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!

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/