North Bass Island is an island of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

located in

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

. A small unincorporated community, Isle Saint George, is on the island. The North Bass Island Post Office was established on May 25, 1864, and the name changed to Isle Saint George Post Office on March 2, 1874. The Isle Saint George ZIP code 43436 provides PO Box service. The island is equidistant to Port Clinton, OH and Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. The 688.6-acre (2.786 km²) island is one of few islands that has not been commercially developed. The state of Ohio purchased 589 acres (2.4 km²) of the island to preserve it from development and operates it as North Bass Island State Park. Historically, North Bass was mainly used as a

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

. According to the 2000 census the island had 13 permanent residents. As of January 2007, there were roughly two dozen permanent residents residing on the island's 12 privately owned properties.

North Bass Island Airport North Bass Island Airport is a public airport located on North Bass Island, Ohio, United States. It is owned and operated by the Put In Bay Township Port Authority. Approaches to the airport are challenging due to the airport's close proximity ...

offers a paved airstrip. Air traffic for take-off and landings to the north are complex as the Canadian border is challenging to avoid with less than two miles from the runway threshold. The runway underwent significant improvement October 2019 with a $2.338M grant from the FAA, the first improvement since the runway was originally paved in 1995. The runway is part of the Put-in-Bay Port Authority. North Bass Island has no ferry service but has maintained a dock for commercial grape activity since 1880 with substantial improvements and additions as early as 1900. The most recent improvement to the dock to ensure that commercial vessels could still serve the island occurred in 2019. Nearly $500,000 worth of improvements were necessary just to make the dock operable. North Bass Island School was the state's last operating, public,

one-room school One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

. It ceased operations in 2005, but is still maintained as a historical island heritage centre. The school was designated by the Ohio Legislature and approved by the Ohio Department of Education as a K-8 building, the only one-room schoolhouse on an island in Ohio. High school students who reside on North Bass island fly to the mainland or another island. High school students have attended EHOVE Career Center, Put-in-Bay, Port Clinton, and Sandusky High School. All of the current members of the Board of Education attended North Bass School. Because there is no ferry service to the island and ice surrounds it for four months per year school year, high school students fly to the airport closest to their school. The school building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2020 as North Bass School. North Bass Island is the second largest and northernmost island of the Bass Islands, which are a part of the larger

Lake Erie Islands The Lake Erie Islands are a chain of archipelagic islands in Lake Erie. They include Kelleys Island, Erie Island, Pelee Island, the Bass Islands, and several others. The majority of these islands are under the sovereignty of the State of Ohio in t ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

. On the southwest corner of the island there is a small bay named Manila Bay and there is a small unnamed creek that protrudes from the bay. The island is part of

Put-in-Bay Township, Ottawa County, Ohio Put-in-Bay Township is one of the twelve townships of Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 813 people in the township. Communities *Put-in-Bay is a village located at within the southern portion of the township. Put-In-Bay ...

. The island was part of a territorial border dispute between the United Kingdom in the

Battle of Lake Erie The Battle of Lake Erie, also known as the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, on Lake Erie off the shores of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of the British ...

, and a portion of the island was claimed by the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma in 2006.

References

External links

North Bass Island State Park
- official site {{authority control Islands of Ottawa County, Ohio Islands of Lake Erie in Ohio State parks of Ohio Protected areas of Ottawa County, Ohio

See also

References

External links