| Mr.
John N. Magee
Punters
Party
Jack
and Ralph Boyd |
1903,
John N. Magee, of Elmore, Ohio acquired 1,000 acres of marshland belonging
to the Crane Creek Shooting Club and 1,700 acres from the Cleveland Hunting
Club. Today, this comprises part fo the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and the
Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. Magee's original intent was to dike
off and drain the marsh utilizing it's fertile soil for agricultural purposes.
However, after several years of high lake levels, farming this area became
impossible. After realizing the habitat was ideal for waterfowl and furbearers,
he allowed it to revert back to marshland for muskrat trapping and waterfowl
hunting.
During the 1920's through 1940, Magee Marsh was leased to an exclusive hunting
group of ten men from Detroit for duck hunting. After Mr. Magee's death
in 1925, his two daughters, Julia and Ruth continued to supervise the 2,700
acres of marsh.
In 1940, the Magee family sold their beloved marshland to a private hunting
club known as the Magee Marsh Hunt Club. Damage to dikes and channels caused
by continued high lake levels made maintenance very costly for the hunting
club and 1,821 acres was purchased by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Today, Magee Marsh is one of the few remaining wetland complexes on the
Lake Erie shoreline. |
