Founding and early times The
Potawatomi occupied areas of the island, which they called
Kitcheminishen, for a long period prior to European encounter. They were one of the tribes in the Council of Three Fires. The flags of three nations—France, England, and the United States—have flown over Detroit and Grosse Ile since the first French explorers visited the island during the late 17th century. The early French explorers named the island as
la grosse île—the "big island" in French. Father
Louis Hennepin, a Catholic priest and missionary, accompanied fellow French explorer
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1679 on the ship
Le Griffon in exploring the
Great Lakes. Although the Potawatomi, like most
Native Americans, did not have the same sense of property ownership as did Europeans and Americans, they considered the island to be part of their ancestral lands. On July 6, 1776, they deeded the island to brothers
Alexander and
William Macomb, brothers from Albany who had become leading fur traders and merchants in
Detroit, partly from selling supplies to the British at Fort Detroit and the local Indian Department.
Settlement to present Settlement started in the 19th century. At least three homes still standing on the island were built during this period by a descendant or relative of the Macomb brothers. The Rucker Homestead, the oldest structure in use on Grosse Ile, has portions that date to 1816. The front structure was added by John Anthony Rucker in 1835. The
Rucker-Stanton House on West River Road was built in 1848 by the great-grandson of William Macomb. The Wendell House on East River Road was built in the late 1860s by John Wendell, who married a granddaughter of William Macomb. Macomb Street of the central business district of Grosse Ile was named in honor of Alexander and William Macomb. A monument commemorating the day that the tribal chiefs and elders signed the deed to the Macomb brothers is located at the foot of Gray's Drive and near the shoreline of the
Detroit River. The original deed, which was written on
parchment, is stored in the
Burton Historical Collection at the
Detroit Public Library.
Trenton Channel and boating Boating has been both a means of transportation and recreation since the first residents lived on the island. Native Americans used
canoes to travel between Grosse Ile's islands and the mainland in Michigan and Canada. Early European settlers primarily used
sail-powered vessels to travel to and from the islands. By the late 19th century, Grosse Ile was known as a popular destination for recreational boaters. It was also served by steamboats operating from Detroit and small towns along the river and lakes. During this time period, Sugar Island, which is one of the twelve islands commonly considered to comprise Grosse Ile, featured an amusement park, dance pavilion, and bathing beach. It was rebuilt in 1906 and designed as the classic white structure that has become one of the iconic landmarks on the island. The lighthouse is considered a symbol of Grosse Ile; its image is used on the masthead of the
Ile Camera community newspaper and many other places. The lighthouse's beacon was turned off in the 1940s, and the structure is no longer an important navigation aid for
lake freighters. Small boaters still refer to the lighthouse in their navigation of the area. Island resident Cameron Waterman invented the
outboard motor and successfully tested his invention during February 1905 in the ice-filled Detroit River off the shore of Grosse Ile. He established the Waterman Marine Motor Company in Detroit. The company eventually manufactured and sold up to 1,000 outboard motors per year until Waterman sold the business in 1917. During the fall of 2005, the GIHS celebrated the 100th anniversary of Waterman's invention by hosting a public exhibition featuring fully restored Waterman outboard motors. These are highly collectible and very rare. During the
Prohibition era, Grosse Ile became a crossing point for
bootleggers illegally smuggling alcoholic beverages from
Canada. They typically arrived at the island via small speed boats. During the winter months, some daring
smugglers drove cars across the frozen river.
Amelia Earhart is rumored to have stopped at the airfield on occasion. Grosse Ile was the home of a
U.S. Navy base for forty years. The U.S. Naval Air Station Grosse Ile opened in 1929 after three years of construction of
seaplane and
dirigible facilities. During
World War II, the naval base developed into an important center for military
flight training. The base was expanded considerably to accommodate large numbers of American and British fliers who trained on the island. As a young man during WWII,
George H. W. Bush was stationed at the base for training during 1945 for about two months. He later became a politician and President of the United States. During the height of the
Cold War, in 1954 the
U.S. Army installed an
Ajax-Nike missile base at the airfield; it was functional until being decommissioned in 1963. The Navy closed the base during November 1969. The federal government transferred it in 1971 to the township government for civilian use as a municipal airport. The airport campus is also the site of Grosse Ile Township Hall, which was moved to this location in 2000 from Macomb Street, and a number of private businesses.
Railroads and bridges In 1873 the Canada Southern Bridge Company, a subsidiary of the
Canada Southern Railroad Company, established a railroad from the Michigan mainland to the island that carried both passengers and freight. The company laid tracks across Grosse Ile and built bridges over the Detroit River to enable trains to be transferred to a ferryboat on Stony Island (one of the islands near the east shoreline of Grosse Ile's "main island"). Once on the ferryboat, the train cars were taken to
Ontario, Canada across the river, where they were put back on a rail track to travel to
Buffalo, New York and other points east. Canada Southern operated trains on this route for about ten years before ceasing service due to financial difficulties.
Grosse Ile Historic District Today, the MCR train depot is owned and operated as a community museum by the Grosse Ile Historical Society (GIHS). Nearby is the old
U.S. Customs House, which was relocated to the current site in 1980 from Macomb Street. The GIHS also owns the Custom House, and these are the only structures in the
National Historic District along East River Road that are regularly open to the public. The district features Saint James
Episcopal Church, the oldest church building on the island, constructed during 1867 in part with funds provided by a freed slave named
Elizabeth Denison. The district includes six homes, built from the 1840s to 1860s, that are outstanding examples of period architecture, particularly
Gothic Revival and
Jacobethan Revival.
Modern times, growth and preservation Grosse Ile has good views of commercial shipping and
pleasure boat traffic on the Detroit River. Lake freighters and oceangoing ships traveling to destinations around the Great Lakes regularly pass near the east side of the island, where the main channel of the Detroit River separates Grosse Ile from Ontario, Canada. While the shoreline areas of Grosse Ile feature the majority of historically significant places and structures, approximately a dozen 1920s-era homes in the Jewell Colony subdivision, located in the middle of the island, are listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places. Jewell Colony was the first planned subdivision on the island. During the later 20th century, Grosse Ile had a significant increase in the rate of residential development, given its advantageous location and other amenities. By the 1980 census, the population of Grosse Ile had increased to approximately 9,300— about 106% over its population in the 1960 census. Fearing the destruction of the natural character and small-town charm of the community, during the early 1990s the Grosse Ile Township established an "Open Space Program", to be funded by a voter-approved dedicated local property tax to buy undeveloped land. The township acquired large tracts of environmentally sensitive land to slow the pace of development, preserve the environment, and protect housing values. In 1993, a group of residents established a 501(c)(3)
non-profit organization named the Grosse Ile Land & Nature Conservancy, to aid in the protection and stewardship of the diverse natural resources on the island. A number of private owners donated environmentally important woodland and wetland areas to the Conservancy to protect them (and to get a tax write-off.) The U.S. EPA granted stewardship responsibilities to the Conservancy for a marsh and upland area on the federally owned section of the Grosse Ile Municipal Airport. This tract of land, which at one time was the location of the Navy's seaplane base and later the Army's Nike missile base, has been restored to its natural state; it features rich biodiversity and rare coastal wetlands. Named the Nature Area by the Conservancy, this land is periodically used by local teachers and
Boy Scout groups to teach children about nature and the importance of conservation. Grosse Ile is a community of about 10,371 residents.
Money magazine ranked Grosse Ile as one of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" in 2009. ==Culture==