired his buddies, former convicted liquor smugglers Ted and Bert Angus, to manage the “club house” on a percentage basis from 1928 to 1932.  Along with other gangsters, Al Capone is rumored to have stayed at Roscoe’s establishment.

Middle Island Club House, 1945

Thomas H. Langlois Collection

Middle Island Caretaker's House, 1945

Thomas H. Langlois Collection

When Prohibition ended and there was no longer money to be made in smuggling liquor, Roscoe continued his business as a hotel and restaurant, hosting vacationers, fishing charters, and local sailors. As many as 200 boaters a day were treated to sumptuous pheasant dinners.

Roscoe also owned one of the fastest boats on Lake Erie. His “Rainbow” was a 32-foot custom built craft that featured a 500 horsepower, 12-cylinder V-type Liberty motor. After Prohibition, Roscoe used it to commute from the island to Toledo where his wife Ganey and her father, Jack Broadway, managed his 42^nd Street Café on Broadway and the Jovial Club on St. Clair.

Some of his gangster friends like Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and Hugh Campbell were not as lucky as Joe. They turned to kidnapping and robbery to make a living. After the kidnapping of Edward Bremer in 1934, Karpis hid out in Toledo for a time. It was Joe who found Karpis and his pal Campbell a place to lay low with his friend Edith Barry, who ran a brothel on Southard Avenue.

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis

Courtesy Federal Bureau of Investigation

Karpis again turned to Joe Roscoe after his gang’s daring mail train robbery at Garrettsville, Ohio in November of 1935. Joe arranged Karpis’ escape via a flight  from Port Clinton to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, 1937

But Hoover and his G-men caught up to Karpis. He was sentenced to life in prison on Alcatraz, the last of the Depression-era gangsters.  It wasn’t until January 1937 that the FBI arrested Joe in Miami. Later that year, he was sentenced to 7 ½ years in Leavenworth for his part in assisting Karpis. Having served his time, Joe returned to Toledo, where he died in 1965. According to his obituary, he sold Middle Island shortly before his death.

Today, swallows are the lone guests at Roscoe’s hotel, now nothing but a mere shell. Only the stone foundation of the burned out lighthouse and the overgrown air strip remain as evidence of those heady days on Middle Island.

To see some fine photographs of Roscoe's abandoned hotel, please go to flickr to view images taken by Ken Bell in 2007.

 

 

The Arrow: Lake Erie's Steam Passenger Vessel

Arrow
Charles E. Frohman Collection

The “Arrow” was built in 1895 by the Detroit Dry Dock Co. of Wyandotte, Michigan. She was built for the Sandusky & Island Steamboat Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, who maintained ownership for nearly 30 years. The steel passenger steamer was lighted with electricity and accommodated 900 passengers. She made trips to many locations on Lake Erie: Kelleys Island, Put-In-Bay, Lakeside, Sandusky, Middle and North Bass Islands, Marblehead, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Port Clinton.                                                                       Arrow, with full load of passengers Charles E. Frohman Collection Ownership transferred various times over her approximately fifty-year lifespan. In 1923, the North Shore Steamboat Co. of Chicago, Illinois took ownership and rebuilt the vessel. She burned on the Chicago River in April 1932, however the company maintained possession until 1934.                                                                    Arrow's crew on Lake Erie Charles E. Frohman Collection Two years later Chester W. Armentrout of Monroe, Michigan purchased her.  He converted the "Arrow" to a barge in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1936. Benjamin O. Colonna of Norfolk, Virginia bought her in 1938. For the next five years, she operated on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways between Norfolk and Savannah, Georgia. In the midst of World War II, H. G. Williams of Jacksonville, Florida, bought her and converted the "Arrow" into a cargo vessel. Her name was also changed to “H-165” in that same year. She served continuously during the war, carrying cargo and assisting the U.S. Maritime Commission in salvage operations. Finally, McCormick Shipping Corporation of Panama bought her and used her as a cargo vessel in the banana trade. The "Arrow" met her demise on August 9, 1948 when she wrecked on the Barrier Reef near Hunting Cay Light, Honduras.

Spring's Mayflies are a Good Sign

Recently, some mayflies once again appeared in Lake Erie’s western basin. Sometimes called Canadian soldiers, shad flies, fish flies, or June bugs, these harmless insects are official known to scientists as Hexagenia. They live most of their lives in burrows in Lake Erie’s soft bottom. From late May to late August, whenever the water temperature is just right, they emerge, molt, swarm, mate, lay eggs, and die - all within 48 hours!

Their reappearance signals a healthier Lake Erie. While it’s great for the perch and channel catfish, it’s not so great for tourism. In fact, the size of the hatch in June 1996 caught residents of Port Clinton and other shoreline communities off guard. Suddenly mayflies were everywhere - covering everything! Picnic tables, cars, boats, porches, docks, sidewalks, and streets were piled high with them.

Attracted to bright lights, mayflies swarmed at an electrical substation near Lake Erie. They were so numerous that they began conducting electricity across insulators, causing brownouts throughout Northwest Ohio. When streets became dangerously slick with their smelly little carcasses, city workers posted warning signs, then rolled out the plows and scooped up 38 dump-truck loads!

The hatch of 1996 may have seemed large, but it was small when compared to the hatch that occurred on the evening of July 22, 1951. The following morning biologists at the Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island began making some calculations. They rated the density of mayflies on lawns at Put-in-Bay as 2,650 mayflies per square foot. Twelve bushels, weighing 38 pounds each, were scooped up from behind a single window of the laboratory. One pound was found to contain 8,100 mayflies. Therefore, the single pile was estimated to contain 2,380,000 mayflies. According to Dr. Thomas H. Langlois’ report, much larger swarms had accumulated around two lampposts on Middle Bass Island on the same night. He estimated conservatively that two tons or 32,400,000 mayflies lay under each lamp post! This quantity had emerged from only 50 acres of Lake Erie’s bottom.

Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory
Gibraltar Island, Lake Erie

The following year, mayflies met with disaster. By the mid-60s, they had disappeared from Lake Erie. Excessive algae growth resulting from high levels of phosphorous in the water hastened the rate of decay, consuming so much oxygen at the lake bottom that the mayflies could not survive. Little did we know that the ever-present green scum and rotting masses of algae could virtually destroy tons and tons of mayflies that had been part of Lake Erie’s ecosystem for thousands of years. So, when those pesky mayflies descend, TRY to give thanks for a healthy Lake Erie.

           

Mouse Island and the Hayes Family

View of Mouse Island by Platt Studios
Charles E. Frohman Collection

Cabins ca. 1912

“There is something romantic in that idea of having an island all to one’s self. Ex-President Hayes felt it years ago when his children were young, for he bought a mile or so off the [Catawba] Peninsula, a small island ” …. so wrote Henry Howe in his history of Ohio. Howe further described the island as "a very small affair, so small one might someday take a fancy to pick it up, slip it in his vest pocket as he would his watch and walk off with it.”

In 1874, then Governor Hayes purchased Lake Erie’s Mouse Island jointly with Fremont attorney Ralph Buckland and Dr. L. Q. Rawson. The private island, sometimes called Hat Island in early records, was acquired from Ira Dutcher of Catawba.

Hayes believed it would be a great spot for his family to camp, boat, swim, and especially fish (Lucy’s favorite past time). When Hayes returned to Ohio during his presidency, the family spent time on the island. In 1879, Hayes purchased Dr. Rawson’s portion of the island. And at the turn of the century, the Bucklands exchanged their portion of Mouse for land Hayes and the Bucklands owned jointly in Omaha, Nebraska.

Through the years, Hayes had numerous opportunities to sell the island, but his children and their friends continued to enjoy time spent each summer on the heavily wooded island. President Hayes’ son Birchard and his children Webb, Scott, and Walter, built two cabins, a boat house, dock, ice house, tennis court, and a hand ferry to shore. They also supplied the island with water.

The brothers worked each summer to repair damage brought on by the previous winter’s storms. But time and weather continued to take a toll on the island’s structures. With Scott’s move to Los Angeles and Admiral Webb Hayes away much of the time, there were fewer opportunities for the Hayes grandchildren to visit the island. Even though time spent at Mouse became rare, it was not until 1966 that they finally decided it was time to part with the “emerald isle” the family had enjoyed for more than 90 years!  

Native Stone Chimney 1912

Fireplace 1912

Titled "Hayes Construction Company"
Birchard Hayes and Sons Scott and Walter

on their Newly Built Dock

Dalton Hayes and Elizabeth Boarding Their Boat the "Owl"

Mr and Mrs. Birchard Hayes at the Cabin

The Dock 

U. S. S. CROCUS: Coast Guard Lighthouse Tender

U. S. Coast Guard Cutter CROCUS and Her Crew
date unknown
Captain Frank Hamilton Photographs
Charles E. Frohman Collection

The Crocus was built at Shooter's Island in Richmond, New York by the Townsend-Downey Company in 1905.  She was a steel-hulled Inspector's Tender assigned to duty at the 10th Lighthouse District and was based at Buffalo, New York. In 1932, she was converted to oil-fired boilers and transferred to Detroit. During WWII she was based in Toledo, Ohio, continuing her peacetime duties of servicing navigation aids. She was decommissioned in 1946.

In December 1942, she assisted the United States Coast Guard vessel Ossipee in recovering the bodies from the wrecked oil barge Cleveco and the tug Admiral after both foundered in a raging winter storm some nine miles from the harbor at Cleveland, Ohio. Loaded with nearly a million gallons of fuel oil, the Cleveco with 18 hands aboard, was being towed from Toledo to Cleveland by the tug the Admiral when suddenly the tow line went limp. The Admiral disappeared beneath the surface after encountering 18-foot waves in a blinding snowstorm.  The crew of the 260-foot barge radioed for help, but without power, they could do little more than hope for the best. The Ossippee arrived, but failed in her attempts to get a towline to the Cleveco.  A short time later, the barge and her crew met the same fate as the Admiral. In all, 32 sailors perished.

The wreck of the Cleveco remained a concern. With a full cargo of oil, an environmental catastrophe would result if a ship collided with the sunken barge. In 1961, salvage crews attempted to bring the big tanker barge to the surface and pump off the oil. Once again, bad weather played a role. Failing in their efforts, the salvage crews towed the Cleveco to deeper waters and sunk her once more. 

In 1995, leaking oil appeared on the Lake Erie surface. This time, the Coast Guard and salvage crews were successful in reaching the overturned tanker barge and pumping off more than 340,000 gallons of oil. Resting some 14 miles from Euclid, Ohio, in 78 feet of water, the  ill-fated Cleveco no longer poses a threat to the environment or as a navigational hazard. Instead she remains a popular site for shipwreck divers. 

Punting, But Not Football

Vernon Zenser punting a hunter and his son at Magee Marsh, Benton Twp. Ottawa County, Ohio, ca. 1944
Courtesy of Sandra L. Zenser

Until much of Lake Erie's marshlands became federal and state property, local residents earned an income by transporting private hunt club members through the marshes. Thanks to lifelong Ottawa County resident Sandra L. Zenser for sharing the following story and picture of her father punting a hunter and his son at Magee Marsh.

Punting means something different than kicking a football through a set of goal posts. Punting dates back to England from about the mid to late 1800s when it referred to punting or poling of punt boats used for fowling and angling on England’s many shallow streams. In the marshes bordering Lake Erie, punt boats similar to those in England, were used to transport hunters down the shallow channels or cuts of the local marshes which were also called punting.

Local wooden punt boats had flat bottoms that drew only a few inches even when loaded. These punt boats were pointed at both the bow (front) and the stern (rear). Surprisingly, these boats were very stable and suitable for both passengers and cargo. They were steered manually by what was called a punter.

A punter was similar to a gondolier, a Venetian boatman who guides a gondola with an oar; except punters pole in much shallower water while standing stationary at the rear (stern) of the punt boat. Typically the pole or punt paddle had a cross piece at the top of a 8-10 foot long pole, used for setting the paddle end directly into the waterway’s bed to propel the boat forward.

Punt boats were used at local private hunt clubs, where at least one club member would be assigned to a boat usually with a guest or possibly another club member along with their shotguns and gear. In addition, the boat would be loaded with bulky decoys used to lure in flocks of ducks and sometimes a retriever dog or two. With all this, the punt boat was often quite weighted down with barely a few inches of free board above the water.

A much larger gas boat towed a string of punt boats down the marsh’s main channel before sunrise, sometimes breaking ice as they putted along. At appropriate intervals, each punt boat would be unhooked from the towline at which time the punter took over manually punting (poling) to the designated hunting area. The hunting area consisted of some open water where the decoys would be placed in front of a camouflaged blind that also had a shielded area alongside to conceal the punt boat. At the end of a day’s hunt, the punter manually poled the boat and its occupants back to the main club house, sometimes this was a great distance and in frigid temperatures.

Vernon Zenser (pictured) of Oak Harbor was a punter in the mid 1940s into the 1950s. He worked for several private hunt clubs until they became government owned as part of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the state’s Magee Marsh. As a punter, he remembers having to be at work at 6 a.m., which was well before sunrise and receiving fifty dollars a day no matter how many hours worked. Often the member’s guest would tip the punter ten or twenty dollars extra which was always appreciated.



Sandusky's "Crystal Blue, Clear as Glass Ice"

Local Ice Dealers Loading Blocks Directly from the Ice Fields
Ernst Niebergall ca. 1911/1912
Charles E. Frohman Collection

Sandusky, Ohio, was the largest ice producer west of New York City during the latter half of the 19th century. Noted for its solid, "crystal blue, clear as glass" ice, the city became known as the "Ice Capital of the Great Lakes." Icemen eagerly watched the waters of Lake Erie until they froze to a depth of 8 to 16 inches. For as long as "good ice makin' weather" held, Sanduskians endured ten-hour days of harsh winds and frigid temperatures for a daily wage of $2.

In the picture above, taken during the winter of 1911 or 1912, many local dealers from Sandusky and neighboring towns filled their orders by loading their delivery wagons directly from the ice fields.

Sanduskians harvested 400,000 tons of ice each winter. The greater portion of the harvest was stored in some fifty sheds that dotted Lake Erie's shoreline. Sandusky provided most of Ohio's cities with ice, including 90 percent of the ice consumed by the city of Cleveland. According to the local paper, Sandusky's "crystal quality put the murky, sewer-tainted" Cleveland ice to shame. Most of the ice was shipped across the lake as needed from a string of icehouses located on Put-In-Bay's Peach Point.

American Eagle to the Rescue

While spring is coming to Northwest Ohio, it has beeen only a few weeks since the U. S. Coast Guard rescued fishermen from Lake Erie when the ice broke loose and began to drift. This brought to mind an article I'd read while researching the Lake Erie vessel, the "American Eagle." The vessel (161 tons, 104 foot keel measurement; 24 feet wide with a draft of 9 feet) was built by John Monk in Sandusky, Ohio. She was sheathed with ice iron capable of breaking 8 inches of ice without stopping. By backing up and bucking the ice, the "American Eagle" could break through 24 inches of solid ice.

During the winter of 1898/1899, a large crowd was skating on the Sandusky Bay when the ice broke loose and began drifting out into Lake Erie. Captain Fred Magle and the "Eagle" were dispatched "to the rescue." The "Eagle" succeeded in getting alongside the ice field and then put a line on the field. Magle towed the ice field back to the Sandusky Bay while the skaters continued to skate all the way home.

The "American Eagle" was built for Wehrle and Werk of Middle Bass Island, later known as Andrew Wehrle and Son. Duing the spring and fall of the 1880s, she carried all of the wines from Middle Bass Island and Kelleys Island to Sandusky. During the summer months, the "Eagle" ran the Sandusky and Peninsula route to Put-in-Bay; stopping at Marblehead, Lakeside, and Catawba.

In the spring of 1882, while carrying sport fishermen to the Pelee Island Club on Point Sheridan, the "Eagle" raced the steamer "Jay Cooke." Between Cedar Point and Carpenter's Point, Kelleys Island, the "Eagle's" boiler exploded, killing Chief Engineer James W. Johnson, Fireman Frank Battle, and deckhands Frank Walker and Lorenze Neilson. The tug "Mystic" towed her back to Sandusky, where her boiler was rebuilt.

Three years later, during an excursion run from Lakeside to Put-in-Bay, she struck a reef about 1 1/2 miles west of Kelleys Island. The shoal still carries the vessel's name today. After repairs at the Detroit Drydock, she was chartered by T. F. Newman for the "fruit run" from the Lake Erie islands to Toledo and Cleveland. The "Eagle" transported tons of peaches throughout the 1890s. During the summer months, she continued to run excursions.

Lake Erie's Ballast Island

The Cochran Cottage on Ballast Island, 1888

Lying a mile northeast of Put-in-Bay is Ballast, one of Lake Erie’s twenty islands. According to legend, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry used rocks from the island to provide ballast for his ships before sailing out to meet the British fleet during the War of 1812. A shallow reef connects the 13-acre island to a sliver of land known as Lost Ballast.

Life on Ballast was shaped by one of its earliest owners, commercial shipping magnate and two-time Cleveland mayor George W. Gardner. At age nine, he ran away from home to sail aboard a lake schooner bound for Buffalo. While still a teenager, Gardner became head clerk of the Northern Transportation Company, managing the accounts and cargoes of the firm’s Great Lakes vessels. After a 5-year stint in the banking business, Gardner purchased two tugs that plied the Cuyahoga River. In partnership with John Rockefeller and others, he shipped grain throughout the Great Lakes, making Cleveland one of the largest grain markets on the Great Lakes.

Cottage on Ballast's North Cliffs, 1888

Few men loved the water more than Gardner. Well before the Civil War, he founded the Ivanhoe Boat Club, bringing rowing to the Cuyahoga River. He later founded the Cleveland Yacht Club and organized the Inter-Lake Yachting Association. He canoed the Mississippi River from Cincinnati to New Orleans.

In 1874, Gardner purchased Ballast Island and a short time later sold undivided interests to his friends who enjoyed sailing nearly as much as he. Eventually, the cooperative association of wealthy friends built nine cottages along the east and west shores of the island. The Gardners’ cabin was built of logs from hackberry trees found on the island. A hotel and dining hall were constructed on the cliffs to the north. The families planted vineyards and fruit trees. At the invitation of Commodore Gardner, the Western Canoe Association transported its boat house from Ross Lake, Michigan to Ballast.

Lost Ballast Island, 1888

Those at Ballast formed their own canoe association, naming it the Longworth Canoe Club after the father-in-law of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. According to Commodore Gardner’s great granddaughter, Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, McKinley, Garfield, and Cleveland all visited at Ballast. And, each summer the resident canoe club and other canoe associations held their annual races in the sheltered waters surrounding Ballast.

Eventually, an ice house, caretaker's home, and work shed were added. All were protected by a curving breakwall made of log cribs filled with stone. Passing steamers and Ballast's proximity to South Bass Island made travel to and from the island convenient. Good friends, good conversation, and great sailing made summering on Ballast in these early years an idyllic time.

Henry Pletscher and Lake Erie's Buckeye Island

Henry Pletscher

Buckeye Island is a small outcropping of glacial rock lying on the northeast tip of South Bass Island. For Henry Pletscher is was much more than rock and reef; it was his retreat –a place of peace and quiet where he spent long summer days tending his garden and fishing with friends and family.

Born in Cleveland in 1842, Henry served with the 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in some of the Civil War’s fiercest battles. After 3 years’ service, he returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart. Following the death of their two-year-old son from diphtheria, Henry headed West in search of his brother. Gone for nearly two years, Henry discovered upon his arrival back in Ohio that his wife, believing him dead, had married again. Heartbroken, Henry set out for the West once more. He re-enlisted, serving in the U. S. Cavalry in the Dakotas and the Arizona Territory with famed Indian fighter General George Crook.

It was Henry’s stories of high adventure fighting the Apaches that held his nieces spellbound. In a 1991 article in the Put-in-Bay Gazette, niece Elsa Watters shared her childhood memories of summer afternoons with Uncle Henry, listening to his tales as they picked raspberries, caught crayfish, and searched for seagulls’ nests.

Henry Pletscher at his cabin on Buckeye Island

According to his niece, Henry purchased the island in 1909. There he built a cabin, tool shed, and dock for his fishing boat and those of the many relatives he invited to Buckeye. Sharing his special place was Henry’s way of repaying family members with whom he stayed each winter.

But Henry’s days on that idyllic island came to an end on his 76th birthday. After stopping for a drink, Henry mistakenly signed papers agreeing to sell Buckeye. The following day, after realizing what he had done, Henry was nearly overcome by the loss. But he knew his little retreat was gone forever. Elsa recalled that “after that day, he seemed to shrink in stature.” It wasn’t long after that he left his beloved island for the Sandusky Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home.

On their visits to Put-in-Bay, his nieces would often stop at Sandusky to see Uncle Henry. They thought he seemed content enough, but life was never the same for Hnery. As Elsa put it, “his sparkle was gone with his island.” Henry Pletscher died there in the spring of 1922.

Without Henry, the winds and waves of Lake Erie began to take their toll on the little island. The garden, cabin, and dock soon were gone. But for Elsa Watters and her sister, their childhood memories of summer days on Buckeye Island with Uncle Henry would remain forever.

Walleye - Ohio's Most Prized Game Fish

Lake Erie Walleye

(Courtesy Ohio Fish and Wildlife)

On May 22nd, Port Clinton, Ohio will once again lay claim to its rightful title as the official WALLEYE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD during its annual Walleye Festival at Water Works Park. Other cities as far away as Garrison, North Dakota vie for rights to the title. But it is Port Clinton, lying on the western basin of Lake Erie, that has been home to the walleye since prehistoric times.

Sometimes called pike-perch, walleyed pike, or jack salmon, the walleye have few distinguishing marks other than their sharp teeth and whitish eyes. In Ohio’s early history, walleye often reached 20 years of age and weights of more than 20 pounds. Millions spawned from mid-April to early May in the clear waters of the Maumee, Sandusky, St. Mary’s, Scioto, Auglaize, and Muskingum rivers.

By the 1840s commercial fishing on Lake Erie began to grow at a rapid pace in an effort to meet the ever-growing demand of the fish market. During the 1880s, the heydey of Great Lakes commercial fishing, walleye could be found in abundance in Lake Erie. But by the turn of the century fishermen began to realize that the supply was not limitless.

Unloading a catch for fertilizer during the heydey of
Lake Erie's commercial fishing
(Charles E. Frohman Collection)

Pollution and heavy harvesting sent walleye into a dramatic downward spiral. Catches at Lake Erie ports that once ranged from one to fifteen million pounds annually were reduced to a mere 163.000 pounds by 1966. Four years later, commercial fishing for walleye was banned in Ohio waters. Despite restocking and establishing catch limits, the walleye, the most prized fish of Lake Erie, remains in a precarious state. Their movements, spawning, and diet remain under close and constant scrutiny by conservationists and biologists.

Historically, the Sandusky River has always made a significant contribution to Lake Erie’s walleye harvest. Famous for its spring run, the river produces some of the largest of its species. Yet the walleye population has been declining for the past 30 years. For this reason, the river has become the focus of a 3-year study to learn more about walleye spawning behavior.

Biologists believe that the Ballville Dam, built on the Sandusky River in 1911, may limit spawning, confining walleye in an area downstream that contains one-tenth the suitable spawning habitat. Tracking walleye equipped with radio transmitters will provide a better understanding of spawning habits on the Sandusky River and out into the Sandusky Bay - and ultimately improve the population of Ohio's most prized game fish.

To learn more about Port Clinton's Walleye Festival go to http://www.walleyefestival.com/