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Apple Island (Michigan)
Encyclopedia
Apple Island is a 35 acres (141,640.1 m²) island that lies in the middle of Orchard Lake
, in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan
. The island was formed during the region's last ice age, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Over 400 species of flora currently inhabit the island, including many rare varieties in Oakland County
. Native Americans
previously inhabited Apple Island, but now the West Bloomfield School District
currently uses the island as an educational nature center.
. The island's formation traces back to the recession of the region’s last ice age glacier 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Apple Island Sanctuary contains examples of every type of ecological system identified within the southeastern Michigan
region. Over 400 species of flora inhabit the island, including many rare varieties in Oakland County.
bowl while plowing his cornfield. The bowl was filled with wampum
, and was constructed in the late 18th century or early 19th century. The bowl was most likely a gift from the French to the Native Americans. The Cranbrook Collection currently houses the artifact.
Several one-meter-square test pits dug on the west side of the island in 1997 yielded pottery and stone tools. No evidence however exists that pottery production ever occurred on the island, nor is there a local source of flint or other stone suitable for the manufacturing of tools. Accordingly, these items were most likely brought to the island. These artifacts signal the influence of early Europeans on the area’s native population. Many of these silver trade items were recovered during archaeological excavations on the island in June 2000. A third dig conducted in August 2008 concluded that, "[i]t is currently impossible to determine how often or for how long the site was occupied by American Indians or exactly when this may have occurred. It is most likely that the site area was one of the many local archaeological sites various American Indian groups used casually and ephemerally during the 15th or 16th or even the early 17th century and then occupied again, possibly by very different peoples, some time around the last half of the 18th or the early 19th century. But it is also possible that 200K52/476 is one of those extremely rare sites occupied between 1625 AD and 1725 AD when both aboriginal stone-working and ceramic manufacturing technologies and European trade co-existed. Only carefully planned and executed archaeological excavation and professional analyses documenting undisturbed deposits can determine the facts regarding the potential importance of this site on Apple Island."
Local folklore
recounts Ottawa Chief Pontiac
's burial on the island. To test the validity of these accounts, a limited excavation was conducted on a site the islanders referred to as "Pontiacs Mound" during a 2008 excavation. The results of the test suggested that it "appears to be only one of several rather level promontories extending without discernible interruption from the central plateau of the island toward northwestern shore. While additional deep testing may reveal other information, at this time the most appropriate hypothesis is to regard all of these adjacent landforms as non-cultural portions of the higher soils, dissected by centuries [if not millennia] of natural headward erosion
and downslope weathering."
According to one writer, a lake in Oakland County was called Menahsagorning, "apple place" by the Native Americans because of the nearby apple trees and orchards. (Baraga’s dictionary defines mishiminatig as ‘apple tree.’) Early white settlers consequently named the body of water located there "Orchard Lake", as well as the town established there in 1827
. The penultimate syllable of the aboriginal name is likely corrupted because the "r" sound is not a part of the Three Fires
language. In short, whatever words Native Americans actually used to refer to the island remain a mystery.
Samuel W. Durant’s 1877 publication, The History of Oakland County Michigan, first mentions that Apple Island and 107 acre (0.43301402 km²) on Orchard Lake’s south shore were reservation lands. Durant does not indicate his source for this statement, and no independent source verifies this assertion. All subsequent publications have relied on Durant as the authority for this proposition.
s, chert spearheads
and bird stone
s left by Native Americans.
The Treaty of Detroit
, negotiated on November 17, 1807, surrendered land consisting of approximately the southeast quarter of the lower peninsula of present-day Michigan and a small section of present-day Ohio from the Odawa
, Ojibwe, Wyandot, and Potawatomi
to the United States government. The eventual settlers to this island remarked that Native Americans frequently visited the island, and referred to the area in their language as “apple place.”
When deposed in 1856, Chief Okemos
stated, “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.” Okemos's reference may have been to Apple Island.
purchased the island on June 18, 1827 at the price of eleven shillings, eight pence per acre. Galloway likely never lived on the island because his name is absent on the 1830 census of the Michigan Territory. One of his sons however eventually settled east of Pontiac. Galloway’s last will and testament, dated November 19, 1838, states: “I give to my said daughter Julia Ann Galloway all that piece of land, called Apple Island in Orchard Lake. So called, situated in the state of Michigan, and not many miles from Pontiac.” West Bloomfield records show that “non-resident” Joseph Allen, Julia Ann Galloway’s husband, paid $1.23 in taxes on the island in 1847.
between Orchard
and Cass lake
s, in sections 9 and 10. Dow was likely the first white person to live on the island, and the first members of what would later be known as the “Scotch settlement.” On August 19, 1847 William Dow purchased Apple Island from the Allens for $1,050. In 1849, Dow paid taxes based partly on personal property associated with the parcel. Dow spent his final years as a farmer in West Bloomfield after later selling his property to John Coats. William Dow died on January 2, 1862 and is buried in Pontiac’s
Oak Hill Cemetery.
. After Coats's left his business, he built a single-story Greek Revival
home on the island’s highest point. Coats later returned to Scotland when his son James was old enough to attend school.
merchant with a store on Jefferson and a founding member of the St. Andrew’s Society. Campbell’s extended family and friends lived on the island for almost 60 years. Extensive gardens and orchards were planted, and many new structures were built. However the island retained some of its historic feel by remaining free from electricity, telephones and indoor plumbing. Colin Campbell's wife Caroline was instrumental in the formation of Orchard Lake Community Church, Presbyterian in 1871.
Ward’s son Willis published his own book, “Orchard Lake and its Island,” in 1942. The book recounts stories of many Orchard Lake families, and how diverse wildlife once occupied the area. Willis Ward's children, Marjorie Ward Strong and Harold Lee Ward, inherited the island after their father's death in 1943. After Ward Strong died in 1970, the island was conveyed to its present owner, the West Bloomfield School District
, for use as an educational nature center.
Orchard Lake
Orchard Lake is a medium-sized inland lake, 795 acres . It has a 110 feet maximum depth and is in the city of Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, in Michigan, USA. It is the second-largest lake in Oakland County after Cass Lake....
, in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The island was formed during the region's last ice age, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Over 400 species of flora currently inhabit the island, including many rare varieties in Oakland County
Oakland County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the 2010 Census, there were 1,202,362 people, 471,115 households, and 315,175 families residing in the county. The population density as of the 2000 census was 1,369 people per square mile . There were 492,006 housing units at an average density of 564 per square mile...
. Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
previously inhabited Apple Island, but now the West Bloomfield School District
West Bloomfield School District
West Bloomfield School District is located in West Bloomfield, Michigan. It was formed in 1949 and covers approximately sixteen square miles. As of May 2011, its superintendent is Dr. JoAnn Andrees who succeeded Dr. Gary Faber in 2008...
currently uses the island as an educational nature center.
Topography
Apple Island is a 35 acres (141,640.1 m²) island, spanning three-eighths of a mile in length and a quarter of a mile in width. The island's highest point is 960 feet (292.6 m) in elevation, approximately 31 feet (9.4 m) above the normal elevation of Orchard LakeOrchard Lake
Orchard Lake is a medium-sized inland lake, 795 acres . It has a 110 feet maximum depth and is in the city of Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, in Michigan, USA. It is the second-largest lake in Oakland County after Cass Lake....
. The island's formation traces back to the recession of the region’s last ice age glacier 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Apple Island Sanctuary contains examples of every type of ecological system identified within the southeastern Michigan
Southeast Michigan
Southeast Michigan, also called Southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are concentrated in Metro...
region. Over 400 species of flora inhabit the island, including many rare varieties in Oakland County.
Archaeology
In the 1930s an Apple Island resident discovered a French-made spun pewterPewter
Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and lead. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C ,...
bowl while plowing his cornfield. The bowl was filled with wampum
Wampum
Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
, and was constructed in the late 18th century or early 19th century. The bowl was most likely a gift from the French to the Native Americans. The Cranbrook Collection currently houses the artifact.
Several one-meter-square test pits dug on the west side of the island in 1997 yielded pottery and stone tools. No evidence however exists that pottery production ever occurred on the island, nor is there a local source of flint or other stone suitable for the manufacturing of tools. Accordingly, these items were most likely brought to the island. These artifacts signal the influence of early Europeans on the area’s native population. Many of these silver trade items were recovered during archaeological excavations on the island in June 2000. A third dig conducted in August 2008 concluded that, "[i]t is currently impossible to determine how often or for how long the site was occupied by American Indians or exactly when this may have occurred. It is most likely that the site area was one of the many local archaeological sites various American Indian groups used casually and ephemerally during the 15th or 16th or even the early 17th century and then occupied again, possibly by very different peoples, some time around the last half of the 18th or the early 19th century. But it is also possible that 200K52/476 is one of those extremely rare sites occupied between 1625 AD and 1725 AD when both aboriginal stone-working and ceramic manufacturing technologies and European trade co-existed. Only carefully planned and executed archaeological excavation and professional analyses documenting undisturbed deposits can determine the facts regarding the potential importance of this site on Apple Island."
Local folklore
Folklore of the United States
The folklore of the United States, or American folklore, is one of the folk traditions which has evolved on the North American continent since Europeans arrived in the 16th century. While it contains much in the way of Native American tradition, it should not be confused with the tribal beliefs of...
recounts Ottawa Chief Pontiac
Chief Pontiac
Pontiac or Obwandiyag , was an Ottawa leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion , an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian War. Historians disagree about Pontiac's...
's burial on the island. To test the validity of these accounts, a limited excavation was conducted on a site the islanders referred to as "Pontiacs Mound" during a 2008 excavation. The results of the test suggested that it "appears to be only one of several rather level promontories extending without discernible interruption from the central plateau of the island toward northwestern shore. While additional deep testing may reveal other information, at this time the most appropriate hypothesis is to regard all of these adjacent landforms as non-cultural portions of the higher soils, dissected by centuries [if not millennia] of natural headward erosion
Headward erosion
Headward erosion is a fluvial process of erosion that lengthens a stream, a valley or a gully at its head and also enlarges its drainage basin. The stream erodes away at the rock and soil at its headwaters in the opposite direction that it flows. Once a stream has begun to cut back, the erosion is...
and downslope weathering."
Menahsagorning
Dr. Samuel M. Leggett’s epic poem, circulated in 1909, first makes light of the fact that the island was once known as Me-Nah-Sa-Gor-Ning. The poem chronicles an insane Native American maiden’s devotion to her deceased husband, and her subsequent murder at the hands of her tribe. Leggett claimed that his poem formalized popular lore.According to one writer, a lake in Oakland County was called Menahsagorning, "apple place" by the Native Americans because of the nearby apple trees and orchards. (Baraga’s dictionary defines mishiminatig as ‘apple tree.’) Early white settlers consequently named the body of water located there "Orchard Lake", as well as the town established there in 1827
Orchard Lake Village, Michigan
Orchard Lake Village is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan and a small, exclusive suburb on the outskirts of Metro Detroit. The population was 2,375 at the 2010 census....
. The penultimate syllable of the aboriginal name is likely corrupted because the "r" sound is not a part of the Three Fires
Council of Three Fires
The Council of Three Fires, also known as the People of the Three Fires, the Three Fires Confederacy, the United Nations of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Indians, or Niswi-mishkodewin in the Anishinaabe language, is a long-standing Anishinaabe alliance of the Ojibwe , Ottawa , and Potawatomi...
language. In short, whatever words Native Americans actually used to refer to the island remain a mystery.
Samuel W. Durant’s 1877 publication, The History of Oakland County Michigan, first mentions that Apple Island and 107 acre (0.43301402 km²) on Orchard Lake’s south shore were reservation lands. Durant does not indicate his source for this statement, and no independent source verifies this assertion. All subsequent publications have relied on Durant as the authority for this proposition.
Native American Settlement
Native American discovery of Apple Island may have happened 2,000 years ago. They may have been to drawn to the island because of the security and abundant resources that the land provided. While which Native American tribes inhabited the site prior to white settlement is unknown, each tribe left artifacts as to its way of life; the entire West Bloomfield lakes area has yielded many hammerstoneHammerstone
In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe, India and North America...
s, chert spearheads
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
and bird stone
Bird stone
Bird stones are prehistoric, abstract stone carvings made by Native Americans. The artifacts were a common inclusion in graves and thought to have ceremonial importance...
s left by Native Americans.
The Treaty of Detroit
Treaty of Detroit
The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed at Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Michigan Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs the sole...
, negotiated on November 17, 1807, surrendered land consisting of approximately the southeast quarter of the lower peninsula of present-day Michigan and a small section of present-day Ohio from the Odawa
Odawa people
The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...
, Ojibwe, Wyandot, and Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
to the United States government. The eventual settlers to this island remarked that Native Americans frequently visited the island, and referred to the area in their language as “apple place.”
When deposed in 1856, Chief Okemos
John Okemos
John Okemos was a Michigan Native American chief of the Saginaw Chippewa people of the Ojibwa nation. In the Ojibwa language, Ogimaans means "Little Chief." It is not known if this refers to Okemos' short stature or refers in some way to his actual power as a chief...
stated, “I was born in Michigan, near Pontiac
Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, located within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 59,515. It is the county seat of Oakland County...
, on an island in a lake… I was 30 years old when I left the place I was born.” Okemos's reference may have been to Apple Island.
James Galloway
After Native Americans ceded the island to the United States in the Treaty of Detroit, James Galloway of Palmyra, New YorkPalmyra, New York
Palmyra, New York may refer to:*Palmyra , New York*Palmyra , New York...
purchased the island on June 18, 1827 at the price of eleven shillings, eight pence per acre. Galloway likely never lived on the island because his name is absent on the 1830 census of the Michigan Territory. One of his sons however eventually settled east of Pontiac. Galloway’s last will and testament, dated November 19, 1838, states: “I give to my said daughter Julia Ann Galloway all that piece of land, called Apple Island in Orchard Lake. So called, situated in the state of Michigan, and not many miles from Pontiac.” West Bloomfield records show that “non-resident” Joseph Allen, Julia Ann Galloway’s husband, paid $1.23 in taxes on the island in 1847.
William Dow
In 1830, William Dow accompanied by his parents and siblings immigrated to the area from Fife, Scotland. The family settled on 270 acres (1.1 km²) on the isthmusIsthmus
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...
between Orchard
Orchard Lake
Orchard Lake is a medium-sized inland lake, 795 acres . It has a 110 feet maximum depth and is in the city of Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, in Michigan, USA. It is the second-largest lake in Oakland County after Cass Lake....
and Cass lake
Cass Lake (Michigan)
Cass Lake is the largest lake in Oakland County, Michigan. It covers 1,280 acres and has a maximum depth of 123 ft . It is bordered by the cities, villages, and townships of Waterford Township, West Bloomfield Township, Orchard Lake Village, and Keego Harbor.Dodge #4 State Park is located on the...
s, in sections 9 and 10. Dow was likely the first white person to live on the island, and the first members of what would later be known as the “Scotch settlement.” On August 19, 1847 William Dow purchased Apple Island from the Allens for $1,050. In 1849, Dow paid taxes based partly on personal property associated with the parcel. Dow spent his final years as a farmer in West Bloomfield after later selling his property to John Coats. William Dow died on January 2, 1862 and is buried in Pontiac’s
Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, located within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 59,515. It is the county seat of Oakland County...
Oak Hill Cemetery.
John Coats
John Coats subsequently purchased the island on June 25, 1851 for $1,600. Coats immigrated from Paisley, Scotland, and was the youngest son of cotton thread innovator James Coats. Two of John Coats’ brothers, James and Peter, formed the J & P Coats Thread Co. In the late 1840s, John Coats came to the island to act as an agent for his brothers’ company. He was a founding member of Detroit’s St. Andrew’s Society in 1849, and co-owner of Jack & Coats, a wholesale and retail dry-goods store on Jefferson AvenueJefferson Avenue (Detroit)
Jefferson Avenue is a scenic road along the eastern part of the Detroit metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan. It travels alongside Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and Lake Saint Clair. This road also provides access to many recreational facilities in the area...
. After Coats's left his business, he built a single-story Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
home on the island’s highest point. Coats later returned to Scotland when his son James was old enough to attend school.
Colin Campbell
On August 27, 1856 John Coats sold the island to Colin Campbell for $3,050. Campbell was a successful Scottish dry goodsDry goods
Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...
merchant with a store on Jefferson and a founding member of the St. Andrew’s Society. Campbell’s extended family and friends lived on the island for almost 60 years. Extensive gardens and orchards were planted, and many new structures were built. However the island retained some of its historic feel by remaining free from electricity, telephones and indoor plumbing. Colin Campbell's wife Caroline was instrumental in the formation of Orchard Lake Community Church, Presbyterian in 1871.
The Wards
David Ward was trained by his father to be a surveyor. In 1863, Ward moved to a farm at Orchard Lake after his prosecution of "log thieves" caused his children to be harassed. Ward lived at the farm, except in the winter when business required him to return to Detroit.Ward’s son Willis published his own book, “Orchard Lake and its Island,” in 1942. The book recounts stories of many Orchard Lake families, and how diverse wildlife once occupied the area. Willis Ward's children, Marjorie Ward Strong and Harold Lee Ward, inherited the island after their father's death in 1943. After Ward Strong died in 1970, the island was conveyed to its present owner, the West Bloomfield School District
West Bloomfield School District
West Bloomfield School District is located in West Bloomfield, Michigan. It was formed in 1949 and covers approximately sixteen square miles. As of May 2011, its superintendent is Dr. JoAnn Andrees who succeeded Dr. Gary Faber in 2008...
, for use as an educational nature center.
Source
This material was originally compiled for the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society GWBHS for the Winter, 2002 newsletter. The material was further revised in May 2006 and became part of the historical society's Pocket Professor series.External links
- Main webpage, at local historical society.