Russell Island is a small

private island A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and som ...

in the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

between Algonac and

Walpole Island Walpole Island is an island and First Nation reserve in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the border between Ontario and Michigan in the United States. It is located in the mouth of the Saint Clair River on Lake Saint Clair, about by road fr ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is immediately upriver from Sand Island which is itself immediately upriver from

Harsens Island Harsens Island is a marshy island at the mouth of the St. Clair River on Lake St. Clair, in the U.S. state of Michigan. Politically, the island is in Clay Township of St. Clair County. History The island was named for its first Euro-American se ...

; it includes two smaller islands, Anderson Island on the northwest, and "The Gold Coast" on the southwest. The island, which is accessible only via passenger ferry or by private watercraft, contains about 150 cottages. There are no cars on the island; the only motorized vehicles are golf carts. Russell Island is part of Clay Township in St. Clair County and is an acceptable name for the Algonac ZIP code 48001, which serves most of the township on the mainland.48001 5-Digit ZCTA, 480 3-Digit ZCTA - Reference Map - American FactFinder
U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 census

History

Russell Island was settled in 1802 by Christian Frederick Denke, a Moravian missionary to the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

; the mission was abandoned in 1803. The island takes its name from Samuel Russell, who owned the island from 1855 to 1858. In the years 1905-1910 the island was leased by the Detroit, Belle Isle and Windsor Ferry Company (DBI&WFCo) as a summer resort colony, where visitors arrived on excursion steamers and lived in tents. In 1914, the owners of the island, justices William L. Carpenter and Flavius L. Brooke of the Michigan Supreme Court and Detroit real estate developer William W. Hannan, formed the Russell Island Company and subdivided the island for sale as individual plots. The three founders built the first three cottages in 1915-16. The island was accessible via the White Star Line's steamer Tashmoo. Today the Russell Island Property Owners Association (RIPOA) provides amenities such as a park, docks and ferry service for cottage owners.

References

Bibliography

* Donald F. Eschman and John Adam Dorr, ''The Geology of Michigan'' * Harry W. & Katharine D. Theisen, ''Remembrance of Things Past: A Fond Look Back at the Yesteryears on Russell Island in the St. Clair River'' (St. Clair, Michigan: Independent Printing Company, 1985)
Russell Island in Clay Township History
{{authority control River islands of Michigan Islands of St. Clair County, Michigan Islands of the St. Clair River Car-free islands of the United States Private islands of Michigan