Belle Isle was once known as Ile de Cochons, French for "Island of the Hogs," because of the wild pigs put here by the first settlers. Today the hogs are gone, but you can find a small herd of European fallow deer.

In the late 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York's Central Park) was hired by the city of Detroit to create a master plan for the island's development.

This beautiful island offers a public beach, a private yacht club, a nine-hole public golf course, and some of the best views of Detroit. There's also the country's oldest fresh water aquarium, which had over 200 species of fish, and an electric eel, until it's unfortunate closing due to budgetary constraints in April, 2005. Next door is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory which displays one of the largest publicly owned orchid collections in the country.

Nearby is the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. Here you can tour the Gothic Room and its 7½ tons of carved oak and stained glass windows. The room was intended to let passengers feel like they were in a luxury hotel while they sailed on the 1912 Great Lakes luxury liner, the City of Detroit III.

At the west end of the island is one of its most striking landmarks that almost didn't come to be, the Scott Fountain. It turns out James Scott was known as a loafer and gambler and not liked by many. He was also rich. In his will, he bequeathed his $500,000 estate to build a fountain on his beloved Belle Isle. Many residents spoke against it, including one chap, who, in a letter to the Detroit News, said there already were too many fountains on Belle Isle. The city should wait "until somebody donates funds for removing one." But 15 years after Mr. Scott's death, the fountain was built and continues to grace the island to this day.

Read more:

Friends of Belle Isle
http://www.fobi.org