Stone Laboratory, the nation’s oldest freshwater biological field station, was created in 1895 when, at the request of Ohio State University professor David S. Kellicott, the Board of Trustees approved an allocation of $350 to build a second floor on the state fish hatchery in Sandusky, Ohio. The lab moved to Cedar Point in 1903 and to the second floor of the state fish hatchery on South Bass Island in 1918 before moving to its current location on the 6.5-acre Gibraltar Island in 1925. That year, Ohio State University Board of Trustees member Julius Stone purchased the island from the heirs of Civil War financier Jay Cooke and donated it to the University. Classes officially began in the “completed” laboratory building on Gibraltar Island in 1929, the same year the laboratory was officially dedicated as the “Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory,” to honor Julius Stone’s father. Until that time the laboratory had been called the “Lake Laboratory.” However, classes were offered in the first floor of the laboratory building in 1928 while the second and third floors were still under construction.

Facilities at Stone Laboratory include a research building, a library, a 21-room laboratory/classroom building, a dining hall, five housing units, the historic “Cooke’s Castle,” a National Historic Landmark constructed in 1864 as the summer home of Philadelphia banker and Civil War financier, Jay Cooke, the South Bass Island Lighthouse (built in 1897), and the historic Put-in-Bay Fish Hatchery, which is used as an outreach and education center for visitors and tourists.

The program’s aim is to enhance the value of, and improve the management of, marine and coastal resources through the education, outreach, and research programs conducted at the Laboratory. The Laboratory’s programs address the needs of, and create opportunities for, the following audiences: students in grades 5-12, college undergraduate and graduate students, K-12 teachers, research scientists, decision-makers and elected officials, technical staff in state and federal agencies, and the general public.

At Ohio State University, Stone Lab is part of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program, which started in 1978, and also includes the Center for Lake Erie Area Research, or CLEAR. CLEAR was The Ohio State University’s third approved interdisciplinary research center. Ohio Sea Grant is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) nationwide network of 33 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. In 1988, The Ohio State University was officially designated and approved as this country’s 24th “Sea Grant College” by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.