Erie's History and Memorabilia

Betty Jean Klem of Jamestown, New York had a very unusual experience at Presque Isle State Park on Sunday, July 31, 1966. Her boyfriend's car became stuck in the sand off of Beach 6 where they waited for help till after sunset. "We saw a star move. It got brighter. It would move fast, then dim. You could see it come down. It was metallic, sort of silvery. It landed between two trees. It came straight down. The car vibrated," said Klem in a report published in the Erie Morning News on August 1, 1966. Klem also reported seeing a dark, featureless creature and hearing something walking on the roof of the car. Betty's boyfriend, Douglas Tibbets, of Greenhurst, New York, witnessed the entire episode from the front seat of his car. He related his account to Peninsula Patrolmen Ralph E. Clark and Robert Loeb, Jr. when the officers responded to Tibbets and Klem's call for help. " Air Force Launches Probe of Erie UFO ." ran in the Erie Morning News on August 2.

Cranberries were quite plentiful at one time on Presque Isle. They were abundant at one spot in particular at the center of the peninsula. Problems though soon arose over cranberry picking. Cranberry Day was the beginning of the open season for cranberry picking on the peninsula. The act passed by the state legislature on March 27 in 1841 declared it to be contrary to the peace and dignity of the commonwealth and subversive of the good order of the community as well as of the great state of Pennsylvania for any person to pick cranberries on the peninsula of Presque Isle between the first of July and the first Tuesday in October of each year, and the first Tuesday of October was therefore a day of great rejoicing and a holiday to the dwellers in Erie: It was Cranberry Day. Anyone violating this law had to pay a fine of 10 to 25 dollars, plus the estimated value of the cranberries that were poached. Half of the money collected was donated to the Erie County Poorhouse. For 25 years it was

Presque Isle Lighthouse is located on the north shore of Presque Isle State Park at Lighthouse Beach in Erie. The construction of the lighthouse began in September of 1872 and was completed in July of 1873. Initially the square brick tower was only 40 feet high so an additional 17 feet were added to the tower in 1896 to enhance the projection of the light from the Fresnel Lens out into the lake. The Presque Isle Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 4, 1983, as part of a group listing of lighthouses and light stations operated by the United States Coast Guard on the Great Lakes. Erie Land Lighthouse was the first lighthouse at Erie, also the first American lighthouse on the Great Lakes. It was constructed on a mainland bluff in 1818, not far from the site of Fort Presque Isle. In 1870, plans were begun for a lighthouse on the north shore of the Presque Isle peninsula that would replace Erie Land Lighthouse on the mainland. This new light would be sever

The Coast Guard in Erie began as the United States Life-Saving Service. The Life-Saving Service was an United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers. It began in 1848, and ultimately merged with the Revenue-Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915. The United States Revenue-Cutter Service was established as the Revenue-Marine, and so named for over one hundred years, by the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in 1790 to serve as an armed maritime law-enforcement service. The service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury until merging with the United States Life-Saving Service.The life-saving station at Presque Isle was primary a life-saving operation rather than a revenue-cutter service. Established in 1876, pursuant to an Act of Congress two years earlier, the station’s original location, was moved in 1878 to the more

In the late 1860s the ownership of the peninsula changed hands. From the time Erie became incorporated in 1805 the peninsula had been jointly owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Erie. The City assumed the right to regulate the use of the peninsula, and forbade the logging of trees and the harvesting of wild cranberries, with the intent to make the peninsula a nature preserve. In 1867 the Pennsylvania Legislature granted the Marine Hospital of Pennsylvania a very large piece of land on Presque Isle known as the Garrison Tract, and appropriated funds for the construction of a hospital on the site. In 1869, taking it a step further, the legislature granted the Marine Hospital complete control and supervision of the entire peninsula. The State claimed that the Town Council of Erie had neglected management and supervision of Presque Isle by limiting the generation of revenue from the land. The city fathers and citizens of Erie were outraged about this. However, there

On Wednesday, July 22, 1959, Erie was the center of a mock invasion with 1,200 Marines hitting the peninsula. The Marines participated in a mock invasion staged as a salute to the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway. In the wake of the military exercise, code named Operations Inland Seas , a flotilla of seven ships transported the Second Battalion of the Sixth Marines to Presque Isle State Park at Lake Erie. Included in the demonstration were Marine Corps helicopters, frogmen, Marine A4D Skyhawk jet planes, and an Honest John rocket and launcher mounted with an atomic warhead. A hypothetical situation was set up for the invasion. Erie was the capital of a small independent country, which asked for U.S. aid in crushing a revolution. A crowd unofficially estimated at more than 50,000 watched the demonstration begin with a simulated beach bombardment by the USS Kleinsmith , a destroyer that fired blank charges, while charges, planted on the peninsula before the exercise, were exploded on l