Our next stop was the Maritime Museum of Sandusky. We tried to go here last year when we visited, but it was closed for filming of some sort. We assumed maybe some promotional materials, but we never found out.
In any case, this is another one of those hyper-local museums that is absolutely jam-packed with interesting history. Ginormous museums are great and all, but these little ones are my favorites. Give me the deep dive into Sandusky Bay maritime history!
One of the first items in the museum is this rare version of the American flag. It features 34 stars, and was made at some point between January, 1861 and June, 1863; i.e., between Kansas becoming a state and West Virginia joining the union. This was a variation of the star pattern that developed as more states were added to the union. Eventually, the flag defaulted to the straight lines with equal stars in each line, as had been preferred by James Monroe, the 5th US president. This particular flag flew over a campsite on Johnson's Island, which served as a POW camp for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. More on that later.
A ship's steering wheel.
Some bits and pieces of recovered wreckage from shipwrecks in Lake Erie.
A display depicting the original wetlands of the Sandusky Bay area. It included buttons you could push to hear the calls of various animals native to the region.
Various navigation tools used by mariners on the Great Lakes.
A display about lighthouses. I fully intend to do a deep research dive on Rachel Wolcott at some point to see what else I can find out about her. Wolcott was the first female lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes, taking over the position in the lighthouse on Marblehead Peninsula after the death of her husband. She saw to the lighthouse for two years (1832-1834), until her remarriage to a guy named Jeremiah Van Benschoten, who took over and then left her. I don't like Jeremiah.
A diorama depicting ice harvesting on Lake Erie. Ice harvesting was vital to food preservation until mechanical ice manufacture took over in the early 20th century, with harvesting discontinued by the 1940s.
The USS Michigan, depicted here in a model, was the US Navy's first iron warship. Built in Pittsburgh in 1842, she patrolled Lake Erie, providing security for Johnson's Island, and was used for training and rescue missions on the lake.
This display discussed fishing on Lake Erie, with examples of nets, weights, and other tools.
Possibly the most horrifying and important display in the entire museum. This depicts in actual size the amount of space afforded a captured human being during the trip across the ocean to be sold into slavery in the US. The wooden "bed" shows the space allotted to lie down, and the picture above shows the amount of headroom provided. The displays above that commemorate abolitionists. A good number of people were taken to freedom over Lake Erie and into Canada due to the work of the Underground Railroad in the Sandusky Bay area.
A view of the full display. There is a good amount of information on how the Underground Railroad operated in Sandusky, using networks of businesspeople who worked near the bay and sailors who used their boats to take passengers to the Lake Erie Islands and north to Canada.
This diorama depicts the type of boat that was often used, and includes a book with narrations of freedom seekers.
This display commemorates Oliver Hazard Perry, who played a pivotal role in the War of 1812, winning the Battle of Lake Erie against the British in 1813. He was known for his motto, "Don't give up the ship," which is parodied in the museum's gift shop on dog toys that say "Don't give up the stick."
A big ol' cannon from one of the many warboats that have sailed out of Sandusky Bay.
The G.A. Boeckling, named after the president of Cedar Point, was built in 1909 and ferried people from Sandusky to Cedar Point until 1951. It was built to accommodate 2,000 passengers. This pamphlet at archive.org tells about the history and provides a number of photos of people traveling on the ship.
This was a fun little hands-on station where you could try out semaphore flags with a Navy seagull named Oscar.
During Prohibition, Lake Erie (and presumably other Great Lakes) became a hotbed for rum running.
A map of Johnson's Island. This 300-acre island housed as many as 2,500-3,000 Civil War POWs at a time, and processed 10-15,000 prisoners (the numbers vary by source) during the 40 months of its operation. You can visit the remains of the fort, but most of the island is now privately owned.
Artifacts retrieved from the POW camp.
Letters sent from the camp to the prisoners' families and friends.
A few other letters are preserved in full and transcribed in displays. This one is from Thomas C. Morris, a POW at Johnson's Island, to WPC Thomas, who was also a POW at Point Lookout, Maryland.
A separate room at the museum is dedicated to the history of coal mining and transport over Lake Erie. The large display case houses a scale model of the coal dumper and piers.
An outbuilding, more like a garage, houses actual boats from various area manufacturers. There was another garage with outboard motors, but I didn't visit that because the fuel smell from it was giving me a headache. I heard there was some interesting stuff in there, though.
Another fun hands-on display where you could learn to tie a bajillion different kinds of knots. Rope was included so you could try your hand at it.
A rudder retrieved from a wrecked ship, probably the Stmr. W. R. Stafford.
This was a great stop, and I'm glad we came back to see it. There are several other landmarks around the area commemorating the Civil War and stops on the Underground Railroad. Maybe next visit!