The Lake Shore Route Association

Pictured above is a picture the Official Information Car of the Lake Shore Route Association, taken in the 1930s.  The Lake Shore Route Association promoted the Lake Shore Route as the shortest, safest, most scenic automobile route between Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois. The opening of the old Sandusky Bay Bridge on February 2, 1929 allowed automobiles to travel in a direct route from Erie County to Ottawa County across Sandusky Bay. The Sandusky Bay Bridge was a key component of the Lake Shore Route in the 1930s.

 In June of 1933, three members of the Lake Shore Association took an automobile tour along the Lake Shore Route, en route to the World’s Fair in Chicago. Along the way, members distributed maps and brochures promoting the Sandusky Bay Bridge, Cedar Point, Lakeside, and other points of interest in Erie and Ottawa Counties. In 1939 the Lake Shore Route Association compiled a booklet which promoted the Lake Erie area. Highlighted were beaches, Camp Perry, the Blue Hole, Cedar Point, campsites, and areas for fishing and boating.

            

 According to an article which appeared in the January 29, 1931 issue of the Sandusky Register, a very early Lake Shore Route was built in 1808 from Cleveland to Sandusky. Geauga County Commissioners were instrumental in creating the plan for a road to extend from the west bank of the Cuyahoga River to the western most lands of the Firelands. Seven hundred dollars were appropriated for digging and the building of bridges over brooks and creeks. The contractor requested extra funds for the construction of a log bridge to be built over Old Woman’s Creek. By the 1940s, the Lake Erie Islands region was promoted as Vacationland. Today Lake Erie’s Shores and Islands is instrumental in providing information about the many attractions and natural features of Erie and Ottawa Counties.