What You Can See at Stone Lab (and When)
What You Can See at Stone Lab (and When)
Water, water, everywhere is great for scenery and science. Here are ways you can check it out.
UPDATED Sept. 7: Due to the weather and wave conditions forecast for Lake Erie (waves could be 4 to 7 feet), the Sept. 8 open house scheduled at CFAES’s Stone Lab has been canceled. The lab’s Research Building, Aquatic Visitors Center and South Bass Island Lighthouse, however, will still be open for visitors. Find out more.
By Kurt Knebusch
You could call it Ohio-State-on-the-Lake. Or Scarlet-and-Gray-at-the-Bay.
Stone Laboratory, part of the university’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), calls Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie home. Smallmouth bass swim in the waters around it. Herring gulls fly in the skies overhead. Boats line the Put-in-Bay docks. And nearby stands a tourist attraction taller than the Statue of Liberty, the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial.
Meanwhile, Stone Lab itself is home to students and scientists studying Lake Erie — its water and the life living in and around it.
The lab, one of the many ways that CFAES is working on water quality, is offering several more chances this summer and fall for you to come visit.
Tours, open house
Free tours of the lab’s South Bass Island Lighthouse are set for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 8 and Oct. 13.
The lab’s Aquatic Visitors Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Aug. 25. Admission is free.
Weekly tours of 6.5-acre Gibraltar Island in Put-in-Bay harbor, location of the lab’s Cooke Castle and Classroom Building, among other things, ended for the season in early August, but still ahead is the 20th annual Friends of Stone Lab Open House. Set for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 8, the free event will offer tours of the lighthouse, visitor center, Gibraltar Island and more.
Visitors can get to South Bass Island — often just called Put-in-Bay after its only town — on the Miller Ferry from Catawba or the Jet Express from Port Clinton. There’s a charge for both. (Find further details on transportation, lodging, events, food and more on the website of the Put-in-Bay Visitors & Convention Bureau.)
During the Sept. 8 open house, the lab will provide free boat transportation from the Aquatic Visitors Center to Gibraltar Island, with the last boat leaving the center at 3:30 p.m. and the last boat leaving Gibraltar at 4 p.m.
Here, just for starters, are some of the things you can see.
South Bass Island Lighthouse
The historic South Bass Island Lighthouse, which dates to 1897, lies at the southwest corner of the island. It’s visible nearby to the west if you travel to the island on the Miller Ferry, to the east if you go on the Jet Express. Its grounds are open daily dawn to dusk. (Photo: Susan Braig, via Flickr.)
South Bass Island Lighthouse
Visitors spell the name of their favorite state university from atop the South Bass Island Lighthouse tower. The lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo: Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Aquatic Visitors Center
Stone Lab’s partner, the Ohio State-based Ohio Sea Grant program, runs the Aquatic Visitors Center together with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife. Located at the western end of Put-in-Bay harbor, the building served as a state fish hatchery from 1907 to 1988. (Photo: Greg Aylsworth, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Research Building
Stone Lab’s Research Building, which houses laboratories and equipment, is adjacent to the Aquatic Visitors Center. It, too, used to be a fish hatchery. The lab’s boats, docked in front, travel from here to Gibraltar Island and onto the wider lake. (Photo: Greg Aylsworth, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Classroom Building
The lab’s iconic Classroom Building, located on Gibraltar Island, can be seen across the harbor from downtown Put-in-Bay. Inside are classrooms and lab space. Solar panels, not shown here, have since been added to its roof. (Photo: Greg Aylsworth, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Cooke Castle
Cooke Castle, also on Gibraltar Island, was built in 1864 and 1865 by Jay Cooke, a Civil War financier. Used as the lab’s men’s dorm until the early 1980s, today its interior is closed to the public as it undergoes renovation. (Photo: Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Cooke Castle
Cooke, a native of Sandusky, and his family used the castle as a summer home. It’s on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. (Photo: Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Cooke Castle
Much of the original carpentry work remains in the Cooke Castle library, shown here. (Photo: Greg Aylsworth, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
CookE Castle
Cooke Castle glows in the evening sun as seen from its northwest side. (Photo: Mark Peter, via Flickr.)
Solar pavilion
A solar pavilion, whose energy production you can follow online, graces Gibraltar Island’s west end. (Photo: Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, 352 feet high, rises from Put-in-Bay, as seen from Gibraltar Island. It commemorates those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie, which took place nearby during the War of 1812. Leading the American fleet was Oliver Hazard Perry, whose battle flag bore the words “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” and who after winning the battle sent the now famous message, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” (Photo: Greg Aylsworth, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial
Another view of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, a dramatic sky behind it, as seen from Gibraltar Island. Located just 5 miles from the U.S.-Canada border, the longest undefended border in the world, the memorial also celebrates the long-lasting peace among the United States, Canada and Great Britain. (Photo: Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)
Details
Learn more about Stone Lab on its website. Get details on taking its workshops and courses. Enjoy many more scenes like the ones shown here on Ohio Sea Grant’s Flickr site.
The dockside photo at the top of the page, which is of Justin Chaffin, Stone Lab senior researcher and research coordinator, was taken by Ken Chamberlain, CFAES (2017).
