Sturgeon Point

Sturgeon Point, not to be confused with the condo development to the west, is a point of land that juts into Lake Erie and was the site of the first paid summer resort in Geneva Township, later Geneva-on-the-Lake Village. , On July 4, 1869, Cullen Spencer and his friend, Lyman Scott, opened on this five-acre point a public picnic area for vacationers to use during their visit to the lake. In 1873, the investors added a merry-go-round to the picnic grounds. Residents began converting their farmhouses into boardinghouses, and built inns, lodges and cottages for this clientele. , The railroads were largely responsible for the resort's success. Rails first linked Geneva to the Cleveland area in 1853 and to Youngstown in 1873. The tourist's final four miles to the resort were often made in a horse-drawn "taxi" of some sort, along a rutted byway that led to summer fun at Sturgeon Point. , Sturgeon , The point takes its name from the abundance of lake sturgeon that congregated in this area. These fish weighed 200 pounds or more, were up to 6 feet long and were known as the "great fighting fish." Considered a nuisance species, their only economic value was for fertilizer. But around 1870 the public began to develop a taste for smoked sturgeon and caviar, or roe. This led to overfishing and by the early 1900s, the sturgeon fishery in Lake Erie collapsed. Occasionally, a Great Lakes fisherman will pull a very rare sturgeon from the depths. , Photo Caption: Postcards from the early 1900s show the width of the beach that once existed at Sturgeon Point, also known as Mapleton Beach.