PUT-IN-BAY

village, Ottawa county, northern Ohio, U.S. It is situated in Put-in-Bay Harbor of South Bass Island, off Marblehead Peninsula in Lake Erie, 35 miles (56 km) east of Toledo. The spot is famous for the American naval victory known as the Battle of Lake Erie, fought offshore against a British squadron on Sept. 10, 1813, with Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry commanding an American flotilla. The event is commemorated by a towering 352-foot (107-metre) shaft topped by an open-air promenade and surrounded by a 25-acre (10-hectare) national area. This monument (Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, completed 1915) is just outside the village, near the Canadian line, and also commemorates the international peace between Canada and the United States and their common unguarded boundary. The village is a resort noted for fishing and boating. South Bass Island itself is 3.5 miles long by 2.5 miles wide (5.6 km by 4 km) and is shaped like a pudding bag, the name of which is commonly believed to have been corrupted to the village's place-name, Put-in-Bay. The island is known for its caves, wineries, and fish hatcheries. Pop. (1990) 556.