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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6274
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 3:30 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone have any maps showing what is now Zug Island before the Short Cut was dug in 1888 making it an island?
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Mikeg
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Username: Mikeg

Post Number: 1858
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There are a number of old Wayne County atlases that have been scanned and digitally archived by the University of Michigan Library.

Go to the Street Names in Detroit and how they came to be HOF thread and scroll down to my posting of March 23, 2008 - 12:54 PM. There you will find links and instructions on how to access those old Wayne County atlas maps. The images are in both JPG and PDF (the PDF images are much higher resolution than the JPG versions).
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Mikem
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Post Number: 3684
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:30 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I believe the area which comprises the island was the last to be developed, compared to Springwells on the north bank of the river, and to a lesser extent, River Rouge on the south side.

From the Detroit Free Press, July 14, 1891:
quote:

Brady Island can hardly be called an island at all, it being that peninsula of Ecorse Township that fronts the Detroit River just below the Exposition Building, while a bend of the Rouge affords water frontage to one side and the rear. A swale known as Mud Run cuts it off from the mainland, but as Mud Run is only five feet deep, it doesn't count as an island maker.

The property includes 4,000 feet of Detroit River frontage from the mouth of the Rouge to the big coaling trestle of S. B. Smith & Co. and 8,000 feet of Rouge River frontage...

[The island] was originally the property of Lewis Cass, who sold it to the late Samuel Zug, who in turn sold undivided interests to George N. Brady and the late Charles W. Noble...Messrs. Russell and Bourke will proceed at once to the improvement of the property by dyking the island, dredging slips for factory frontages into the interior of the island and the construction of railroad side tracks. The whole property will be made available for manufacturing purposes as soon as possible. It is altogether likely that in 1892 a railroad trestle, and a coal dock, similar to that of S. B. Smith & Co., will be constructed at the mouth of the Rouge River. A sulphur spring on the island that bubbles up 1,200 barrels of mineral water per day may be put to earning its living by the new owners.

This deal insures the completion of the work of reclamation of the marshes that formerly extended from Fort Wayne down to Ecorse. The exposition property is a piece of reclaimed marsh. The Rouge River Improvement Company, composed of Michigan Central Railway people, has reclaimed 500 acres with a mile of frontage on the Detroit River. Another mile of frontage, including 245 acres, is in process of reclamation, by Messrs. Russell and Dee, adjoining the Rouge RIver property, and the remaining three-fourths of a mile, the property of George A. Dupuis and William Blay, will be attacked just as soon as Mr. Dupuis' dredges are disengaged from work already contracted for in the same district. The home of the duck, the muskrat, and the mud hen seems to be doomed to destruction.



(Love the use of militaristic language of the day when describing the battle with nature.)

(Message edited by MikeM on September 23, 2008)
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Krawlspace
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Username: Krawlspace

Post Number: 367
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:46 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Just as a side note, Lewis Cass and Samuel Zug are both buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
I know most knew of the Cass plot, but I don't believe many are aware that Zug was interred there as well.
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Jcole
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Username: Jcole

Post Number: 3867
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Maybe we should take some marsh weeds and toxic mud to his grave site
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 3295
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^^ Too funny!
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3682
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 12:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"The home of the duck, the muskrat, and the mud hen seems to be doomed to destruction."

I dunno about the duck and the muskrat, but the mud hens ended up in Toledo......

Great post, Mikem. You never fail to amaze.
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6277
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So, the Mud Run essentially became the route for the Short Cut? I guess Zug could also be correctly referred to as Brady Island, even though that's fallen out of complete usage, it seems.
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 3686
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"So, the Mud Run essentially became the route for the Short Cut?"

Yes, I believe so. I suppose it could be called Brady Island and anyway, Zug sold it before any industrial development occurred.

Skimming a history of the Corps of Engineers, they claim the cutoff canal was dredged in 1886 and was privately owned. In its survey of the Rouge in 1886, the Corps notes that "in its natural state it was somewhat remarkable in depth of water in its lower reaches, having a channel of 11 feet at its mouth, and from 13 to 18 feet for a distance of 1½ miles. In the early days, light draft vessels ascended the river to the city of Dearborn, a distance of 15 miles."

The main branch of the Rouge was first dredged for navigation in 1888 and 1889, and the Detroit Iron and Steel mill was built in 1903. Without the use of the cutoff canal, ships over 400 feet in length could not navigate the S-turn in the river. The cutoff canal was acquired and used to for a new shipping channel, and the river was improved for a length of 1½ miles above its mouth, including a turning basin, with the work being completed in 1923.


North & south side of Rouge, 1876:


Zug North Bank 1876



Zug South Bank 1876




Zug Island, 1893:


Zug 1893




Zug Island, 1900:


1900




Zug Island, 1911:


Zug 1911
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Ahartz
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Username: Ahartz

Post Number: 31
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Awesome posts....love it. MikeM...great old cartography of the river. I am very much into the history of the alteration of the river by man. I work for the DEQ in the permit section that issues permits for dredging etc..in the rivers, lakes and wetlands of SE Mich. Doing this I am exposed to some of the history of the rivers and such of the area. From the old Delphine channel and dock remants in GP, to the Stucco boathouse at Solidarity house, the history of the clubs...there is a great untold story here...any one place you could recommend for me to see old riverfront maps, charts etc....thanks again...andy
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Billybbrew
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Username: Billybbrew

Post Number: 340
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

On an intersting sidenote. There still are sulphur springs on Zug Island. Water just pours randomly out of them and it reeks of sulphur. We were drilling in the Detroit River off Zug Island last spring and hit one and it took us 3 days to cap it off.
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 3688
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Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 11:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Try the site MikeG recommends above and try searching on this site for older nautical charts: http://historicalcharts.noaa.g ov/historicals/historical_zoom .asp
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6279
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 1:58 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks, all.

It appears that Fordson Island, just southeast of Ford River Rouge, must have been connected to Delray/Springwells, and that the natural course of the river flowed west of it before it was channeled.

Yeah, I've always been really interested in seeing what a cities geography looked like before being heavily developed.

(Message edited by lmichigan on September 24, 2008)
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6280
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Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 6:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was able to find out a bit about Fordson Island, and it looks like I was right about its creation:

quote:

FORDSON ISLAND: Fordson Island is a small islet in the middle of the Rouge River in the southeastern part of Dearborn. The 8.4-acre island was created in 1922 when federal engineers, at the request of Ford Motor Co., straightened and deepened a section of the Rouge River south of the Rouge Plant.

The river originally was too shallow and wound too much to properly accommodate the Eagle Chaser boats from World War I that the Ford Motor Co. wanted the Rouge Plant to utilize.

Federal engineers found it more efficient to cut directly across the land rather than deepen the existing river. Fordson Island was born upon completion of the $10 million channel.

Access to the island was possible by boat and by a plank bridge from southwest Detroit. Today, the only land access remains the small one-lane bridge.

After the channel was completed in 1922, several people bought the lots on the island to put up riverfront homes.

In 1970, six residents still called the island home. Through the city’s Operation Eyesore, the remaining five dwellings were removed in 1989. With this went the last residents.

The island today is home to a Marathon Oil facility and a second private company.

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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6295
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Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 12:10 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hey, Mike. I know much land was reclaimed from the marshes along the river, but do you have any maps of descriptions about exactly what was reclaimed? I've heard that the riverfront used to be at Jefferson, but I'm not sure how far east and west that that was the case.

I was looking at the history of Boston, the other night, and had no idea that almost all of central Boston, today, is reclaimed land. It was almost an island save for the Boston neck.
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 3691
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Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008 - 8:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Maybe...I'm in Marrakech right now so you'll have to wait until I get home next week.
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 6297
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Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008 - 9:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Marrakech?! Seriously? What do you do? lol