Lake Erie Public Access Sites - Ottawa County
Johnson’s Island Confederate Soldier Cemetery, Ottawa County, Ohio Lake Erie Public Access Site
Next site to the west                                                                                                          Next site to the east
Location:
S. Confederate
Drive on
Johnson’s Island
Marblehead, OH

Latitude:
N 41° 30.04’

Longitude:
W 082° 43.80’

Waterbody:
Lake Erie

Access
Site Type:
Cultural

Environments:
Vegetated Shore
Sandy Beach
Rocky Shore

Monitoring:
-

Research:
-

Grants:
- 		Johnson’s Island is a 300-acre island located in Sandusky Bay. The island, which was purchased two-hundred years ago for only $15 and once housed a prisoner-of-war camp, is now subdivided into lots featuring vacation and year-round homes.

Nestled on the east side of the island is the 1.2-acre Johnson’s Island Confederate Soldier Cemetery. The cultural site owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has no recreational amenities. The solitude and signage provide a glimpse of an era in U.S. history.

In 1861, Johnson’s Island was chosen as a Civil War prison used to incarcerate captured Confederate soldiers – primarily officers. The island’s fairly isolated, yet easily-accessible location in Sandusky Bay made it an optimal site. The first Confederate prisoners arrived at Johnson’s Island in 1862. More than 9,000, and in some estimates up to 15,000, captured soldiers were held at the prison before it was decommissioned in September 1865, at the end of the war.

Today, a black wrought-iron fence surrounds the cemetery of 206 marked grave sites, although the exact number and location of graves is unknown. Three monuments dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who died at Johnson’s Island are at the cemetery, the only remaining vestige of the island’s prison history.

Johnson’s Island is accessible by the manmade Johnson’s Island Causeway, which was constructed in1970. The causeway is south off of East Bayshore Road in Marblehead.		 Location Map:
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Ottawa County's Lake Erie Public Access Sites in Ohio

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Amenities and Services:
Scenic benches Historic Marker Parking

Learn more:


U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
www.fws.gov/midwest/ohio

Johnson’s Island
Preservation Society
www.johnsonsisland.org

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Do more:

Ohio Travel Planner    Ohio Events Calendar online  Share your experience traveling Ohio    Lake Erie Shores and Islands Visitors Bureau for Erie and Ottawa counties

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