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A SIGNIFICANT PORTION of this book is set on a group of islands in Lake Erie.
While one of those islands—Whisker Island—is purely a product of our imagination, the others, including South Bass and Middle Bass, are perfectly real. South Bass, in particular, is worth a visit as it is the home of Put-In Bay, a lakeside village which has a small year-round local population and serves as a summer resort for the Ohio region. It is easily accessible by ferry in the warm season.
Several smaller islands, not all of which are accessible to the public, also dot the area. These include Mouse Island, Turtle Island, and Starve Island. Due to their small size, rocky soil, and the extreme nature of the environment in the winter months, none of these islands have a known history of permanent human settlement either by indigenous people or by colonizers and their descendants.
While seals are mostly saltwater creatures, freshwater seals do exist. The only true freshwater seal is the Baikal, which is native to Russia. Generally, what are termed freshwater seals are isolated colonies of saltwater species that became trapped inland and now persist in freshwater environments throughout Canada, Alaska, and Russia. To our knowledge there are no such colonies—or myths about such colonies—in Lake Erie.