Founder’s Day
June 11, 2022 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Put-in-Bay | 11 a.m.
Celebrate the founding of Put-in-Bay by Hispanic merchant Jose de Rivera at the 48th Founder’s Day in de Rivera Park. Many vendors, hot dogs, strawberry shore-cake, root beer floats and lots of fun!
In 1854 a Spanish merchant named Joseph de Rivera bought South Bass, Middle Bass, Sugar, Gibraltar, Ballast and Starve Island for a price of $44,000. He began to develop to islands building a sawmill and a stave mill in the fall of 1854. He had the county engineer survey the area in 10-acre lots. In the first ten years, de Rivera sold 42 parcels of land in South and Middle Bass. He sold a quarter acre of land to the South Bass Board of Education for a dollar. The park downtown is named de Rivera Park in his honor.