Put-In-Bay Township, Ottawa County

• Put-in-Bay and Perry's Victory MemorialPut-in-Bay on South Bass Island was Perry's anchorage before his September 10, 1813, Lake Erie victory. The 352-foot Perry's Victory memorial column opened in 1915.

How Put-In-Bay Township, Ottawa County began

Put-in-Bay Township is almost entirely water -- 163.8 of its 168.8 square miles -- and gathers seven Lake Erie islands: South Bass (home to Put-in-Bay village, covered in its own file), Middle Bass, North Bass, Rattlesnake, Sugar, Green, and Ballast. Commodore Perry used tiny Gibraltar Island as a lookout before the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie; financier Jay Cooke later built a Gilded Age mansion there before Ohio State University turned the island into the country's oldest freshwater research station. Middle Bass Island built one of the country's largest nineteenth-century wineries, and North Bass (Isle St. George) became Ohio's first federally recognized wine-growing region in 1982.

Where the name comes from

Named for Put-in-Bay, the sheltered harbor on South Bass Island where Commodore Perry's fleet anchored before the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie; it is the only Put-in-Bay Township in Ohio.

Before the town

No permanent historic-era Native village on any of the township's islands is recorded. The Put-in-Bay article says the first known users of South Bass Island were various tribes, including the Ottawa (Odawa), Miami, Shawnee, Seneca, Iroquois and Erie, and that the island sheltered travelers crossing Lake Erie, and French explorer Robert de La Salle recorded landing on Middle Bass Island in 1679.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa (Odawa), Miami, Shawnee, Seneca (Seneca-Cayuga), Iroquois, Erie.

• Bass Islands as shared shelter and crossing point (other) — South Bass, Middle Bass, North Bass, and neighboring islands, pre-1800s (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1679 — French explorer Robert de La Salle landed on what is now Middle Bass Island, naming it Isle des Fleurs.
2. 1807 — Connecticut, which had held Gibraltar Island, sells the deed to Pierpont Edwards, a New York City banker.
3. 1813-09-10 — Commodore Perry used Gibraltar Island, in the harbor, as a lookout point before the Battle of Lake Erie.
4. 1813 — At dawn on September 10 a Navy lookout spots six British vessels northwest of Put-in-Bay, opening the Battle of Lake Erie.
5. 1853 — Peter and Simon Fox planted the first grapes on North Bass Island (Isle St. George).
6. 1856 — A German count acquired Middle Bass Island and established grape cultivation with immigrant labor.
7. 1864 — Financier Jay Cooke bought Gibraltar Island and built the Victorian Gothic mansion Cooke Castle, hosting guests including General William Tecumseh Sherman and three future or sitting presidents.
8. 1875 — The Golden Eagle Winery on Middle Bass Island became, by one account, the largest wine producer in the United States.
9. 1884 — The Lonz family bought the Middle Bass winery business, operating it for nearly a century.
10. 1887 — Gustav Heineman emigrates from Baden-Baden, Germany, to Put-in-Bay and establishes a winery on South Bass Island.
11. 1895 — Professor David S. Kellicott sets up a second-floor lab in a Sandusky fish hatchery, the beginning of the Ohio State research station that moved to Cedar Point, South Bass and finally to Gibraltar Island; first courses are offered in 1900.
12. 1897 — Winemaker Gustav Heineman discovered Crystal Cave, lined with large celestine crystals, while digging a well on South Bass Island.
13. 1925 — Julius Stone buys the Gibraltar Island deed from Cooke's descendants and offers it to Ohio State, whose trustees name the station for his father, Franz Theodore Stone.
14. 1929-06-22 — Ohio State University dedicated the F. T. Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island, the oldest freshwater field station in the United States.
15. 1968 — George Lonz of Middle Bass dies after the family winery had been run since 1884; Claudio Salvador begins making the wines in 1979.
16. 1982-08-20 — Isle St. George (North Bass Island) was designated Ohio's first American Viticultural Area.
17. 2000-07-01 — A terrace collapse at the Lonz Winery on Middle Bass Island killed one person and injured dozens.
18. 2001 — Ohio purchased the former Lonz Winery property and created Middle Bass Island State Park.
19. 2017 — The renovated Lonz Winery reopens for tours on June 22 without producing or selling wine on site; the historic Lonz Mansion reopens in 2024 with a Prohibition-era museum.

Stories

The cave a winemaker dug into

Gustav Heineman came from Baden-Baden in 1887 to Put-in-Bay and set up a winery on South Bass Island. In 1897, digging a well beneath the winery, he broke into a large cavity about 30 feet down. Its walls were lined with large, well-formed tabular crystals, identified as celestine, strontium sulfate, some of them up to three feet across. Strontium burns red, and the crystals were soon being mined to make red fireworks, which is one reason the cave, Wikipedia notes, was much smaller at first than it is now. Heineman stopped the mining and made the cave a tourist attraction instead; the article says the revenue from visitors let his winery survive Prohibition. The cave was still open to tourists in 2016.

The caretaker of Cooke's island

Jay Cooke, the Sandusky-born financier, bought Gibraltar Island, where Commodore Perry had kept a lookout before the Battle of Lake Erie, in 1864 and at once began a 15-room Victorian-Gothic mansion, now Cooke Castle. He entertained there Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Salmon P. Chase and the future presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Owen Brown, a son of the abolitionist John Brown, served as caretaker of the island in winter and whenever the Cookes were away. Julius Stone bought the deed from Cooke's descendants in 1925 and gave the island to Ohio State University, whose F. T. Stone Laboratory was dedicated on June 22, 1929, the oldest freshwater research station in the country.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · nps.gov · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Every historic place in Ottawa County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Put-in-bay Village100% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-04-10: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 5 of 6 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-12

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