We flew up to Michigan for the older kid’s fall break from graduate school and we all wanted to see something new. This encompassed both sides of the international border between Michigan’s lower peninsula and the province of Ontario. Essentially this involved the borderlands along the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair River, between Lakes Erie and Huron, but also a little beyond. We began with Belle Isle.
Belle Isle is part of Detroit, although physically separated from the rest of the city because it’s literal an island within the Detroit River. I’d never heard of it but it sounded interesting; a thousand bucolic acre off by itself. So that became the plan for Saturday morning and early afternoon. Then we would drive into Canada later in the day.
Belle Isle has been a park since the 1800’s. A lot has changed over the years although a surprising amount remains similar. We tried to catch some of the more popular features in our limited time and we enjoyed what we saw. However that still left a lot of places remaining so I suppose we’ll have to return someday.
Aquarium
The Belle Isle Aquarium was the must-see attraction of the day. Our older kid has a couple of undergraduate university degrees, one of them Zoology, so that’s how Belle Island got onto our list. We had to see the aquarium (map).
It’s small but kind-of adorable. Also, it’s historic, operating since 1904 with only a short break between 2005-2012. Much of the collection focuses on freshwater fish from the Great Lakes although there are several saltwater tanks too. The architecture is simply amazing with arched ceilings and green tiles designed to replicate life under the sea with the fish.
They didn’t charge admission but encouraged contributions.
Conservatory
The Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory occupies a building attached to the aquarium (map). Within this particular context, “conservatory” means the conservation of plants.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to walk between the aquarium and the conservatory without going outside, even though the same architects designed them and they were built contemporaneously. I guess they wanted to create a clean separation between fish and plants. Fortunately, the designated entrances are close together and generally if someone visits one they’ll also want to visit the other. Here too, admission was free.
The Conservatory is basically a large greenhouse at its core with gardens radiating outward onto adjoining parkland. The greenhouse featured hundreds of plants divided into climactic themes, such as succulents, tropical plants, palms, and ferns.
Museum
The Dossin Great Lakes Museum was part of the same cluster, although a little further away and across “The Strand”, the lane hugging the southern edge of Belle Isle (map). It’s about a five minute walk away from the aquarium and conservatory. Even so, the museum also has its own parking lot for those with mobility issues or who simply prefer to drive.
As the name implies, it focused on the rich maritime history of the Great Lakes. Of course it included the obligatory Edmund Fitzgerald exhibit necessitated by the famous 1976 Gordon Lightfoot ballad. But it had a lot more too. While we were there it also focused on the postal boat JW Westcott II that I featured in an article quite a number of years ago. That brought back some fond memories.
This facility does charge admission although it’s pretty nominal.
We worked up an appetite by the time we finished visiting the aquarium, the conservatory, and the museum. Fortunately, food trucks congregate at the aquarium/conservatory parking lot, or at least they do during certain times of the year. So we were able to grab a quick lunch without having to leave the island.
Lighthouse
Once fed, we began to explore a little further and of course I’m always going to gravitate towards any lighthouse that exists. I need to keep building my lighthouse list! I’m probably close to a hundred of them by now.
The structure on Belle Isle is called the Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse, named in honor of a prominent Detroit citizen from the era (map). It warns Great Lakes freighters that an island sits in their way at the mouth of the Detroit River, as they cruise down from Lake St. Clair.
Well, this lighthouse was unusual. It’s not the weirdest one I’ve ever seen but it’s pretty far up on the list. Many surviving lighthouses date from the classic period, say from around 1860-1910, and have what I’d call stereotypical features. Ones build afterwards sometimes deviated from the earlier norm, although many fewer were built. So on Belle Isle we have a glorious 1930’s Art Deco lighthouse made of marble! Both of the style and material may be unique for lighthouses in the United States.
Scenery
Belle Isle is an oasis of serenity, sandwiched between urbanized areas of downtown Detroit one one side of the river, and Windsor on the other. As a result, the island offers great views that change as one drives along the perimeter, from open water vistas to engaging city skylines.
Eastern Tip
The lighthouse sits near the eastern side of Belle Island, and from there it’s just a short walk to the actual tip. Visitors can peer up the Detroit River and into Lake St. Claire, standing here on a pedestrian bridge across the mouth of Blue Heron Lagoon. From this angle it’s hard to imagine we’re just a mile or two away from dense urban development.
Detroit Skyline
As mentioned, Belle Isle is part of the City of Detroit. Thus, it’s not surprising that it has several momentous skyline overlooks. I took this one from Belle Isle Beach with a telephoto lens. However, there are several other island locations with even closer views as one drives further west. The large skyscraper on the left is the Renaissance Center, an iconic feature of Detroit. To me, it always resembles a bat spreading its wings although that’s probably a Rorschach test kind of thing.
Detroit River
Back on the other side of the island, and once again onto the grounds of the Great Lakes Museum, are scenic views of the Detroit River and across to Windsor, Ontario. The land on the left side of the photo is the United States and the land on the horizon is Canada. It’s that close. Two nations separated by a thin strip of water.
I wondered why the U.S. flag wasn’t displayed at the top of the flagpole and the sign in the foreground explained that the configuration followed maritime principles. This is how the flags would fly on a ship. The rules were too byzantine for me to comprehend so I took their word for it.
Then it was time to leave Belle Isle and head into Canada. We didn’t cross here at Detroit, rather we drove up to Port Huron where I visited a couple of years ago. From there, we took the Blue Water Bridge over to Sarnia, Ontario. I wouldn’t advise driving across the border on a Saturday afternoon but unfortunately that was our timeline. I’d say the backup at the border took about an hour to get through.
Articles in the Borderland Series
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr.
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