North Bass Island
United States · Americas
About
North Bass Island is an island of the U.S. state of Ohio located in Lake Erie. A small unincorporated community, Isle Saint George, is on the island. The North Bass Island Post Office was established on May 25, 1864, and the name changed to Isle Saint George Post Office on March 2, 1874. The Isle Saint George ZIP code 43436 provides PO Box service. The island is equidistant to Port Clinton, OH and Kingsville, Ontario, Canada.
The 688.6-acre (2.786 km2) island is one of few islands that has not been commercially developed. The state of Ohio purchased 589 acres (2.4 km2) of the island to preserve it from development and operates it as North Bass Island State Park.
Historically, North Bass was mainly used as a vineyard. According to the 2000 census the island had 13 permanent residents. As of January 2007, there were roughly two dozen permanent residents residing on the island's 12 privately owned properties.
North Bass Island Airport (FAA LID: 3X5) offers a 1,804 ft (549.9 m) paved airstrip. Air traffic for take-off and landings to the north are complex as the Canadian border is challenging to avoid with less than two miles from the runway threshold. The runway underwent significant improvement October 2019 with a $2.338M grant from the FAA, the first improvement since the runway was originally paved in 1995. The runway is part of the Put-in-Bay Port Authority.
North Bass Island has no ferry service but has maintained a dock for commercial grape activity since 1880 with substantial improvements and additions as early as 1900. The most recent improvement to the dock to ensure that commercial vessels could still serve the island occurred in 2019. Nearly $500,000 worth of improvements were necessary just to make the dock operable.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.