Apple Island - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Apple Island

Weekly blog readers know that we moved to Michigan from Ohio back in 1973 when I joined Ford Motor Company after college. For the past 33 years, we’ve lived in the small town of Orchard Lake, population 2236, about half way between Detroit and Flint.The town surrounds a lake with the same name that has an island as pictured above with quite a story. Historian John Robinson recently penned the following article about Apple Island that I think you’ll enjoy, as the Indian lore about the island closely parallels the more familiar history of the Ft. Loramie area.

Native Americans discovered this island over two thousand years ago. Tribal chiefs had their meetings here, including legendary Ottowa Chief Pontiac, who is still rumored to be buried on the island (more on that later).

In 1856 the mighty Chippewa Chief Okemos, namesake of the central Michigan city, was quoted as saying "I was born in Michigan, near Pontiac, on an island in a lake... I was 30 years old when I left the place I was born." Researchers feel the chief was referring to Apple Island, though there is no definite proof.

 

After James Galloway purchased the island in June 1827, a handful of others came, cleared land and built homes on the island…none of those homes survive today (the gallery below shows old postcards, foundations, rubble, and remnants of those old houses).

Several abandoned wells are located near the remnants of the homes as the following photos show.

Now, back to Chief Pontiac. It’s the general consensus that he was buried at the corner of Broadway & Walnut in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Stadium East parking garage. It’s definitely not a cool place for a mighty warrior to be memorialized. And why the heck should Pontiac be buried in St. Louis/Missouri (of all places) instead of Michigan? While visiting Illinois, he was stabbed to death by a Peoria tribe member as revenge for murdering his uncle, a tribe chief. Pontiac's body was supposedly taken across the river and buried in St. Louis because tradition stated he couldn't be buried in hostile territory.

 

Locals who live near the island – and those who once did – still believe Chief Pontiac was buried on Apple Island. There is a site pictured above in the island’s Western Woods section that is believed to be an old Indian burial ground. Nicknamed “Pontiac’s Mound”, the site was excavated to find proof of burials. The results proved nothing, one way or the other... but thanks to the digs, the island is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Nobody lives on this island now... it's a nature preserve and is also used for archaeological and educational purposes. You can only visit during the regular tour hosted by the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society every year. If you take the tour, you’ll enjoy walking through this little hunk of Northern Michigan that somehow found its way into the suburbs of Detroit.

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