Ohio's north coast: Lake Erie, Shores, Islands and Lighthouses

Lake Erie

In total area, Lake Erie is the 12th largest freshwater lake in the world and the most shallow of the 5 Great Lakes. It is about 210 miles long, 57 miles wide, with a shoreline of approximately 71 miles with a maximum depth of 210'.

How Lake Erie got its name

When French explorers and traders entered the Great Lakes region in the 1600s, American Indian nations already had given names to the immense bodies of water they lived along. As reports and crude maps filtered back to Europe, these Indian names frequently were combined with names the French thought more appropriate.

Samuel de Champlain drew one of the earliest, still-surviving maps in 1632. Champlain named Lake Erie for an Indian tribe living along its shore. The “Neutrals” were a tribe on Erie’s north shore which had not taken a side in a conflict between the Iroquois and the Hurons. Thus Erie became “La Nation neutre.”

Later, Nicholas Sanson, France’s royal geographer renamed the lake Lac Erie, ou Du Chat after the Erie Indian nation. These were a fierce people famed for wearing the skins of cats, a nation known to the Iroquois League as the “Erielhonan,” or the “long-tails.” To the French, this nation was called the Erie, or “cat people.”

Lake Erie is an important water resource for recreating and tourism as well as for municipal and industrial use. Its warm, shallow waters harbor a diverse and abundant fishery, primarily known by anglers for walleye, yellow perch, and smallmouth bass.

Lake Erie Fishing

Lake Erie offers some of the finest walleye, smallmouth bass and yellow perch fishing in the country. Even during the colder months, Lake Erie offers quality fishing for steelhead trout.

Lake Erie Ferry's

The best way to see the islands is to leave your car on the mainland. Many of the ferry services offer parking. On the islands you can usually rent bicycles and carts to get around. Reservations are not required, it is first come, first served. The one exception are trips to Middle Bass Island. This has a more limited service and vehicles may need a reservation-- people do not.

Weather can be a deciding factor when ferries run. High winds can cause delays, and obviously when there's ice-over, there will be no service.

More Lake Erie Ferry Services>>

• Jet Express
  3 Monroe St.
  Port Clinton, Ohio 43452
  1-800-245-1538

• Miller Boat Line
  SR 53 N (off SR 2)
  P.O. Box 239
  Put-in-Bay, Ohio 43456
  419/285-2421 or 1-800-500-2421

• Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Lines
  510 W. Main St.
  Marblehead, Ohio 43440
  419/798-9763

• Sonny S Ferry
  Put-in-Bay
  419/285-8774
  Departs every hour on the hour from the Boardwalk from Put-in-Bay to Middle Bass Island

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Above: Marblehead Lighthouse on Marblehead Peninsula, the most photographed lighthouse on Lake Erie

Perry Victory Memorial

Located on South Bass Island is the Perry Victory Memorial built in the early 1900s as a lasting monument to Oliver Perry's victory over the British naval forces that had control over the western end of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

More about Perry's Victory Memorial >>

Ohio's North Coast Lights

Long before we had GPS navigation aides, we had lighthouses. Like any major body of water, Ohio's lighthouses helped ships identify their location in relation to the shoreline.

Lighthouses stand as beacons of safety and security and perhaps this is why they appeal to so many people, even land-hugging folks. Not only are lighthouses nostalgic, but they are also artistic expressions, each unique for its architectural style, but also for its surrounding environment.

Lighthouses are painted different colors and designs to make them daymarks. This was important so sailors could recognize a particular lighthouse during the day.

Lake Erie has over 30 lighthouses along the US side of Lake Erie with 18 of those structures on Ohio's shoreline. Some are located on the mainland and others on small dots of land accessible only by boat. Many of the older lighthouses are no longer part of the US Coast Guard's responsibility.

Many of the lighthouses have been restored to their former glory through the efforts of private citizens. Others have been taken over by the state and operated as museums. Some have been destroyed by the elements or extremely vandalized. All of them have stories from the past.

1. Toledo Harbor Lighthouse

2. Turtle Island Lighthouse

3. West Sister Island Lighthouse

4. Old Port Clinton Lighthouse

5. Green Island Lighthouse

6. South Bass Island Lighthouse

7. Perry Memorial Lighthouse

8. Marblehead Lighthouse

9. Cedar Point Lighthouse

10. Huron Harbor Pierhead Lighthouse

11. Vermilion Lighthouse

12. Lorain Breakwater Lighthouse

13. Cleveland West Pierhead Lighthouse

14. Cleveland East Pierhead Lighthouse

15. Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse

16. Old Fairport Harbor Main Lighthouse

17. Ashtabula Lighthouse

18. Conneaut West Breakwater Lighthouse

A good resource:
Lake Erie Lighthouses