Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plum and Pilot Islands
Beforetheestablishmentofthelighthouseon
Plum Island,
morethan100shipswerepoun-
ded into the shoals of the Door. In one year alone, Plum Island became the cemetery for 30
ships. Though safer than any U.S. highway today, it will never be sweat-free; as recently as
1989 a ship was thrown aground by the currents. The U.S. Lighthouse Service established
the
Pilot Island Lighthouse
in 1858. It stands atop what an early guidebook described as
“little more than a rock in the heavy-pounding seas.” Two brick structures stand on Pilot
Island and are about the only things still visible. Once-dense vegetation has been nearly
killedoff,turnedintoarockyfieldbytheubiquitousandodoriferousdroppingsoffederally
protected cormorants, which long ago found the island and stuck around.
Plum Island had to wait until 1897 to get its imposing 65-foot skeletal steel light, after
which the mortality rate within the Door dropped significantly. Plum Island—so-called for
its plumb-center position in the straits—is home to an abandoned Coast Guard building on
the northeast side, an old foghorn building on the southwest tip, and yet another decaying
Cape Cod-style lightkeeper's residence near the range lights.
Neither island is accessible—unless your sea kayak runs into trouble—except for boat
tours given during the Festival of Blossoms, usually offered three times daily from Gills
Rock.
Detroit Island
Steaming into Detroit Harbor on Washington Island, look to the starboard side. The island
with the crab-claw bay is
Detroit Island,
one of the largest satellite islands surrounding
Washington Island. Settlers built the first permanent structures on the island in the early
1830sandgraduallyforcedthedisplacementoftheresidentOttawaandHuronIndians,who
hadbeenthereforgenerations.Oncetheislandwasanarchaeologicalgem,butthieveshave
laid waste to it. Today it is privately owned and not accessible.
