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Toledo

Catawba Island

Put-in-Bay

PORT CLINTON

East Harbor Lakeside Marblehead

West Harbor

Sandusky

Huron

Kelleys Island

NorthernExposure

Port Clinton, Ohio,is a Lake Erie

boating townextraordinaire.

by Damaine Vonada

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Location, location, location. While that mantra rules real estate values, Great

Lakes boaters apply it to coastal towns as well. Use the location gauge to assess Ohio’s coastline and it’s obvious that Port Clinton enjoys a fi rst-rate neighborhood in Lake Erie’s Western Basin.

Nature made Port Clinton a boating town. As the glaciers that created Lake Erie retreated, they left behind a long peninsula crowned by a constellation of islands whose hard limestone bedrock withstood the massive ice sheets’ enormous weight and meltwater. Today, the Marblehead Peninsula and Bass Island archipelago punctuate Ohio’s shoreline roughly halfway between Cleveland and Toledo; at the place where the peninsula merges with mainland and where the Portage River meets Lake Erie sits Port Clinton.

Geographic jackpot Despite having just over 6,000 year-round residents, Port Clinton is Ottawa County’s only city, as well as its county seat. In land, Ottawa ranks among Ohio’s smallest counties, but because it encompasses the Marblehead Peninsula and Bass Islands, Ottawa County claims bragging rights to the most lakeshore — 94 miles — in the state. Thanks to that geographic jackpot, Port Clinton is the hatchway to a boating, fi shing and vacation playground par excellence.

“Around Port Clinton, people are always doing something related to boating,” says Jill Bauer of Lake Erie Shores & Islands, a destination marketing organization that covers Ottawa County. “You see countless power cruisers, charter fi shing boats, trailered boats, sailboats, and even kayaks and rented pontoons on the Portage River.”

Not surprisingly, marinas are everywhere, and locals often boast that Port Clinton has more docks than people.

“This area has the highest concentration of marinas on Lake Erie, and they’re clustered in the protected waters of inlets,

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coves, harbors and the Portage River,” says Mike Monnett, who manages three lakeside state parks near Port Clinton: East Harbor, Catawba Island and Marblehead.

Positioned along a thumb of land attached to the mainland by a narrow causeway, the Catawba Island Park caters to fi shermen, while the Marblehead Peninsula Park is home to the iconic Marblehead Lighthouse that appears on Ohio license plates. East Harbor sprawls across a nearby appendage of the peninsula and is a favorite with boaters because of its full hook-up marina and 1,500-foot-long beach.

“It’s one of the best natural sand beaches on Lake Erie and has a gradual slope that’s great for swimming,” Monnett says. “People like to anchor in sandbars on the fringes of the beach, then spend the day picnicking on their boats and swimming or rafting over to the beach.”

To help boaters fi nd marinas that meet

their needs, Lake Erie Shores & Islands provides regularly updated directories. For transient slips, choices range from SkipperBud’s, a full-service marina and boat dealer; to Tibbels, a family-operated marina that offers fishing charters; to Brand’s Marina on the Portage River near downtown Port Clinton’s drawbridge; to the family friendly Safe Harbor Lakefront Marina, whose amenities include ultra-modern fl oating docks, a heated pool, a game room and food trucks throughout the summer. Facilities like the Port Clinton Yacht Club and Lakefront Yacht Club also offer guest dockage to I-LYA or AYC members.

Of all the vessels that cruise by Port Clinton, however, none commands attention quite like the Jet Express ferry, which docks on the Portage River and literally brings boatloads of tourists to town. Since the ferry usually departs for South Bass Island about every 45 minutes, watching the Jet Express — and the passengers

likely to party hearty in the village of Put-in-Bay — is practically a summertime ritual. Folks tie up at the Jefferson Street Pier or grab a bench in adjacent Waterworks Park for the only-in-Port Clinton spectacle of the drawbridge yawning wide open as the Jet Express grandly wends past riverside residences, restaurants, pubs and bait-tackle-head boat businesses until the river dissolves into Lake Erie and the ferry zooms off toward the island.

Walleye capital Perhaps Port Clinton’s defi ning characteristic is that it charts its own course. Other towns, for example, put up monuments to presidents, patriots and pioneers, but Port Clinton pays tribute to a fellow who invented a fi shing lure. His name was Dan Galbincea, and in the 1950s, he created the Erie Dearie, a weight-forward spinner designed to attract walleye. Not only did the Erie Dearie became the nation’s best-selling

East Harbor Beach

Jet Express

Safe Harbor Marina

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Port Clinton 2020 Events Calendar ■ Thursdays in May to September: Riverfront Live ■ May 20: Fishing with the Mayor ■ May 21-25: Walleye Festival ■ June 13: GPCAAC Arts & Craft Show ■ June 21: Father’s Day Cruise-In Car Show ■ July 9: Sunset Cruise ■ July 20: Ottawa County Fair ■ August 1-2: Arts in the Park ■ August 1: Jerry Lippus Memorial Classic Car Show ■ August 15: Port Clinton Lighthouse & Maritime Festival ■ August 15: Antique & Classic Wooden Boat Show ■ September 4-6: Perch, Peach, Pierogi & Polka Festival ■ September 11-12: Rock the Light Music Festival ■ October 1: Grapes and Grains ■ October 31: Halloween Pub Crawl and Ball ■ December 5: Community Christmas

Marblehead LighthouseJet Express ferry under raised drawbridge

Arts in the Park

Riverfront Live

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walleye lure, but Captain Dan also secured Port Clinton’s reputation as the “Walleye Capital of the World” by launching the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association. The town’s memorial to Captain Dan is Erie Dearie Park, a pocket of green space beside Waterworks Park. In true Port Clinton style, Erie Dearie Park has no statue of Captain Dan, but instead features the wood transom from his Lyman fi shing boat.

Because it’s shallow, warm and nutrient-rich, Lake Erie possesses more fi sh and more varieties of fi sh — primarily walleye, yellow perch, bass and channel catfi sh — than the other Great Lakes combined. The Western Basin, in particular, is so productive that it has spawned a thriving recreational fishing industry exemplified by Wylie Walleye, a 20-foot-long, LED-illuminated fi berglass fi sh that rings in the New Year in Port Clinton by falling from the sky at midnight. A retired version of the faux fi sh —

locally known as Wylie, Sr. — often appears in parades but usually can be found outside the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Welcome Center-West (on State Route 53, southeast of Port Clinton), where he frequently hooks visitors looking for a photo op.

Besides the quirky New Year’s Eve Walleye Drop, Port Clinton holds a Memorial Day Weekend Walleye Festival in Waterworks Park, and every Labor Day weekend the town’s Knights of Columbus council hosts its Perch, Peach, Pierogi, & Polka Festival — a unique and toe-tapping event that celebrates the bounty of the lake and the land, as well as the eastern European ethnicity of many locals.

Invading Port Clinton The earliest people on Lake Erie’s south shore were Native Americans, such as the Ottawa, who fi shed, hunted and trapped in what is now the Port Clinton area and participated in the French fur trade during

the early 1700s. The tribe’s name, which translates to “trader,” was adopted for Ottawa County. Although the Indians were rapidly displaced by white settlers after the War of 1812, legend has it that the spirit of the Ottawa brave Nabagon still watches over Catawba Island.

Upscale condos and developments likewise supplanted Catawba Island’s once-prolifi c vineyards and peach orchards, yet two exceptional establishments deliver singular experiences that refl ect its agricultural heritage. The vintage Gideon Owen Wine Company (formerly Mon Ami Restaurant and Historic Winery) dates to the 1800s, while the recently opened Twin Oast Brewing is a multifaceted farm, gathering place and entertainment venue complete with peach and apricot orchards, craft beers, a locavore menu and stunning architecture.

Port Clinton, curiously enough, was named for New York governor DeWitt

Wylie, Sr.

Twin Oast Brewing

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Clinton, who brought economic prosperity to his state by masterminding the Erie Canal. In the late 1820s, Ohio was building its own canal system, and land speculators platted a village at the mouth of the Portage River that they ambitiously christened Port Clinton in hopes of capturing a canal terminal. The canal, alas, never came, and Port Clinton never boomed into a Buffalo or Cleveland. But French, Danish, German and Slavic immigrants did come. They took advantage of the region’s abundant resources (limestone; gypsum; fl at, fertile soil; a Great Lake; and a long, lake-induced growing season) and built the deep-seated local industries that are now illustrated in four murals that grace the rotunda of Port Clinton’s courthouse: “Quarrying,”

“Farming,” “Fruit Growing” and “Fishing.” Also inside the 1901 courthouse is the “Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie” mural that salutes a War of 1812 battle near South Bass Island. America’s Oliver Hazard Perry famously defi ed the odds, trounced a British fl eet, and preempted enemy invasions of Ohio and neighboring states.

Nowadays, of course, boaters and vacationers invade Port Clinton, but many of them may perceive the town as merely an access point for the lake or islands. That’s a mistake, according to Brian Shiffl et,

who grew up in Port Clinton and handles visitor services at Lake Erie Shores & Islands Welcome Center-West.

“If you have that mentality, you’re missing out on lots of good things,” he says. “There’s more happening on the mainland than people realize, and you should defi nitely take time to explore it.”

Although it hums with tourists on holiday weekends, Port Clinton is generally quieter and slower-paced than Put-in-Bay, and while national fast food and retail chains — including a Walmart that sells live bait

Walleye Drop

Great Lakes Popcorn

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and posts a daily wind, wave, weather and walleye report — certainly exist, the town looks and feels as laid-back and unassuming as a summer afternoon.

“Downtown Port Clinton is very historic and has a retro quality with lots of nice shops that are mostly mom and pop places,” says home-towner and Safe Harbor General Manager Lee Meinke. “It’s still small-town America.”

Indeed, Port Clinton is so walkable that just blocks from the Jet Express dock, you can enjoy freshly made quiche, scones, soups and sandwiches at the cottage-like Coffee Express (tip: Check the chalkboard for daily specials), and then head next door to Lilly & Gert’s, a chock-full-of-surprises shop where old-school Lake Erie postcards and antique milk glass share shelves with owner Dina Rodgers’ handcrafted jewelry. On Madison Street, the Lake Erie Candle Company’s seasonal

store carries nautical candles (think musky Lake Erie Sunset or refreshing Boater’s Paradise) made by the Buczkowski family. The Great Lakes Popcorn Co. produces snacks in 30-plus flavors, including sweet Vanilla Butternut and spicy Wild Walleye. And tiny Ala Carte Café serves tremendous steak and eggs, biscuits and gravy, and home fries. If nothing else, order the homemade cinnamon coffee cake; moist and fl avorful, it’ll top anything your grandma used to make.

Though The Island House Hotel has anchored Perry Street since 1886 and accommodated the likes of President Taft, General McArthur, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, OurGuest Inn & Suites currently brings nationally known performers, such as soft rock singer Jon Pousette-Dart and country songwriter Will Hoge to The Listening Room, an intimate,

in-house venue that’s Port Clinton’s answer to Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe.

Both September’s Rock the Light Music Festival and August’s Port Clinton Lighthouse & Maritime Festival take place on the town’s remarkably undeveloped and uncommercialized lakefront. The area hugs the shoreline for nearly a mile and features a trio of contiguous natural attractions — Waterworks Park, the Lakefront Preserve wetlands and birding hotspot, and a popular municipal swimming beach — that form an esplanade laced with walkways and accented by the restored Port Clinton Lighthouse. From 1896 to 1952, that lighthouse stood sentinel at the juncture of river and lake, and if you climb its winding wooden stairs and step onto its lofty deck, you’ll be rewarded with splendidly scenic views and a fi ne perspective on Port Clinton’s enduring, inimitable and unforgettable connection to Lake Erie. ★

The Listening Room

Lakefront Preserve

The Island House Hotel

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Port Clinton AreaChamber of Commerce

110 Madison StreetPort Clinton, Ohio 43452

419-734-5503info@portclintonchamber.com

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Resources■ Lake Erie Shores & Islands: SHORESANDISLANDS.COM

■ Main Street Port Clinton: MSPC.SNAPPAGES.COM/HOME.HTM

■ Port Clinton Chamber of Commerce: PORTCLINTONCHAMBER.COM

Marina Facilities ■ Brand’s Marina

BRANDSMARINA.COM

■ Catawba MooringsCATAWBAMOORINGS.COM

■ Lakefront Yacht Club LAKEFRONTYACHTCLUB.COM

■ Port Clinton Yacht Club PORTCLINTONYACHTCLUB.COM

■ Safe Harbor Lakefront MarinaLAKEFRONTMARINA.COM

■ SkipperBud’s (Marblehead)SKIPPERBUDS.COM

■ Tibbels Marina (Marblehead) TIBBELSFISHING.COM

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