A Historical Day at Put-in-Bay

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If you have never visited Put-in-Bay/South Bass Island before, please take a quick look at our Put-in-Bay Primer first for the basics.

South Bass Island, and its bustling village of Put-in-Bay, offer plenty of family fun, food, drinks, and entertainment—but this Lake Erie island is also home to a whole lot of history too!

While enjoying the multitude of restaurants, shopping, and entertainment options that have made Put-in-Bay the region’s favorite island getaway, visitors may not realize that South Bass Island also has a long and storied history as a maritime, cultural, and natural landmark. Various attractions around Put-in-Bay give visitors an in-depth peak back into the island’s past and offer a plethora of information about the island’s historical significance to the larger region. Having grown up visiting Put-in-Bay, we were surprised by just how many historical attractions can be found there when you take the time to discover them!

We start our historical day out on the Miller Ferry, our favorite way to get to the island. We would like to thank VisitPutInBay.com for making this trip possible by arranging our complimentary tickets with the Miller Ferry as well as golf cart rental from E’s Golf Carts. We appreciate the convenient location of E’s Golf Carts right next to the Miller Ferry’s dock and parking lot. Thank you as well to Perry’s Family Fun Center for gifting our admission to Perry’s Cave, and Heineman’s Winery, which gifted us a tour of Crystal Cave as well!

After getting our golf cart, our first stop of the morning is Perry’s Cave, located at the Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center. This limestone cave, an Ohio Natural Landmark, lies 52 feet below ground and maintains a temperature of about 50° year-round. The cave was created by calcium carbonate deposits caused by centuries of water dripping from the ceiling and showcases a pretty neat collection of stalactites, stalagmites, and cave pearls on the cave’s walls, ceiling, and floor.

We enter through a narrow stairway that opens into the wider cave. The walking path to the back of the cave is damp and uneven rock, so rubber soled shoes are recommended, though it is an easy and well-lit walk. We enjoy the views while the tour guide regales us with about 20 minutes of stories of the cave’s history. U.S. naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry sent men into the cave during the War of 1812 (during what would become known as the Battle of Lake Erie) to obtain drinking water from its rare underground lake. The water in Lake Erie at the time was filled with bacteria that sickened the troops, but the water in the cave was clean. It restored their health and helped them ultimately win the battle. It’s a neat experience to peer into a lake Commadore Perry’s troops drank from!

After the cave tour, we check out the Antique Car Museum on site. We love that this is a free daily attraction and self-guided, so we can pop in whenever we like. The museum includes rare Model Ts, vintage snowmobiles, road signs, and gasoline memorabilia. This collection was gathered by Charles “Skip” Duggan, who also started the Sunday afternoon antique car parades on the island.

Our next stop is right across the road to the dazzling Crystal Cave, located at Heineman’s Winery. We enjoy a narrated trip into the cave by a knowledgeable guide. Sitting 40 feet under the winery, Crystal Cave is purported to be the world’s largest geode. It was discovered in 1897 by workers who were digging a well, and its walls are covered with crystals of a bluish gray mineral called celestite.

Crystal Cave is not massive. Tours take about 10 minutes, climbing down a narrow staircase and into the main geode viewing area, then circling back around to the front of the stairs. It is a lovely tour, though, and the geode is a site to behold. At one time, according to Heineman’s, the crystals were harvested and sold for the manufacturing of fireworks, so the original cave was smaller than the one toured today. More than just a pretty view, the Crystal Cave actually helped save the family-run winery from folding during Prohibition. According to Heineman’s, tours of the cave helped pay the family’s bills when other wineries on the island were forced to close.

The winery itself is a historic site, founded in 1888 by Gustav Heineman, an immigrant from Baden, Germany. Baden was the grape growing region of Heineman’s home country, and the, Lake Erie Islands offered a familiarly fertile soil and weather conditions for growing quality grapes. Today the winery continues to be operated by the third, fourth, and fifth generations of Heinemans.

We decide to take an afternoon break at the Put-in-Bay Winery, settling in to enjoy some wine and snacks on the lovely front lawn overlooking Lake Erie. We enjoy their delicious Celebration Wine, a sparkling Moscato, among others. The winery, one of two on South Bass Island (the other being Heineman’s, of course), sits at the site of the historic Doller Estate.

The Doller Mansion is a beautiful Victorian and Italianate-style home built between 1866 and 1885 by Valentine Doller, Put-in-Bay’s first entrepreneur and former mayor. Doller was a German immigrant who came to Put-in-Bay in 1859 at the request of the island’s founder, Jose DeRivera. Doller wasted no time making his mark here, starting an ice business, running the island’s only public dock (where the current Boardwalk restaurant sits), and even investing in the Hotel Victory. Located in what is now South Bass Island State Park, Hotel Victory was one of the world’s largest hotels at the time it tragically burned to the ground in 1919.

If you are interested in a little history and wine, you will definitely want to sign up for a tour of the estate, which includes tours of the home’s main parlor as well as the historic ice house.

After lunch, we check out a few of Put-in-Bay’s historic lodging options. We are welcomed into Ashley’s Island House, a charming property near downtown. The home’s beautiful front porch was once voted best porch on the island, and we can easily see why. This historic Victorian bed and breakfast was built in 1863 by prominent island citizen and builder George Gascoyne who also designed and built The Village Hall as well as some of the island’s other buildings. It was also converted to a boarding house in the late 1800’s for officers from ships that were in port.

Next, we take a tour of another lodging option, the Dodge House. The home was built in the late 1860s and has been owned by the Dodge family since the 1970s. The home’s foyer showcases numerous historical photos of previous owners and their families. You can rent the entire home or one of three areas, and guests enjoy a lovely view of the large yard and the lake.

Next, we head over to the 6,000 square foot Lake Erie Islands Historical Society museum, which houses a plethora of artifacts, memorabilia, and genealogical data related to the Lake Erie Islands. This place is chock full of historical details and facts about the islands’ early days. It is a fantastical treasure trove of portraits, documents, furniture, clothing, maritime related items, and practically anything else you think could bring the local history to life. It’s pretty impressive how much history they are able to pack into this one building, and we have a great time exploring each exhibit and uncovering fun little pieces of island history.

After touring the museum, we head over to Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial (known by locals as Perry’s Monument). This is, of course, a can’t-miss site for any traveler to Put-in-Bay, thanks to its panoramic views from the top. It also happens to be one of the more historically significant spots on the island. The memorial consists of the monument and grounds as well as the adjacent visitor center. During seasonal operating hours of May through October, visitors can take an elevator ride up to the top of the 352-foot-tall monument, which is the world’s tallest Doric column, and get a little history lesson along the way. Perry’s Monument is also the only international peace memorial in the United States National Park System. During tourist season, visitors can learn about the history and purpose of the monument in the visitor center and watch historic reenactments on the monument lawn.

South Bass Island played a pivotal role in the War of 1812, as U.S. naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry’s squadron sailed from the port there on September 10, 1813, to engage a British squadron just north of the island in what became known as the Battle of Lake Erie. It was at this time that Perry uttered the famous phrase, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Construction of the monument began in 1912, and it opened to the public on June 13, 1915. The remains of six British and American naval officers are interred beneath the floor of the monument’s rotunda.

After touring the memorial and visitor center, we head back into town to take a look at a few of the historic elements at DeRivera Park, the lush centerpiece of downtown Put-in-Bay. The park was named for the original owner of South Bass Island, Joseph DeRivera St. Jurgo. DeRivera was a Spanish merchant who purchased several Lake Erie islands in 1854 and worked to develop South Bass Island. Visitors can see numerous memorials and small historic monuments throughout the park, such as an estimated 10-15-feet tall wooden statue of DeRivera, carved in 2018 from the broken stump of a 200-year-old oak tree that had toppled in the park.

The South Bass Island Lighthouse was first lit in 1897, and has played an essential part in Put-in-Bay’s history. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1962, and its lens was subsequently taken to the Lake Erie Islands Historical Museum, where it can be seen to this day. Visitors can tour the lighthouse on scheduled dates from June-October. The lighthouse is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Owned by Ohio State, it is thought to be the only lighthouse in the United States owned by a university.

If you are camping at South Bass Island State Park, check out the Hotel Victory ruins, located right inside the campground. The park posts signage stating only registered campground guests are permitted in the campsite area, so this part of the historic tour appears to be only available to those who are staying at the campground. However, as of April 2022, the park may be making this site more explicitly open to the general public, with the addition of a new gate at the front entrance to the park that will remain open during daytime hours for visitors.

The earliest travelers to South Bass Island were Native Americans, including the Erie, Iroquois, Miami, Ottawa, Seneca, and Shawnee tribes, who utilized the island for shelter during crossings of Lake Erie. From the 19^th century through today, however, South Bass Island’s main industry has been tourism—and that included many luxurious hotels. When it opened in 1892, the Hotel Victory was one of the world’s largest hotels, featuring more than 600 rooms, a one-thousand-seat dining room, and an electric trolley that whisked guests from the dock to the front veranda. Unfortunately, a fire ravaged the Victory in August of 1919. While all the guests managed to escape unharmed, the blaze destroyed the structure beyond repair. Today, all that remains of this once majestic hotel are a few ruins, including remnants of the natatorium that once housed the hotel pool.

If you are a hardcore history buff, you will want to be sure to visit in mid-September. Each year on or around September 10, Put-in-Bay commemorates the anniversary of Oliver Hazard Perry’s defeat of the British fleet with Put-in-Bay Historic Weekend. This weekend celebrates the enduring peace between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada for more than 200 years and includes a War of 1812 military encampment on the lawn of the Monument Visitors Center all weekend. More than 1,000 Boy Scouts also camp out in tents on the Memorial’s east lawn for their annual camporee on Lake Erie.

If you have more time to explore, Put-in-Bay offers other historically significant sites, such as the Victorian-era Park Hotel, which was established in 1873 and currently offers up the delicious chicken on its front patio. The historic Stonehenge Estate, an estate with 19th-century buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been a popular site for tourists. Until recently, it included tours and a gift shop. However, the estate was recently put up for sale, and it is unfortunately unclear what the future of this attraction will be.

We hope you enjoy a historical day at Put-in-Bay!

Helpful Links:

• Visit Put-in-Bay (Official PIB convention and visitors bureau)
• VisitPutInBay.com’s Kids Brochure
• Lake Erie Shores and Islands (Area convention and visitors bureau)
• South Bass Island State Park campground
• VisitPutinBay.org
• PutInBay.com
• Put-in-Bay Online