Put-in-Bay | 11 a.m.

50th Founder’s Day!

Celebrate the founding of Put-in-Bay by Hispanic merchant Jose DeRivera. Join us in DeRivera Park for many vendors and lots of fun!

In 1854 a Spanish merchant name Joseph de Rivera bought South Bass, Middle Bass, Sugar, Gibraltar, Ballast and Starve Island for a price of $44,000. He began to develop two islands building a sawmill and a starve 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.