East Harbor State Park Beach History

"Our" East Harbor Beach acreage was purchased by the State of Ohio in the mid 1940's. At that time it was called "Sandy Beach" by locals and only accessible by ferry from the extreme south end of the barrier beach.

Thru the 1950's, the East Harbor State Park campground was developed and the current causeway was built creating better access to the popular beach. Beach "development" continued and eventually included parking lots and bath houses to accommodate the ever growing crowds at the facility. By the late 1950's, the East Harbor State Park campground had grown to the largest in the State and the two mile sand beach continued to draw visitors from all over the mid-west. Around 1960, the State Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) began installing rock and concrete sea wall segments at the head of the beach. By the mid 1960's, at the height of beach development and user ship, visitation had reached almost 1 million per season and the concrete sea wall spanned the entire 8,600' length of the developed beach area. We assume the sea wall was put in to "protect" the concession stands, bath houses and parking lots from possible erosion.

The early 1970's saw a cyclic increase in the average lake water level, and as barrier beaches predictably do, ours began a slow migration shoreward as the water level rose. This continued for several seasons and the beach seemed to shrink as we all continued to make our seasonal pilgrimage. Then in the fall of 1972, with lake water high, a series of strong nor'easters hit our beach. Huge waves crashed onto and over the concrete sea wall as the natural forces that had created the beach over thousands of years tried to accelerate the shoreward migration of our barrier beach. When the storm subsided, the concrete wall had done its job , it had protected the bathhouses and parking lots from the eroding forces of the waves. But something was missing --our BEACH! Throughout the entire length of the 8,600' sea wall, the sand was gone. The only beach remaining was in small sections at each end of the two mile stretch where there had been NO sea wall, and the beach had been free to migrate.

In the 35 years since the erosion, the only beach restoration work that has been done took place in 1980. Rock islands were put in at the extreme north end of the facility (north of the sea wall) to prevent the thin barrier beach from breaching. This was mainly an environmental effort aimed at strengthening the beach to protect the endangered wet lands of Middle Harbor, not intended to create an ideal swimming beach.
Done as a "pilot" project nobody knew what kind of beach would result. What has happened over the 25 year life of the rock island project is that sand has filled in between the islands and the original shoreline creating a very shallow, flat "swimming" beach. Today visitors find a 1,500' beach with very shallow water, seldom over 2' deep, within the controlled area. Great for very small children, but not the graduated sand bar beach we expect to find at Great Lakes swimming beaches.
Meanwhile, the 8,600' mid-section of the facility that once drew visitors year after year from all over the mid-west, remains an ugly, dangerous, unused eye sore where muddy waves crash upon the jagged remains of the sea wall.