Belle Isle Park

As I traveled, writing and compiling information for my three-volume travel series exploring Michigan’s coasts, I reveled in the many intriguing museum and amazing parks available to Michiganders. My posts share my favorites.

 Belle Isle Park, 99 Pleasure Drive, Detroit, Michigan, (844) 235-5375, is steeped in history. The park is accessed by the McArthur Bridge and provides spectacular views of both the Detroit and Windsor skylines from where it is perched in the middle of the Detroit River. With 987 acres, Belle Isle is the largest city-owned island park in the United States. It became Michigan’s 102^nd State Park on February 10, 2014, when the City of Detroit entered an agreement giving the city ownership and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources management responsibility.

The island offers visitors the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, an aquarium, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, a nature zoo, tennis courts, giant slide, 15 acres of wooded area, botanical gardens, watercraft rentals, three lakes, swimming beach, athletic fields, and picnic areas. A Michigan Recreation Passport is required for entry.

Belle Isle was settled by French colonists in the eighteenth century. They named their beautiful island the less than flattering Ile aux Cochons or Hog Island because livestock were allowed to roam free. The name was changed during a July 4, 1845, party at Belle Isle to honor the daughter of Governor Lewis Cass.

The conservatory and the aquarium were designed by Detroit architect Albert Kahn, who also designed Cadillac Place and the Ford Rouge Factory. During World War II, the island was used as a staging ground for a re-enactment of the Pacific Island invasion by the Navy and Marine Corps. The local citizenry watched an island invasion, minus the death, bloodshed, and carnage.

In the late 1800s, the island became home to a large herd of Eurasian fallow deer, but the herd was decimated by disease and inbreeding. In 2004 the last of the herd was captured and moved to the Detroit Zoo.

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory and Gardens on Belle Isle

Photo by rmhermen, March 30, 2005, permission Creative Commons

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