Today we have the luxury of an extended ferry season and travel by airplane all year round. The airport is our lifeline during the winter months, providing regular flights to Port Clinton, bringing us the mail and transporting our school students. However, back in the 1800s, we did not have these options. Mail, freight, and travelers had to travel over the ice to get from here to there. C. C. Townley, manager of the Island House hotel for several years, may have left the island but his heart was never far from the friends he made there. He became involved in the Mansfield Lyceum and read the following paper about life on the island. “Those only who have had the experience can form but little conception of what constitutes Island life in winter. To the novice it presents itself in two different characters; that of novelty and monotony; while to those native and to the manner born, the situation is accepted as one of the most natural things in life. … Durin...