February Ice Fatalities of the Past

	Saturday, Feb. 17, 1923	Dr. T. C. Griest, Put-in-Bay physician (33) & Miss Sylvia Schulz (25). Click on images below for the article(s). And see the obituary here.
	Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1940	Dr. George J. Edam, Put-in-Bay physician (33), wife Loretta E., (28), children George Jr. (age ?) & Barbara (2). Click on images below for the article(s). Also click here for more images that we put on the site earlier. And see the obituary here.
	Sunday, Feb. 20, 1955	Charles Schneider (47) & John Klacik (27) of Middle Bass. Charles was the father of Charles (Sonny) Schneider, Jr., who lived on Middle Bass and operated the Sonny-S ferry. Click on images below for the article(s), or here for a printable version. Also click here for more family history.
	Saturday, Feb. 8, 1986	Jeff Verhoff (17) of Middle Bass, son of Penny and Karl Schmidlin of Middle Bass. See our article.
	Tuesday, Feb. 15, 1994	Mike Massie - Popular Put-in-Bay ice fishing guide. See the story on two pages and the obituary on a third page here.
	Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001	Howard Taylor (73) and Robert Shammo (65) both of Shreve, Ohio, and Stanley Puster (60) of Lakeville, Ohio. Driving an ATV on their way to ice fishing, they lost their way in a whiteout off the west shore of Middle Bass. See article.

Note that the 1940, 1955 and 1986 fatalities occurred within a few hundred feet of each other, and only a few hundred feet off the southwestern tip of Middle Bass Island. The tip, called called Colby's Point, is where the currents are always the fastest in the channel between South Bass and Middle Bass islands. So the thinnest ice is always there.

1923 Accident Articles

1940 Accident Articles

1955 Accident Article

Reproduction without written permission is forbidden for any purposes other than personal use.

Revised: 29 Mar 2012