49TH FOUNDER’S DAY

Founder’s Day! Celebrate the founding of Put-in-Bay by Hispanic merchant Jose DeRivera. Join us in DeRivera Park from 11am to 4pm for many vendors and lots of fun! We’ll be there with a fun ferry minigame with prizes! Come out and see us!

DeRivera Park is located just across the street from the Jet Express Ferry dock in Downtown Put-in-Bay!

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 to islands building a saw mill 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. https://bportlibrary.org/hc/architecture/jose-derivera/

You can learn more information and updates about this Put-in-Bay event at The Official Put-in-Bay Website!