Name/Title
S02.07.007Description
The Division of Shore Erosion’s research vessel, SE-1, at Lake Erie. The image was taken in 1962. The location given is the Battery Park Marina in Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio.
The Division of Shore Erosion was created from a Section of the Department of Public Works having to do with the development and installation of shore protection devices on Lake Erie. It functioned as a state agency in aiding in the cost of construction of shore protective devices, piers, boat harbor facilities, etc., with municipal or local government unites on a division-of-costs basis, and in the protection of private property on a basis of one-third cost to the State. It also had administration and control of state-owned resources under the waters of Lake Erie. The Division of Shore Erosion was one of the seven original divisions of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources when that department was established in 1949. In 1961, the Division of Shore Erosion was abolished and its functions distributed to the Division of Geological Survey, the Division of Watercraft, and the newly created Office of the Engineer. The geologic research and mineral-extraction permitting of the Division of Shore Erosion became the Lake Erie Section of the Division of Geological Survey.
In e-mails from Dale L. Liebenthal to Lisa Long on July 21, 2016: We named our boats GS for Geological Survey and the first named vessel was the GS-1. The name used to be SE-1 for Shore Erosion, because we were a whole division here called the Division of Shore Erosion. The name was later changed when we became a sub-section of the Geological Survey...
SECOND e-mail: This vessel pictured was our largest research vessel. It was custom-designed by Paasch Marine in Erie, PA. Paasch Marine designed excellent vessels known for their rugged, sea-keeping abilities. The vessel was used for 54 years in all types of weather and projects mostly within the Ohio borders of Lake Erie. She has been outside that area on specific projects. She left the shipyard in Erie, PA in May of 1953. Her primary tasks were involved with the Lake Erie Geological Research Program. This study was a primary research program assigned to the Division of Shore Erosion (previously the Division of Beach Erosion under the Department of Agriculture) when the original 7 divisions of the newly formed Ohio Department of Natural Resources was established in 1949. For many years the vessel was the primary work platform of the section to allow us to get to our work sites on Lake Erie. She was equipped to jet holes through the sediments on the lake bottom surface and determine the depth to bedrock. There are map overlays in the Lake Erie plan files that show the number of borings and locations. Her design was then adapted for use with acoustic studies.
Information about the history of the Ohio Geological Survey’s Lake Erie Group Section is available in Lake Erie Geology Office Closes by Don Guy, Dale Liebenthal, and Michael C. Hansen (Ohio Geological Survey, Ohio Geology Newsletter, No. 1, 2008) pages 6 and 7.
This slide image included in the USGS National Digital Catalog for NGGDPP Grant G15AP00115 in FY2015.Context
Group of people on a pontoon boat at the boat deck. Battery Park Marina in Sandusky, Ohio.