Welcome to TheLake Erie Islands Directory page.
Here, we provide links to all the sites for the islands, plus links to pictures
for those islands without sites. In addition, if you click on the Site Map Page 1
and Site Map Page 2 links on the left
edge of the page, you will find even more links to island information. And there
is a separate Lake Erie
Islands - Live News Feed page.
The term "Lake Erie Islands" usually refers just to the Bass Islands
(North, Middle and South) and the
smaller islands near them, together sometimes called the Bass Islands
Archipelago.
But the following list includes all islands normally considered to be in Lake
Erie. Of all the Ohio islands below, only Gard Island, Mohawk Island, Turtle Island, Presque Isle and West
Sister Island, plus the three Michigan islands listed without images, are more than ten miles from one of the Bass Islands. Also,
Johnson Island is really in Sandusky Bay and not in Lake Erie, but is normally
included in a list of the Lake Erie Islands.
(extinct)
Gull Island Shoal (Ohio) - Gull Island was a real island 120 years ago, although
just large enough for a small private picnic. The shoal, between Middle
Island and Kelleys Island, is still a popular fishing spot.
Johnson's
Island (Ohio) - really in Sandusky Bay and not Lake Erie proper
Johnson's
Island, Friends and Descendants of - A
newly formed (October, 2001) non-profit organization dedicated to the
preservation of the Johnson's Island Prisoner of War Depot
Lake
Erie Photos from the Charles E. Frohman Collection at the OhioLINK
Digital Media Center, including many ice pictures and pictures of early
aircraft testing on the ice. Also early aerial views of Cedar Point. 194
pictures a/o March, 2003.
Note: If this link doesn't work (it sometimes behaves oddly), go to the search
page, click "Keyword", Type the word erie, select only
the Charles E. Frohman collection, and click the Search button.
Little
Sister Island(Ontario) - No pictures available yet
Long Point Island (Ontario) - This was a separate island in the middle
of the nineteenth century, as shown on numerous maps of the period, but is now
connected to the mainland at Long Point, near Port Rowan and Port Dover.
Michigan Islands in Lake Erie -
Gard Island Images are listed above. However, we are missing several islands
listed below. If anyone has pictures or links for those, please send us information.
Indian Island (there's
actually an aerial picture of Indian Island on the satellite map showing
Gard Island, but until we get a better
picture, we won't list this separately.)
Middle
Sister Island(Ontario) - for a description click
here.
To read about an attempt to sell the island in 2000, click
here
Mohawk Island (Ontario)
(formerly called Gull Island)
There was actually a second Gull
Island in Lake Erie off Lowbanks, Ontario near Port Colborne. This island is
now called Mohawk Island. The Gull Island Lighthouse there was built in 1848
and decommissioned in 1969. The first
lighthouse keeper was Capt. John Burgess. He came from Orkney, Scotland in
1835.
North Bass Wedding in 1919
- Pictures of the North Bass Island wedding of Chester
Allen and Helen Cullen on September 6, 1919.
North Harbor Island (Ontario)- Images
from July, 2003. This little island is
northeast of East Sister Island, and therefore not visible from Middle Bass
Island.
Rock Island (Ontario) -
This small island, not much more than a shoal the size of the Chicken Islands,
is about six miles east of Mohawk Island near Port Colborne. No pictures are
available.
Southeast Shoal Lighthouse This lighthouse sits on an artificial
island built on a shoal. Six miles off Point Pelee, the first permanent light
on the shoal was built in 1927 when a large crib fabricated in Kingsville was
floated out, sunk and filled with rock. Note the helicopter pad on the roof. Before the lighthouse was built, ships
were protected by the Southeastern Shoal Lightship.
Starve
Island (Reef) (Ohio) - near the southeastern corner of South Bass Island
And Finally, A Few Lake Erie Tourist
Towns and Attractions in Ontario top
Kingsville and Leamington are
the mainland Ontario towns closest to the Lake Erie Islands, and provide
ferry service to/from Pelee Island. The other towns are much further away.
Point Pelee National Park. Point Pelee, a 10-kilometre
sandspit stretching as far south as the northern border of California,
contains one of Canada's smallest but most unusual national parks.
Long
Point Provincial Park contains many "islands" on Lake Erie that don't
have names and are really just sandbars. This park is part of a
40-kilometre-long sandspit in Lake Erie which is recognized as a biosphere
reserve by the United Nations.
The
Almost Official Mayfly Page If you have visited Middle Bass Island and have encountered the Mayfly
(Canadian Soldier) swarms in May and June, you will want to look at this.
Trent-Severn Waterway - This
240 mile Lake Erie bypass connects Lake Huron with Lake Ontario and offers
the opportunity of a great Lake Erie and Ontario circle tour by boat.
Welland Canal- 26 miles, 8
locks and 350 vertical feet linking Lake Erie with Lake Ontario. It is one
of the outstanding engineering feats of the 20th century.. Requires 2
persons in boat going down to Lake Ontario but 3 for the upward passage
a/o 3/6/06
