  Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 929 Registered: 08-2006 |
This island sits next to Harsens Island and is nearly as large but with just a few cottages on it which are probably leased until the 2040s I would imagine as the state takes over more of the land in the flats. Anyone ever been onto this island and explored it. From what I can tell most of it is marsh but you never know. It seems interesting to me to have this large undeveloped island so close to metro Detroit. It is part of the Saint Clair Flats State Game area and preserve. Anyone know much about this rarely noticed island. As soon as I get a boat I plan on taking a look around it one day. When did this island go under state ownership? I did find this old plat of preempted lands for when it was called Stromness Island. Note the interesting Private Claim the just juts through the island I wonder when that was deeded? http://www.cis.state.mi.us/pla tmaps/dt_image.asp?BCC_SUBINDE X=7842 | ||
Olddetroiter Member Username: Olddetroiter Post Number: 679 Registered: 04-2008 |
There is no automobile access to the island. My grandparents used to have a boat livery on Harsens Island in the '40s, about one mile up river from Browns. Some of the people with cottages on Dickenson would park their cars at their place, and my grandfather would take them to Dickenson in his speedboat (for a price of course). Other than the cottages right on the river, there isn't much on the island. Sometime in the late '80s, when the water was still fairly high, I managed to navigate through various channels through Dickenson from the Middle to the North Channels. The water is too low to do that anymore. Besides, I sold my boat a few years ago anyway. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 4504 Registered: 06-2004 |
It's not entirely under state ownership. My dad still has a lot on it. | ||
Olddetroiter Member Username: Olddetroiter Post Number: 690 Registered: 04-2008 |
Does he own the lot outright, or is it a very long term lease?.... I had always thought the lots on Harsens Island were owned outright, but was told a few years ago they were on long them leases. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 4507 Registered: 06-2004 |
Outright - he inherited it from a friend of his father's. | ||
Mozeewink Member Username: Mozeewink Post Number: 71 Registered: 03-2008 |
my family owns a lot outright on harsens island. | ||
Harsensis Member Username: Harsensis Post Number: 361 Registered: 07-2005 |
Down in the flats it is more common to have a land lease, but on Harsens Island it is more common to own the land. A few years ago we took a plane ride around Harsens Island and in the Middle Channel along Dickenson Island there is a sunken ship that you could see all of the deck planks from the air, it was really cool. | ||
Alienjerky Member Username: Alienjerky Post Number: 4 Registered: 06-2008 |
A friend and I used to take his boat out in that area 30 years ago. I remember a beached rum runner's boat near a farm house and barn at the northern tip of the island. It was abandoned but the farm looked like it had been worked hard. The basement of the farmhouse was flooded and we saw a small dingy floating in it. We were checking the barn area and found a dead raccoon that had gotten his head caught between some planks in a corn crib. We saw a few cottages south of there but they looked like they were being kept up so we stayed away. I wish I had a camera back then. My niece has a house on Harsens Island now, Maybe she'll take me over to see if any of the farm is left. | ||
Jfre66_77 Member Username: Jfre66_77 Post Number: 87 Registered: 01-2006 |
There are big dredge pits on the island where they used to pump out the contents of the boats that were dredging the shipping lanes off the south channel. My grandmother lived across the north channel from Dickinson Island and you could see the boats from her back yard. There used to be a huge blue pipe system and a dock that was in the north channel across from Bell Harbor (now called Sassy Marina). | ||
Olddetroiter Member Username: Olddetroiter Post Number: 756 Registered: 04-2008 |
After my grandparents sold their boat livery (sometime around 1950 give or take) my parents bought a lot on Harsens Island directly across from the Chris Craft factory. I think they were still building boats there then. The sand suckers spent a lot of time sucking sand in the channel around that time. | ||
Thoswolfe Member Username: Thoswolfe Post Number: 62 Registered: 11-2007 |
I lived on Harsen's about 25 years ago. There was only 2 farms left there, both of them in the middle of the island, not near the channels. Jack Rattray was about 80 yrs old and just cut hay and straw the last few years he farmed.Doubt that anyone would have kept up the farm since.He was just too stubborn to sell out and move, did not need the $.Now those farm buildings may still be there and falling down... Down the road, Dr. Spencer planted corn, beans, etc, but as a 'hobby'.He lived by Belleville, flew in to Sans Souci on his seaplane when he had free time. But that farm land was 'investment, planned to be developed some day. The farmhouse burned 20+ years ago.And the barns were all newer 'pole barns' so this is not the farm AlienJerky saw. North end of the Island is within sight of Algonac.The only former farmland I can recall there is the old Boy's Club Camp. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 7060 Registered: 08-2004 |
I read somewhere that the St. Clair River delta is the worlds largest freshwater delta... ... and supposedly in about 50,000 years Lake St. Clair will disappear as the delta grows larger and eventually silts up the entire lake except for the riverflow going from the St. Clair River into the Detroit River. | ||
Alienjerky Member Username: Alienjerky Post Number: 6 Registered: 06-2008 |
The old farm I saw was on Dickenson Island, not Harsens Island. But it's nice to hear that there were also farms on Harsens. What always amused me were those little "Man made Islands" along the old channel with a little house on them and an "outhouse" built hanging over the sea wall. Their own tiny "Kingdom". Who LIVES on those things? | ||
Olddetroiter Member Username: Olddetroiter Post Number: 781 Registered: 04-2008 |
Thoswolfe: If the Old Boys Scout camp is what I am thinking of, the lot my parents bought across from Chris Craft was right next to it... first one south. But in those days I don't think it was owned by the Boy Scouts yet. Everyone called it the Farwell Foundation. My parents sold that lot after a year and bought a double lot a few lots further south. They sold that one in '57 when we moved to California. I got a lot of poison ivy in those days. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 500 Registered: 06-2007 |
"What always amused me were those little "Man made Islands" along the old channel with a little house on them and an "outhouse" built hanging over the sea wall. Their own tiny "Kingdom". Who LIVES on those things?" Those are the ones on long-term lease the state is buying back. Most if not all, are cottages and not lived in full-time. Its part of the "St. Clair Flats". | ||
Thoswolfe Member Username: Thoswolfe Post Number: 64 Registered: 11-2007 |
"outhouse" built hanging over the sea wall. " They really DO have some cottages like that along south channel and middle channel.Some places are 100% surrounded by water, the cottage and 'outbuildings' are on piers. It looks like one could drill a hole in the floor and drop a fishing line down. My son and his friends 'pranked' one of those outhouses- Painted "plop plop fizz fizz". Ever try hard not to laugh when scolding a kid in front of the police? Few years later the officer told me he was waiting for us to laugh so he could also! | ||
Ronaldj Member Username: Ronaldj Post Number: 25 Registered: 01-2007 |
The Boy's Club facility was known as Camp Drusilla Farwell or Camp Farwell. Spent many 10-day camp sessions there. We were bussed from the Bloomer Building on Livernois and Michigan. It was a longish drive before I-94 was completed. Cold swimming pool and always hellacious crowds of mosquitoes. |
