Lake Erie

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative

Cleveland

outdoors

Island art space

sbradford — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:37:39 +0000

Island art space

February 1, 2026

James Proffitt

Co-op People

Like many Kelleys Island residents, Charles and Cindy Herndon spent their childhood summers in the bucolic setting on western Lake Erie before returning decades later to live there. But they didn’t just come back to fade away into retirement.

Charles, 79, and Cindy, 74, established the Charles Herndon Galleries and Sculpture Garden, a sprawling art campus that includes two galleries, working studio spaces that have served as a sanctuary for art since 1999, and a sprawling garden with cedar woods with trails for visitors to walk around and view the art.

Charles is a retired professor from Columbus College of Art and Design. He is a sculptor, painter, and photographer whose work is intimately connected to the lake — and to the sprawling 10-acre garden on its shore.

“The lake is a provider for paintings using propagation, waves, the stones it brings to shore, its movement, repetition, and variety,” he says. “The natural world is important to my soul and its creative juices.”

Before he painted, Charles mostly sculpted, and the garden portion of the campus is home to about 150 pieces ranging from smaller works to massive creations 7 or 8 feet tall. Some are wood, steel, or bronze; others are pieces of glacial erratic (granite) and limestone, many quarried from the island.

“The granite came down from the Wisconsin glacier, and you can see it’s gone through the molten process, so there are veins where it was really, really hot,” Cindy says. “They’re very hard and you have to use diamond tools to carve those. And the limestone from Kelleys has all kinds of interesting patterns, so the fossils really show through.”

While the Herndon galleries themselves are seasonal (a no-brainer on Lake Erie islands), the studios serve as creative “hotspots” year-round — a term that’s quite literal for one of the two island artists whose work is born there.

“Jackie Polofka is our glass artist and does amazing things in the studio Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays during the season,” says Carmen Smith, the gallery’s manager. “She used to blow glass in different places around the island with a trailer.”

Polofka’s yearning for a larger and more permanent working space eventually led to a perfect marriage with the Herndons’ desire to have artists working on
the campus.

“It’s a huge draw for the gallery and people love her work,” Smith says. “She blows a lot of touristy things you can hang in the window and cute little birds — fun stuff — but also pieces like goblets with extremely fancy stems. Those are stunningly gorgeous.”

The other artist whose work regularly rises from the studios is Smith herself. “I’m a jeweler and also work in fibers, sewing, weaving, and things like that,” she says. “I have a loom where I can make textiles, but I do a lot of wall hangings, more artistic-leaning than functional weaving. I also use a lot of clothing and other textiles that I find, both for the environment and the price.”

Smith says soaring silver prices have cut into her jewelry work, though she’s still a working jeweler with the know-how to mill silver. That’s the process of taking raw silver and forming it into sheets, shapes, wires, or whatever form is needed to create original pieces. She also does free-form casting, in which liquid silver is poured into materials such as beans, water, rice or spaghetti to create one-of-a-kind shapes; she says it’s quite the crowd pleaser.

“It’s fun because it’s visual and so I do it as a demonstration down at the gardens sometimes,” she says. “It’s just very fun to work with.”

The gallery and gardens are free and open to the public during the season, and while the space is located at the eastern end of the island, away from the downtown bars and restaurants, it still sees regular traffic from summer revelers — many with drinks in hand, which Smith says has never caused an issue.

“We like to share the art and garden with visitors, especially our community members,” Charles says. “We enjoy it and feel it’s important to our society to give explanation to some of the stone carving processes and welding of steel. And we always encourage young children to enjoy the outdoor work — we have games they can play to seek a better understanding.”

The Herndons are members of North Baltimore-based Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, as are all residents and businesses on Kelleys.

“We have great people on the island here, absolutely,” Cindy says. “That’s another story in itself, just the people that work on the island. It’s a great co-op and we’re happy with things and if we’re ever not, they’re always responsive.”

Island rescues

While Charles Herndon paints and sculpts, plucking ideas and forms from ancient stone and colors and patterns from palettes with a searching mind and heart, he also will occasionally be called upon to transform dark to light in a more metaphysical sense.

In 2007, a small plane crashed into Lake Erie about a half-mile out from his gallery and sculpture garden at the eastern end of Kelleys Island. He launched his small rowboat and saved a young boy whose father and brother had perished in the crash.

Years earlier, he and Cindy were fishing south of the island when they came upon another fishing boat that had sunk and they rescued two anglers from the water — though a third person aboard did not survive.

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artist

Paddlers' paradise

sbradford — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:26:48 +0000

Paddlers' paradise

September 1, 2025

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

If you enjoy water paddle sports such as kayaking and canoeing, but would rather not deal with the challenges and dangers of whitewater rapids, I have just the place for you. It has a spectacular view of Lake Erie, and belted kingfishers, great egrets, and other waterbirds fly by as you float along the 2.5-mile water trail. If you’re more of a landlubber, there are half a dozen hiking trails available there, too.

Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve is located a mile east of Huron, along State Route 6. It’s owned and operated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and it’s also a state nature preserve, dedicated in 1980. Best of all, it’s open to the public year-round — free of charge.

Freshwater estuaries are areas where creeks or rivers meet and mix with chemically distinct larger bodies of water (in this case: Lake Erie). “Old Woman Creek is the best example of a large barrier beach estuary in Ohio,” says Janice Kerns, the reserve’s manager.

Kerns grew up in a suburb of Columbus, and says she had an intense interest in the outdoors, even as a kid. “I took a summer course in marine biology during high school, and that experience really helped guide my future undergrad and postgraduate studies and ultimate career path,” she says.

Kerns oversees a staff of about a dozen other scientists and employees involved in education, research, stewardship, and technical training. The team works from the Mike DeWine Center for Coastal Wetlands Studies, which also houses the reserve’s public visitor center. “We have a tradition at Old Woman Creek of mentoring early career professionals by providing internships and summer jobs for the next generation of coastal researchers and decision-makers,” Kerns says.

Anyone who owns a canoe or kayak is welcome to enjoy the paddling opportunities on Old Woman Creek any time of year — but if you don’t happen to own such a watercraft, Old Woman Creek has you covered with a variety of events and amenities.

“We offer free guided kayak and canoe tours of the estuary,” Kerns says. “We have a fleet of canoes and kayaks, paddles, and life jackets visitors can borrow while on guided trips.” Tours are given every other Wednesday and Saturday during the summer. Dates and registration information are available here.

Another must-do activity while visiting Old Woman Creek is taking a leisurely stroll along the sandy, quarter-mile-long barrier beach that borders Lake Erie. On any particular day or season of the year, you could experience lake conditions ranging from totally calm to waves crashing ashore — or anything in between. You might also catch a glimpse of a bald eagle soaring along the lakeshore searching for fish.

“The best time of year to view eagles here is during their breeding season, from winter to late spring,” Kerns says. “There is only one active eagle nest at OWC this year, but many eagles use the estuary as a gathering area — last December staff members and I counted some 30 eagles perched in the trees surrounding the marsh.” She says that sighting included a mix of mature birds, which have the striking white head and white tail feathers, and younger birds, which are mainly dark brown in color. “Viewing that congregation of bald eagles all at the same time was truly spectacular,” she says.

Of course, you must be wondering just how Old Woman Creek got its odd name, which dates back at least to the late 1700s. But it’s kind of complicated; at least two different legends exist about its origin. One says it was named for an elderly Native American woman who, grieving for her slain daughter and son-in-law, threw herself into the creek and drowned; another claims pioneers simply noted a friendly older woman whose creek-side residence was a point of reference for early settlers.

Unfortunately, neither story has been substantiated — and likely never will be — so my advice is to simply choose whichever you like best.

Tags

kayaking

outdoors

Serene boardwalks

sbradford — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 18:29:12 +0000

Serene boardwalks

June 1, 2024

Wendy Pramik

Nature weaves a tapestry of tranquil landscapes and vibrant ecosystems in Ohio, in several spots presented thoughtfully through the winding allure of boardwalk trails. These sinuous paths are more than wooden structures; they serve as threads connecting the past with the present, inviting modern explorers into a wilderness that once dominated our Buckeye State. Come along on our walk through the boardwalk loops at Maumee Bay State Park, Cedar Bog, and Fowler Woods to experience the diverse natural beauty of an immersive journey through time and space.

Summer at Maumee Bay State Park

On the northern cusp of Ohio near the town of Oregon, Maumee Bay State Park is one of Lake Erie’s playful attractions. The park features a 2.3-mile boardwalk that winds through wetlands teeming with diverse wildlife and lush vegetation. I stumbled upon this path a few years ago during a family stay at Maumee Bay Lodge. The highlight of our exploration was the array of wildlife we encountered — from playful frogs to a family of ducks navigating the marshy waters.

This boardwalk was constructed in 1993 and was partially rebuilt with eco-friendly materials after a storm in 2023. It’s a haven for birdwatchers, as more than 300 avian species live in or migrate through the area at one time or another through the year. The interactive exhibits at the park’s Trautman Nature Center paint a vivid picture of the region’s natural and human history, including the journey of migrating birds and the tale of the Great Black Swamp’s early settlers.

Spring at Cedar Bog Nature Preserve

Cedar Bog Nature Preserve in Urbana presents an altogether different aspect of Ohio’s natural heritage. A National Natural Landmark managed by the Ohio Historical Society, the preserve features a 1.5-mile boardwalk that arcs through a fen — a wetland that drains water left behind by retreating glaciers. My husband, Mike, and I took a springtime walk here, surrounded by the sounds of life as hidden birds sang from bushes and frogs peeped from a pond.

Visiting Cedar Bog not only offers a glimpse into glacial history but also provides an intimate look at some of Ohio’s most rare and beautiful plant and animal species. Carnivorous plants and rarities such as the showy lady’s slipper thrive at Cedar Bog alongside towering red maples and black ash trees. The fen’s varied landscape transitions from swamp to prairie, each area blossoming with an explosion of wildflowers.

Fall at Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve

Farther northeast near Greenwich, Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve offers a distinctly different seasonal spectacle. An autumn visit with my sister, Amy, and niece, Jenna, was punctuated by a palette of changing leaves, from vivid yellow to deep brown, which created a crunchy carpet underfoot. The preserve’s 1.24-mile wheelchair-accessible trail circles through mature beech and maple forests and across buttonbush swamps.

The secluded boardwalk is a sanctuary for both flora and fauna. Tall trees and vibrant undergrowth provide food and shelter to a variety of birds. The trilling calls of the veery echo through the trees, adding an auditory layer to the visual splendor of the preserve.

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State park

nature

Island connection

sbradford — Wed, 01 May 2024 18:06:07 +0000

Island connection

May 1, 2024

James Proffitt

Nearly a million people visit the tiny cluster of islands at the western end of Lake Erie each year, and most of them arrive by boat — specifically, on one of three ferry services that tote folks across the water from Port Clinton, Catawba, Sandusky, and Marblehead.

All three — Kelleys Island Ferry, Miller Boat Line, and Jet Express — welcome pets and bicycles. Two, Kelleys and Miller, also take freight: cars, motorcycles, large trucks, construction equipment, and tractor trailers. Once, Kelleys transported an entire circus, including tigers and elephants, across the lake on its boats.

The rates are reasonable — though that cost is definitely a consideration for anyone, say, building a house on the island, according to Eddie Ehrbar, a captain for Kelleys Island Ferry. The cost to transport all the workers, equipment, and materials alone could add as much as $20,000 to the price tag of a new house, compared to what it might cost to build on the mainland.

Ehrbar is one of a half-dozen full-time Kelleys captains, who, along with nine part-timers, keep the service’s five boats running from Marblehead to Kelleys Island nearly year-round. “In season, we’re running a boat every 30 minutes — we just raise the ramp and go,” Ehrbar says. “But in the off-season, we’ll give a couple minutes leeway here or there.”

Of course, the trips are at the captain’s discretion when things get rough. “Most of the guys will run in 6- to 8-foot seas,” he says, noting that most passengers stay dry by entering the cabin or staying inside vehicles when it’s that rough, though some prefer to get wet standing on the deck.

The Jet Express is a different animal than the other two. It’s only for people, pets, bicycles — and speed. The Express operates four boats with capacities between 149 and 385 passengers, and each is propelled by diesel water jets situated in catamaran hulls. One of the company’s boats, the Jet Express IV, was formerly owned by a New York City operation (it was named M/V Monmouth at that time) and was involved in the emergency sea lift of thousands after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

“[The Jet Express boats] can do what no other boat line in this region can do, and that is to cover a vast distance in a very short amount of time with a large number of people on board,” says Chase Eagleson, marketing manager for the Jet during the 2023 season. “The fastest boat can top out over 40 mph.”

Jet Express services carry a higher price tag, but folks say it’s worth it, especially for a day trip or a quick dinner on the island.

For all three ferry services, business is full throttle from May until autumn — though at times, people there joke that the islands may sink if any more people arrive.

“There comes a point where businesses and infrastructure simply cannot support any more traffic, and we’ve had moments where they said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to stop bringing people over,’” he says. “It’s kind of hard to plan for until you’re there; you just have to play your cards.”

Most of the time, the ferry business is a ho-hum affair. Every now and then, however, something extraordinary happens. In August 2010, for example, when a Cessna airplane carrying a pilot and three passengers hit the water just short of the South Bass Island runway, Miller Boat Line Captain Steve Rose sprang into action, and the resulting rescue video hit newscasts and spread across the internet like wildfire.

“I just thought, ‘We need to get over there and get the people out of the water,’” Rose told reporters after a ceremony honoring Miller employees. “I just want to thank my crew. They really hopped into action. All the training we do really pays off in the end.”

Tags

Great Lakes

Kelleys Island

A mover (but not a shaker)

sbradford — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 18:24:26 +0000

A mover (but not a shaker)

March 1, 2023

James Proffitt

Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative

Jim Klier has been a mover for 39 years. Admittedly, the Wellington resident and Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative member isn’t real good at carefully packing all your possessions, loading them into a big rig, and driving them somewhere else.

Instead, he just moves everything at once. Like your entire house. And very carefully.

Jim and the rest of the folks at Klier Structural Movers have made hundreds of such moves over the years. They have transported buildings both commercial and residential, though most are houses. The longest trip was a home that went down the road about 25 miles. The shortest? About 4 feet (see sidebar story below).

Klier has moved plenty of homes for lots of different reasons — some legal, like for zoning issues; others more sentimental. Klier’s moved a lot of older homes. Much older. Like an 1813 timber frame home on Lake Erie.

“Oh, heavens yes,” he says. “A home that’s been in the family for generations, for example. You really have to love the house to do something like that, to go through that process.”

Not all the structures he’s moved are historic or sentimental — or even old. In fact, just the opposite. Some haven’t even been lived in yet or are still under construction. “We’ve done new houses, never occupied. Sometimes they’re not even finished,” he says.

Sometimes builders make mistakes, like putting up a house on the wrong spot, perhaps straddling a property line or facing the wrong direction. Other times, issues arise with a new foundation, or groundwater wells up suddenly, indicating a likely future of constant pumping. Other jobs have included moving a structure out of an existing flood zone or adding a basement where none was.

Occasionally, it’s a combination of sentimentality and business.

When Mike Bassett’s investment group purchased waterfront property in Port Clinton, their plan was to build 14 homes on the site, which features a 125-foot sandy Lake Erie beach. But a two-story, 3,300-square-foot home sat directly where the main driveway would be. In Ottawa County, tearing down vintage homes on the water and replacing them with new homes and condominiums has been in vogue for years. But he questioned razing what seemed like such a great old house.

“It’s got high ceilings, very large wood molding, just a lot of charm,” he says. “I just know someone will fall in love with it because it’s very large and well-built. To me it just seemed like it would be a terrible waste to tear it down.”

So Bassett contacted Klier and had the home moved — about 100 feet over the course of a couple months, and in the process, rotated about 90 degrees. Bassett estimated the cost of the raw lumber and materials in the home, circa 1934, would run about $100,000 today. He said after some remodeling and updating, it will be a beautiful nearly century-old home that’s just like a new home.

So just how do you move a structure? According to Klier, the answer is, “Very carefully.” But at its simplest: Jack it up and drag it out. Klier has a yard full of equipment — several hundred tons of steel beams, a fleet of specialized hydraulic dollies, and hundreds of fat, heavy timbers. With these items, experienced Klier crew members place long steel beams beneath a structure, then slowly raise it.

“We push everything up evenly,” Klier says. “The structure rises on a completely level, even plane.”

But first there’s plenty of measuring, planning, contemplating.

“We definitely spend a lot of time figuring out what we’re going to do before we do it,” he says. While they’ve had a few minor mishaps over the years, he says they’ve never dropped a structure or suffered any catastrophic disasters.

Moving a structure is not inexpensive, relatively speaking. At the minimum, a shorter, simpler move is likely to run between $30,000 and $40,000, and the price goes up from there, depending on several factors. “It’s very viable in the right situation,” Klier says, “but a terrible waste of money in the wrong one.”

Just a slight twist

When Sally DePerro bought what had originally been an 1880 vacation cottage for a member of the Gamble family (as in Procter & Gamble), it was a beautiful home in a quaint spot overlooking the LaFarge shipping dock, where lake freighters come and go in Marblehead.

“When we bought it, it needed some TLC,” DePerro says. “And also we wanted a garage.”

As it happened, the home sat at a slight angling opposition to neighboring structures so that additions were off-limits, zoning wise. “They were going to add onto the front and the rear of the home,” Klier says. “It wasn’t sitting in line with the property boundaries.”

And so for a pretty penny, which in DePerro’s view was worth a pound of gold, Klier and his crew cocked the now-massive 4,700 square-foot structure just enough to come into line with zoning rules and leave room for the desired additions. The total distance was about 4 feet — still the shortest move his company has undertaken. “The move made everything line up,” he says.

“And while all that was happening we dug a deeper basement because it wasn’t a full basement,” DePerro says. “It sounds crazy, but we got a lot out of that. In the end, moving the house just a few feet gave me everything I wanted.”

Tags

small businesses

family business

Pee Pee Creek?

sbradford — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:17:22 +0000

Pee Pee Creek?

February 1, 2023

Craig Springer

An Ohio map reads like an autobiography. The names pinned to places — the towns, counties, watercourses, and junctures that you may have never even heard of — tell stories of experience, chance encounters, longings for a better future, or the wistful wishing for a place left behind. Some pay tribute to heroes of the past. Others are curious and comical, leaving one to wonder, “Uh, what were they thinking?”

The gouging push and soggy pull of glaciers and the long steady movement of water shaped the land we see today, and strongly influenced names given the sinuous blue-line waters draining north to Lake Erie or south toward the Ohio River.

Then there’s the spilling of blood — the clash of cultures and struggle to possess what Native Americans, the British, and a fledgling United States of America all wanted to call their own.

Let’s consider the latter first.

Four Mile Creek, for example, rises in the uplands along the Indiana-Ohio state line, picking up the waters of small rills and runs and seeps. It bumps into glacial moraines and purls through pastoral farmsteads on its downhill destiny with the Great Miami River — by which time it has become a substantial stream. Its placid form and lyrical name belie the fact it was born from warfare.

In October 1791, the entirety of the U.S. Army set out from a freshly built Fort Hamilton (named to honor Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton) and nested on a bench of land above the Great Miami River. The autumn foray would become a march to massacre. The soldiers, in a slow slog north, cut a road in a wide swath through virgin forest. Four miles from the fort’s gate, the army camped for a night along a stream. The next day, three miles on, they crossed Seven Mile Creek. A month later, on the headwaters of the Wabash River, they met a confederation of Indian tribes and suffered a crushing defeat.

It became known as St. Clair’s Defeat. The battle site where upwards of 800 soldiers exhaled their last is today’s Fort Recovery. Those vanquished under the command of the Miami leader, Little Turtle, or the Shawnee leader, Blue Jacket — such as Arthur St. Clair, Richard Butler, and William Darke — live on in stream, county, and township names.

Of course, Native American place names also persist in Ohio. The difference is that they tend to be descriptive, rather than tributes to people or commemorative of experiences. “Miami,” of course, lives large in Ohio. According to linguist David Costa of the Myaamia Project at Miami University in Oxford, the Great and Little Miami river names include an adopted English use of the original Myaamia, meaning “downstream person.”

According to Costa, Miami Indians knew the Great Miami River as ahseni siipiiwi, literally “Rock River.” Lake Erie was known as ciinkwihtanwi kihcikami, literally “sea of the falls,” referring to Niagara Falls downstream. St. Mary’s River on the Indiana-Ohio state line was nameewa siipiiwi, literally “sturgeon river.”

You won’t find any of those on a map, though you will find numerous Anglicized versions of Algonquin and Iroquois words — Coshocton, for example, comes from the Lenape/Delaware word goschachgunk, which simply signified a river crossing.

Ohio has a fair number of communities with stilted names that speak to high aims of its early settlers. Akron derives from Greek for “high place.” Gallipolis evokes a sense of the Greek city-state self-governance. Xenia reflects the hospitality expected in the home in classical Greece.

Alert Station is a curious hamlet near Ross (formerly Venice, corrupted from Venus), northwest of Cincinnati (so-named after the Roman soldier-farmer Cincinnatus). Alert was and remains a crossroads. But those pioneer settlers valued literature and ensured early on they had a library populated with the classics, and the folks there were considered “alert,” as in “intellectual.”

Ohio had no shortage of volunteers answering President Polk’s call to action against Mexico in 1846. A good many Ohioans served in the Mexican War, and the effect of their return in 1848 was certainly felt in new place names. The soldiers may have desired to memorialize those killed in action, or they romanticized the places and people they had met in what is now New Mexico, California, and interior Mexico. Most prominent is Rio Grande, Ohio, pronounced “RYE-O Grand.” And there are the Buckeye burgs of Vera Cruz, Monterey, and Montezuma, as well as the City of Holy Faith: Santa Fe, Ohio.

One cannot consider the topic of Ohio’s place names without addressing those that leave you scratching your head. Ever heard of No Name, Knockemstiff, or Pee Pee Creek? All three exist in southern Ohio, and it’s the origin of the last that’s well-documented. Pee Pee Creek trickles through Pebble Township in Pike County, which had been named by Peter Patrick — who had carved his initials in a stream-side tree circa 1785.

Ohio’s place names run the spectrum from commonplace to implausible. One can go to Russia, visit Rome, London and Paris, and take a drive through Mesopotamia — without ever leaving the state. Every place name relates to desires, experience and perception. And what they have in common across that spectrum is enchantment in the spirit of their origins.

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A feather in your cap?

sbradford — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 19:30:39 +0000

A feather in your cap?

September 1, 2022

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

Sometimes, it’s good to remember just how far we’ve come in wildlife conservation.

Throughout the history of North America, numerous wild bird species have faced decimation by humans — the passenger pigeon being the most egregious example. Arguably once the most common bird on earth, it was pushed into extinction; the last individual, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

But this is not a retelling of that sad story. Rather, it’s a tale of how several once-persecuted species were rescued from oblivion and are thriving once more.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, bird feathers were the fashion fad in the millinery — hatmaking — trade. Some feathers, especially plumes from great egrets and snowy egrets, were in such demand that they were literally worth twice their weight in gold. During the 1890s alone, it’s estimated that 5 million birds were killed annually for their feathers. To make matters worse, those birds were taken almost exclusively during the breeding season, their eggs left to rot or their hatchlings to starve and die.

Smaller species of wild birds at the time didn’t fare much better. For instance, on two afternoons in 1886 in New York City — on 14th Street in Manhattan, to be exact — ornithologist Frank Chapman began counting the number of dead birds adorning women’s hats, and tabulated 39 species and 173 individual birds. These weren’t just feathers, mind you, but the entire preserved birds themselves: game birds, grebes, shorebirds, woodpeckers, songbirds, even an owl!

Help eventually came from an unlikely source. In 1886, George Bird Grinnell (yes, “Bird” was his real middle name), the editor of Forest and Stream, a hunting, fishing, and outdoors magazine, founded the first Audubon Society. Although the fledgling organization attained a membership of nearly 50,000, it eventually folded.

But it wasn’t the end. Two women, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall of Massachusetts, resurrected the idea in 1896, with the goal of persuading ladies not to wear feathered hats. This time the organization succeeded, and Audubon societies spread to many states.

To add teeth to its beliefs, in 1902, the Florida Audubon Society hired a warden, Guy Bradley, to patrol Florida’s Gulf Coast and discourage illegal plume hunting. A reformed plume hunter himself (it takes one to catch one, right?), Bradley was shot and killed in 1905 by poachers he was attempting to arrest. Two more Florida wardens died in the line of duty in 1908.

These men did not die in vain, however. Public pressure gradually changed attitudes, and women eventually drifted away from wearing birds as fashion. In addition, two important pieces of legislation were passed to protect wild birds and other wildlife: the Lacey Act of 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, both of which are still in effect today.

But lest you think it was just Americans persecuting wild birds years ago in the name of fashion, consider this ornithological fact: Hummingbirds were once made into jewelry. During the 19th century, millions of hummingbird skins, with their brilliant feathers attached, were shipped from South America and the West Indies to European markets, where they were manufactured into pins, brooches, and other fashion accessories. One London dealer alone imported more than 400,000 hummingbird skins in one year!

An interesting side note concerning hummingbirds is that Anna’s hummingbird — a species not seen in Ohio — was named for the wife of Prince François Victor Massena, Duc de Rivoli of France. An amateur ornithologist, the prince seemed to know a thing or two about hummingbirds; his collection of 12,000 specimens was eventually sold to the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia.

A positive change that resulted from that dark era for wild birds more than a century ago was the creation of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System — a total of 568 sanctuaries located at strategic places along our nation’s four major flyways. The refuges today provide safe havens for birds to rest and feed during migration.

In Ohio, those places include Ottawa, Cedar Point, and West Sister Island National Wildlife Refuges, located along or near the southwest shoreline of Lake Erie. Check them out sometime — just please, don’t wear a feather in your hat when you visit.

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Tall ships

sbradford — Tue, 31 May 2022 18:49:24 +0000

Tall ships

June 1, 2022

On Sept. 10, 1813, a few miles northwest of the Bass Islands on Lake Erie, a David-versus-Goliath confrontation pitted the fledgling United States Navy against a fleet of mighty British warships during the War of 1812. The outcome of that battle — the Battle of Lake Erie — was in doubt for hours, but the final result changed the course of American history.

Then-28-year-old Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry commanded the fleet of nine U.S. ships in the battle. After his flagship, the Lawrence, was severely damaged and disabled, he transferred to the U.S. Brig Niagara, from which he and his crews kept fighting.

Shortly after the cannon smoke cleared, Perry scrawled what has since become a famous note on the back of an envelope to send to his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison (who would, of course, go on to become the ninth president of the United States):

Dear General: We have met the enemy and they are ours.

Today, the reproduction of the Niagara is one of the most historically authentic tall ships in America, each summer representing her homeport of Erie, Pennsylvania, throughout the Great Lakes. It will be one of eight replica and restored fully rigged sailing ships that will be featured at two popular tall ships festivals this summer, both on Lake Erie. They go first to Cleveland on July 7–10, then on to Erie, Pennsylvania, Aug. 25–28.

It’s a rare chance to catch a glimpse, step aboard, or, if you choose, even go sailing for a few hours. Along with the Niagara, the 2022 fleet from the U.S., Canada, and Spain is scheduled to include the Appledore IV, Empire Sandy, Inland Seas, Nao Trinidad, Pride of Baltimore II, St. Lawrence II, and Utopia.

One of the more majestic moments of the four-day events is always the spectacular arrival of the visiting ships — known as the Parade of Sail — which occurs late the Thursday afternoon of each festival. The next three days offer opportunities to board and tour the ships, when visitors can chat with the various captains and crews. Some of the crew members are young people, ages 13 to 25, learning to sail.

The 2022 tall ships festivals include the regular fare: food and beverages, live music, street performers, kids’ activities, a marketplace, and other family-friendly activities. Ticketing, parking, and other information is available at www.tallshipscle.com/event-details for the Cleveland event or www.tallshipserie.org for Erie.

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Gone fishing

sbradford — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 15:00:54 +0000

Gone fishing

May 1, 2022

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

If you’re an angler, at least once during your lifetime you must experience the unique, majestic beauty of a Lake Erie sunrise. No, not from shore, but rather from on the water — and preferably while skimming across the waves in a fast boat on your way to the latest fishing hot spot, anticipating a limit catch.

There is no better way to check that item off your piscatorial bucket list than fishing with Captain Julia “Juls” Davis, one of only a handful of women among the 800 licensed captains working as charter-fishing guides on Ohio’s great lake. She’s been fishing nearly all her life — she started when she was 4 — and professionally for the past 20 years. The first 10 of those pro years, Juls spent on the walleye tournament circuit; during the last decade, she’s been guiding full time.

“I enjoy teaching people, male or female, young or old, the sport of walleye and yellow perch fishing on Lake Erie’s Western Basin,” she says. “I probably average about 100 guiding trips per year, from the islands east to Huron, depending on where the fish are biting.”

A typical guiding day for Juls begins well before dawn. “I usually go to bed when most people are just sitting down to supper, so on a fishing day I’m up in the wee hours of the morning. That gives me plenty of time to drink a cup of coffee and shower, then gas up the boat and grab ice, bait, or other supplies before meeting my clients at the dock or picking them up at their motel before sunrise.”

Juls specializes in one-, two-, or three-person charters, estimating that about 75% of her clients are men. “The others are their wives or girlfriends, or sometimes a daughter,” she says. “The men usually want to learn a specific walleye trolling technique, whereas the families just want to be on the lake, have fun, and catch a few fish. Regardless, I put them all to work setting lines, reeling, and netting fish. Fishing with me is definitely a learn-by-doing participation sport.”

Every fishing guide has war stories, both humorous and not so much; Juls is no exception. “When I have three people on board with me, I have them take turns sitting near the bow of the boat and opening the fish cooler when we catch a fish so I can toss it in. One particular time when we caught a fish, I turned to throw it into the open cooler and for some reason the client inadvertently closed the lid just as the fish arrived. The walleye sailed through the air and back into the lake, probably wondering what just happened.”

How long does Juls plan to continue guiding? “As long as I’m physically able,” she says. “I’m somewhat of a recluse, so fishing is my social life. I enjoy the interaction with people, many of whom have become my friends through the years. Besides, I don’t think I’m qualified to do anything else except fish.”

To book a Lake Erie fishing trip with Juls Davis, visit www.julswalleyefishingadventures.com or call 419-835-7347. Her calendar books quickly; contact her soon to reserve your preferred date.

Juls' tools

Captain Julia “Juls” Davis has all the latest in fishing equipment, gear, and technology to make Lake Erie fishing trips safe, enjoyable, and productive:

21-foot Ranger model 621 FS tournament-style fiberglass boat
400-horsepower Mercury Verado outboard motor
15-horsepower Evinrude trolling motor
Minn Kota electric motor
Humminbird electronics

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