Kelleys Island, Ohio

Kelleys Island is both a village in Erie County, Ohio, and the island which it fully occupies in Lake Erie. The island has a total area of and was formed by glacial action on limestone and dolomite.

As of the 2020 census it has a year-round population of under 300 and is primarily a vacation destination with a large seasonal influx of visitors and workers.

History

Kelleys Island was previously occupied by Native Americans of the area. During the beginning of the War of 1812, the island was used as a military rendezvous post, first by the British and later by the U.S. Military. The British originally called it Sandusky Island. Later the United States took it over and officially designated it as Island Number 6 and Cunningham Island. During the early 19th century, the island was mostly uninhabited.

It was renamed as Kelleys Island in 1840 by brothers Datus and Irad Kelley, who had purchased nearly the entire island.

After the Kelley brothers purchased the land, there was commercial development through extraction of the island's limestone and lumber resources, and the population began to grow with workers and families. There was also growing of grapes as a commodity crop. As of the 2010 census, the island's population was 312.

Today, Kelleys Island is primarily a vacation destination, and is visited by thousands of people each summer. Notable attractions include its various beaches, parks, and campgrounds. Several ferries provide regular transport to the mainland for most travelers; the island also features a number of marinas, as well as a small airfield for private planes. It is the largest of the American Lake Erie Islands, and is a part of the Sandusky metropolitan area.

Native Americans and Inscription Rock

Kelleys Island is a Devonian limestone and dolomite ridge carved during the Pleistocene era.

On the south shore of the island (near what is now the downtown-village area), there is a large limestone rock featuring petroglyphs carved over a number of years by these and earlier indigenous inhabitants; (Prior to U.S. occupation of this area, the name "Cunningham's Island" seems to have been applied to present-day "Catawba Island", which was then also a true island.) In the late 1790s the Connecticut Land Company surveyed the south east shore of Lake Erie. A more thorough survey was completed in 1806, when this island was officially designated as "Island Number 6". Later the name "Cunningham's Island" was used to refer to this island.

There is a legend that the first European American resident of this island was a man named "Cunningham" (supposedly a "Frenchman" or French-speaking Canadian). He was said to have traveled to the island in 1803 with the intention of making his home there, at a time when it was still inhabited by Native Americans.) (*-Also note that the surname 'Cunningham' is not typically of French origin, but is recorded as of Scottish origin.)] Prior to the War of 1812, several other white adventurers are documented as trying to settle this island, but all of them were eventually being driven away, either by the native people, claimed ownership of this "Cunningham Island" (and also nearby Put-in-Bay), through squatters rights. Napier and his associates often bullied the incoming pioneer settlers, sometimes hijacking their cabins and stealing or killing their livestock. Napier was eventually legally ousted after the court system ruled that he had no ownership rights.

Acquisition by the Kelleys

In 1830, John Clemons and his brother began mining the island's limestone, and opened its first quarry. They built a dock on the north side in order to ship the rock to the American mainland. Shortly afterward, brothers Datus and Irad Kelley became aware of the island's potential worth, and slowly began purchasing its land in parcels. Datus moved to Rocky River, Ohio, in 1811, working as a surveyor and sawmill owner. On August 20, 1833, the two began purchasing parcels of land on Cunningham Island at the rate of $1.50 per acre.

thumb|right|upright|[[Alvar habitat on Kelleys Island. South Bass Island visible in distance.]]

Kelleys Island has a cemetery located on Division Street, about a mile north from the center of downtown. Although the cemetery is relatively small, several hundred people are buried or have memorial headstones there.

In 1975, on the island's southern shore were designated as a historic district, the Kelleys Island South Shore District, and added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988, the district was renamed to the Kelleys Island Historic District and expanded to include the entire island.

Tourism

Kelleys Island is primarily a vacation destination. It is one of only 17 islands in the Great Lakes that has a year-round population.thumb|Glacial Grooves State Park, Kelleys Island. These glacial grooves were carved during the [[Pleistocene (the last Ice Age).]]

Beaches and wildlife

Kelleys Island features a number of public beaches. Many areas allow swimming, boating, and fishing.

In August 2010, a report from The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and several other non-profit agencies listed Kelleys as the 7th most ecologically threatened island in the Great Lakes. The reasons given for the island's poor ecological health included "development, tourism and recreation, marinas and resorts, increased roads and buildings, incompatible agricultural practices and invasive species."

Camp Patmos, a Christian youth camp, is located on the northeast side of the island. Camp Patmos was purchased in 1952 from Nativity B.V.M. Parish of Cleveland as the site of a faith-based summer camp for youth.

The Erie County 4H Camp is located on the north side of the island.

Transportation

Ferries

The first ferry to regularly serve the island was the Neuman Ferry, founded in 1907 by John Paul Neuman. The boat originally provided transport from Lakeside, Ohio to what is now East Harbor State Park on Catawba Island (which is actually a peninsula). Palladino was tied by local media to the Cleveland Mafia. He was arrested in 1992 for being a felon in possession of over 60 firearms (it is illegal for an individual in Ohio to own any guns if previously convicted of a felony). After the Neuman Ferry line closed, Palladino had purchased several boats from the company, as well their dock on the island. The private ferry runs to Marblehead, Ohio every half-hour during the tourist season, with the ride lasting approximately 25 minutes.

A competing ferry line named the Jet Express runs during the season multiple times daily from Sandusky, and Cedar Point to Kelleys Island. The boat line started in 1988; it operates from May through September. It is a passenger-only ferry, and does not carry vehicles. The Jet Express runs from Sandusky, Ohio and makes stops at Cedar Point, Kelleys Island, and Put-In-Bay. The Jet Express boat takes approximately 25 minutes for the trip from Sandusky. It features a terminal building, a single runway, and a parking area for planes.

Highways

thumb|Route of OH 575

Kelleys Island is served by Ohio State Route 575. The route was created in 1937 and has not changed since, and is one of Ohio's only state highways to be disconnected from the rest of the system.

Other

Due to the island's small size, many people use bicycles, golf carts and motor scooters as their regular transportation while there.

Geology

Kelleys Island consists of Middle Devonian (Eifelian Stage) limestones and dolomites, the Lucas Dolostone, and the Columbus Limestone. The Lucas Dolostone is intensely dolomitized. With the exception of localized algal mounds and stromatoporoids, it is sparsely fossiliferous. Several species of stromatoporoids, which represent four genera, have been recorded from the Lucas Dolostone of Kelleys Island. The Lucas Dolostone accumulated within coastal subtidal to peritidal mudflats. These mudflats were permanently submerged and progressively buried beneath muddy shoal and lagoonal sediments as relative sea level rose and the shoreline shifted westward during the Eifelian Stage.

thumb|left|Etched section of hand sample of Columbus Limestone from quarry on Kelley's Island. Circular feature is cross section of a [[rugose coral.]]

Overlying the Lucas Dolostone, is the Columbus Limestone, which consists of the lowermost Bellepoint Member, middle Marblehead Member, and uppermost Venice Member. The Bellepoint Member consists of wackestones and packstones, which accumulated as muddy shoals and contain a large number of rugose corals, gastropods, rostroconchs, and brachiopods. The Marblehead Member consists of a lower, thick-bedded, cherty, dolomitic, heavily burrowed mudstone deposited in lagoonal conditions below mean wave base. These mudstones grade upward into thinner bedded, sparsely fossiliferous packstones and grainstones of this member's upper part that accumulated as subtidal shoals. A rippled, hardground surface forms the top of the Marblehead Member This hardground represents either a period of subaerial erosion or the lack of sediment accumulation at a shallow depth for a significant interval of time. The Marblehead Member is overlain by mudstones and wackestones of the uppermost Venice Member of the Columbus Limestone. This member accumulated below wave base in the open sea after relative sea level rose again. argue that the giant glacial grooves and the depression, in which they lie, were eroded by highly turbulent, high velocity, sediment-laden meltwater flows. Judging from similar tortuous, giant, glacial grooves, which are found all over, and between, the Lake Erie islands on high and low areas, the erosional features are interpreted to have formed during a subglacial meltwater megaflood that took place before or near the Last Glacial Maximum.

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 312 people, 175 households, and 99 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 859 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 98.1% White, 0.3% African American, 0.6% Asian, 0.6% from other races, and 0.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.3% of the population.

There were 175 households, of which 10.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.6% were married couples living together, 1.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.4% were non-families. 41.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.78 and the average family size was 2.34.

The median age in the village was 58.8 years. 9.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 1.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 11.2% were from 25 to 44; 43.6% were from 45 to 64; and 34.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 52.6% male and 47.4% female.

2000 census

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" style="font-size: 90%;"

! Largest ancestries (2000) !! Percent

| German || 28.0%

| English || 15.9%

| Irish || 15.3%

| Polish || 8.9%

| Italian ||6.1%

As of the census The village has a public library, a branch of the Sandusky Library system.