A Visit to Bay View

Over the weekend, I took a drive out to Bay View, a small community located just west of Sandusky on what used to be Ohio State Route 2 in the old days. It's a cool little place with throwback charm that seems frozen in time – my kind of destination.

Lake Erie Vacationland in Ohio (1941), one of the travel guides compiled by the Ohio Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration, described it like this:

BAY VIEW, 7.4 m. (about 200 pop.) is a resort community at the southern approach to the Bay Bridge. It has cottages, restaurants, boat liveries, bait and camping facilities. Fishing is good near the bridge.

State 2 crosses Sandusky Bay over the BAY BRIDGE (toll 25c), a State-owned span that links the Ottawa peninsula to the southern mainland, and eliminates a 30-mile detour. Including the approaches, the bridge has an over-all length of 10, 411 feet. It was put up in 1929 and operated as a private toll bridge until 1936. From its center the traveler can see Sandusky, Cedar Point, the Marblehead promontory, Johnson's Island and much of the 18-mile-long bay.

In the mid-1960s, the Bay Bridge was replaced by the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge, which siphoned off the Route 2 tourist traffic from Bay View. Nevertheless, the community survives, probably because of its wonderful location overlooking Sandusky Bay.

You can still find seasonal lodging for the night at several motels in town. You can also rent a cottage at Driftwood Cottages and enjoy its private beach.

There's several places to enjoy a good meal as well, including Terry's Tavern, and the Bay Bell Restaurant.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the reason why I visited Bay View: a quest for a then-and-now photo that wasn't meant to be.