

A cemetery on the island holds rows of white markers indicating the burial places of 206 soldiers who never left the island. By the end of the war, more than 15,000 Southerners, most of them officers, had been confined there. Lying south of the Marblehead Peninsula in Sandusky Bay and rimmed by a dense cordon of trees is JOHNSON’S ISLAND, on which during the Civil War was located a prison camp for Confederate soldiers.

A large area of Kelleys Island is being developed as a state park. Along the north shore is Glacial Grooves State Park, where limestone rocks reveal long, smoothly scored markings made by the ancient glaciers that moved their ponderous weight back and forth across Lake Erie and northern Ohio. Along the south shore is Inscription Rock, bearing some mysterious ancient carvings, now considerably marred by erosion. The island is like an independent city-state, with its vineyards, orchards, truck gardens, fishing, schools, churches, hotels and summer cottages. Largest of the Erie Islands in the United States is KELLEYS ISLAND, with 18 miles of rock-ribbed and bay-indented shoreline. Settlement on the Bass Islands began as early as 1811, and the first inhabitants on Kelleys Island arrived in 1833. LaSalle, the French explorer, and his historian, Father Hennepin, visited the region in 1679.įrance ceded the islands to Great Britain in 1763, and Great Britain ceded the islands in the southern half of Lake Erie to the United States in 1783. Nicholas Sanson, the royal geographer of France, mapped the region in 1656, calling these islands the Isles of the Apostles. The Erie Islands are said to have been discovered in the early years of the seventeenth century by a wandering French missionary named Gabriel Segard while exploring this then unknown country, which was at that time inhabited by Huron Indians. A tempting dish from the waters around the islands is Planked Lake Erie Whitefish, a real northern Ohio treat. The grapes gathered are used for winemaking, an industry that has flourished on the islands since the 1860s.Ĭommercial fisheries have long constituted an important industry in the area. In the fall just about everyone on the islands works in the vineyards, and a sort of holiday atmosphere prevails. Boating, which attracts thousands to the islands throughout the summer, reaches its climax with the Inter-Lake Regatta in August. Pheasant hunting is popular on the well-stocked preserves of Kelleys Island. Ice fishing is a unique winter sport and the thousands who enjoy it claim that no fish is so tasty as a pike or pickerel cooked right after being hauled from the refrigerated water below the ice. Fishing for gamey pickerel and fighting bass on the reefs among the islands carries many of the thrills of deep-sea fishing. The Erie Islands attract sportsmen from all parts of the country. Pelee Island and Kelleys Island are each several thousand acres in area the three Bass Islands are not quite so large, while there are several small islands consisting of only a few acres. Twenty in number, the oddly shaped Erie Islands lie on both sides of the United States-Canada border, which at this point is only 25 miles north of the Turnpike. The larger islands are reached from Sandusky by ferryboat and from the Marblehead Peninsula by ferryboat and regular air service. Just beyond and visible from the shore are the Erie Islands, a popular vacation land offering excellent fishing, as well as hunting, boating, bathing and visiting historical sites. Jutting out into the green waters of Lake Erie, a few miles north of the Erie Islands Service Plaza, is the Marblehead Peninsula. HOW ERIE ISLANDS SERVICE PLAZA GOT ITS NAME E-ZPass – stop by the E-ZPass vending machine at this location to pick up an E-ZPass transponder 24 hours a day.Ohio Lottery- Travel Mart & Sunoco are the authorized Ohio Lottery retailers at this location.Travel Board InfoCenters and Turnpike Television (traffic alerts and weather information).Travel Mart- Customers looking for on-the-go snacks and beverages can find them here.Touch & Win Ohio Lottery EZ Play video gaming terminals.
TRUCK ON LAKE ERIE ICE DRIVER FISHING FREE
Separate restrooms & free shower facilities.Designated truckers lounge with easy access from the 77-space truck parking lot.Underground Utility Crossing Permit Form.Ohio Turnpike Standard Construction Drawings.

Overnight Parking For RVs/Travel Trailers.
