This website provides a single site for people interested in my island books and also an island book by my wife Jean. The products are available on different sites that the links will take you to. There is no shopping basket to combine orders from the different sites.
The focus here is on histoy books related to Middle Bass Island, Ohio and the other Lake Erie islands.
Michael also has a presentation on the history of the Lake Erie Islands that you can view here. He is a member of the steering committee of the Great Lakes Islands Alliance and a permanent link to his presentation is also there.
“The History of Middle Island, Ontario” is available at the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society on Put-in-Bay, at The Tiki Boutique at J.F.Walleyes on Middle Bass Island and a the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio. Originally intended as a chapter of 20 pages or so in a different book, this has grown to a separate volume of 170 pages. You can purchase the book on Amazon here. $32.00.
Middle Island, Ontario, in the western basin of Lake Erie, is the southernmost piece of land in Canada and is seven miles east of Middle Bass Island, Ohio. It is readily visible from Pelee Island in Canada and from all of the four large islands in the U.S. Currently it is a nature preserve that became part of Point Pelee National Park in 2000, but most of its popular history deals with the lighthouse that was built in 1872 and the facilities and club that were built in the late 1920s and later operated by a Toledo gangster for a good part of the 1930s. Stories of its history deal with drinking, gambling, rum running and more, and the FBI was keeping track of activities there in the hope of finding wanted criminals hiding on Middle Island. The book also contains numerous less known stories about early boarding house and resort plans, a long-running feud between the lighthouse keeper and a U.S. game warden, the alligator captured at Middle Island and much more. In this book, you will find the most complete documented history of Middle Island yet produced, with numerous rare photos of the island never published before and great excerpts from the FBI Archives about activity there. Over a dozen of the best old photos of buildings and people have been colorized by the author.
The most complete history of both Green Island and Ballast Island, with many previously unseen photos of both. Available starting in August, 2023 at the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society on Put-in-Bay. Or you can purchase the book here. $32.00
Green Island, west of South Bass Island, is best known for the two former lighthouses there and for the mining of celestite in the 19th century. The cover is a colorized version of an 1858 photo of the first lighthouse. The story of the fire that destroyed that first lighthouse is included and is an early island classic.
Ballast Island is east of Middle Bass Island and had a club founded by wealthy folks from Cleveland, Ohio in the 19th century. It became the headquarters of the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Club which held their meetings there for years, and eventually turned into a private island with 7 summer residences.
Steamers stopped there regularly in the 19th century, and the visitors there often traveled to Middle Bass Island to take part in the festivities at Wehrle's Pavilion.
A high-quality hardback coffee table 11x13" photo book with hundreds of photos from the 19th century to the present.
The ultimate Middle Bass Island history. Buy the book. $165.00.
Available June 9, 2021 from the author on Middle Bass Island, and soon after that in a few retail shops including the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society at Put-in-Bay. 164 historic stereoviews of the Lake Erie Islands and the nearby mainland, together with 14 enlargements of some of the best stereoview images plus a folding 3D image viewer. The biggest single collection of 19th century island photos yet published. 98 pages, $40.00
This reprint of the 1977 Middle Bass Island Town Hall Centennial souvenir has 37 pages of photos and is an important piece of any island history collection. Buy this book . 37 pages, $12.95
An updated 2004 revision of the 1982 original, this is the complete history of the Lonz Winery on Middle Bass Island, Ohio, full of photos. Buy this book 164 pages, $19.95.
The most comprehensive history of the Lake Erie Islands available, this book started as a project to produce a corrected and annotated version of Lydia Ryall's 1913 book, but grew in scope considerable to contain a great deal of additional information. Buy this book. 266 photos, 440 pages, $32.50
A collection of early stories about the Lake Erie Islands in Ohio. The first story is from an 18th century diary and suggests that Put-in-Bay harbor might have been located on Middle Bass Island in the 18th century, while the harbor on South Bass Island was still known as Hope's Cove? The proof is not definite, but the diary raises important questions about history. The are also many other stories from the historical record. Why were the Lake Erie Islands called the "Isles of Terror"? What occasion led to singing accompanied by flute music in a cavern in Put-in-Bay in 1819? How was Johnson's Island selected for the prison there during the Civil War? What was life like for the Confederate soldiers imprisoned on Johnson's Island? And more. Buy this book. 160 pages, $18.95
Details of life in Put-in-Bay and Lakeside in 1886-87, seen through love letters between Libbie Magle of Put-in-Bay and Alex Bruce, who worked jobs at Lakeside, Detroit and other places before settling into married life at Put-in-Bay. Buy this book. 100 page, $13.95
The above photo is of the only meeting on Lake Erie between the SSV Niagara, a replica of the 19th century warship, and a rebuilt WW2 PT boat on its sea trials out of Port Clinton, Ohio.