Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point 191 



Recession of the Bay Shore. 



Map II shows the present shore hne taken from the topo- 

 graphic sheets of the U.S. Geological Survey except the north- 

 east portion, the sheet for which has not yet been issued. The 

 broken line shows a portion of the shore as it was at the time of 

 the first surveys 1809-1820. In quite a number of places lines 

 running from section lines to the ba}^ shore whose length is 

 recorded in the original surve3^s have been remeasured in recent 

 years by local surveyors or by myself and these data, as well as a 

 comparison of the old plats with the recent maps published by 

 the U. S. Geological Survey, have enabled me to estimate the 

 amount of land lost. The greatest change has been along the 

 south shore from Martin's Point west. Here the bay is wider 

 than farther east and as erosion is accomplished mostly by the 

 northeast storms, which raise the level of the water, the waves 

 beat upon this shore with greater force than on the shore oppo- 

 site. The west line of section 34 Portage Annexation, northwest 

 extremity of Erie county I found in 1904 had shortened about 

 66 rods since the first survey. The middle line of the west half 

 of section 35 Charles Judson found in 1895 had shortened 62' 

 rods. At other places the change shown by surveys is not so 

 great. However, the survey by Sylvanus Bourne, 1820, of 

 Township VI North, Range XVI East 1st Meridian, at the west- 

 end of the bay, gives no measurements for the portion lying 

 south of Mud Creek Bay and the shore line in this part of the 

 township is not correctly drawn on his plat. Porter Wright who 

 has owned much of the land in this region told me in 1904 that 

 the whole west shore of the ba}-" south from Eagle Island had 

 washed away as much as eighty rods within his remembrance. 

 He is seventy years old. At Dudrow's in Townsend Township 

 he knows the recession of the shore is more than that. Miles 

 Pearson thinks 100 rods cf land north of the mouth of Raccoon 

 Creek has washed away in the last fifty years and 60 rods between 

 Raccoon Creek and Pickerel Creek in the same time. These 

 estimates H. A. Winters who also has long been familiar with 

 the region considers not too high. 



At five places on the south shore of the western half of the 

 bay, according to estimates of the several land owners, encroach- 

 ment of the water has been from three to six rods in as many 

 years, most of it in the last three years, because the water has 

 been high. For seven or eight years preceding the last three 

 there was hardly any encroachment in some of the places. In 

 the western extremity of Erie county, where the road turns 

 south, I found the bav eating it away, Sept. 2, 1904. The old 



