Deer Island (Thousand Islands)
Encyclopedia
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...
. It lies between mainland Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, within the Saint Lawrence River
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
, close to Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,080 at the 2010 census.The Village of Alexandria Bay is in the Town of Alexandria.Keewaydin State Park is southeast of the village...
. It is owned entirely by the Russell Trust Association
Russell Trust Association
The Russell Trust Association is the business name for the New Haven, Connecticut, based Skull and Bones society, incorporated in 1856.The Russell Trust was incorporated by William Huntington Russell as its president, and Daniel Coit Gilman as its first treasurer...
and is used as a Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
retreat.
The island lies near Boldt Castle
Boldt Castle
Boldt Castle, located on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands of the Saint Lawrence River, along the northern border of New York State, is a major landmark and tourist attraction in its region.-History:...
and can be seen up close from several Canadian and U.S. tour vessels that operate in the local waterways. The land on the island is densely overgrown, with a small lodge on the southern corner of the island.
Controversy
Some theorists, Mark DiceMark Dice
Mark Dice is an author, pop culture critic, and political activist based in San Diego, California.Dice and his supporters have been reported to "flood the airwaves of call-in radio and television shows," a practice called phone mobbing, to promote these ideas. His first book, a 450-page manifesto...
included, have suggested that Deer Island plays host annually to regular meetings and initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
rites of the Skull and Bones society, and that the island is historically significant for being prominent in theories concerning the New World Order and Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
lore. Despite conspiracy theories that hypothesize the opposite, given its proximity to the international boundary line separating Canada and the United States, it is not lawless, but under the authority of the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Nearby Boldt Castle
Boldt Castle
Boldt Castle, located on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands of the Saint Lawrence River, along the northern border of New York State, is a major landmark and tourist attraction in its region.-History:...
has its own customs office.
Flora and fauna
The island is covered in indigenous treeTree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s, made up of mostly White Pine
Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...
, Black Oak, Hemlock
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock....
, and Sugar Maple — typical of the Canadian Shield
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, or Bouclier Canadien , is a vast geological shield covered by a thin layer of soil that forms the nucleus of the North American or Laurentia craton. It is an area mostly composed of igneous rock which relates to its long volcanic history...
— as is much of the surrounding area. There are several abandoned ruins located throughout the 50 acres (20.2 ha) island, now overgrown and barely visible beneath the growth.