Taking the Pontoon Bridge to Island Park

"Here is the pontoon bridge that connected old Island Park with the south bank of the Maumee River.  It was a pedestrian bridge that was removed in the winter.  The street car line came down to the bluff on the south side of the river where there was a wooden platform and stairs part way down the bank.

Photo donated for this article by Mrs. Roy C. Miller

If you look hard enough, you can see the trolley poles and a street car on the top of the bank.  Those who came in buggies tied their horses at the end of Buckeye St.  The street car track was just west of the present Children's home.

When the car was packed, which often happened during baseball games and the annual Chautauqua, folks had to get out and help push the car up the hill.  Nobody cared as the fare was only five cents.  That included the thrill of going over the Preston run trestle which was supposed to be unsafe, but is still there under the dirt of the fill.

ISLAND PARK was quite a resort.  It had an auditorium that seated 700 and in which stock companies frequently played.  The Chautauqua programs and various other events took place there.  William Jennings Bryan spoke from its stage.

There was a baseball park, a quarter mile race track, bowling alley, restaurant, penny arcade, and camping facilities on Preston Island.  The park was operated by W. P. Engel, who owned the Defiance Street Railway.

The 1913 flood wiped the park clean of all buildings and poeple stood on the bridge over the Maumee at Napoleon and watched the wooded horses from the Island Park merry-go-round go downstream."

Source: Lloyd Tuttle, "A Backward Glance," undated newspaper clipping from the Defiance Crescent-News.