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}} Belle Isle, officially Belle Isle Park, is a island park in the Detroit River, between the United States mainland and Canada. Owned by the City of Detroit, it is managed as a state park by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources through a 30-year lease initiated in 2013. Belle Isle is the largest city-owned island park in the United States and is the third largest island in the Detroit River after Grosse Ile and Fighting Island. It is connected to mainland Detroit by the MacArthur Bridge. The island is home to the Belle Isle Aquarium, the Belle Isle Conservatory, the Belle Isle Nature Zoo, the Detroit Yacht Club on an adjacent island, the James Scott Memorial Fountain, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, a Coast Guard station, a municipal golf course and numerous monuments. It also previously housed a Nature Center where visitors were able to traverse wooded trails and view wildlife natural habitats, a former Belle Isle Zoo, riding stables and the Detroit Boat Club. The island includes a half-mile (800 m) swimming beach. ==History== The island was settled by French colonists in the 18th century, who named it ''Île aux Cochons'' (Hog Island). The Island was once the estate of General Alexander Macomb, Jr., whose monument stands in the Washington Boulevard Historic District in downtown Detroit. On July 4, 1845, a historic picnic party was held on the island to change the name to “Belle Isle” in honor of Miss Isabelle Cass, the daughter of then Governor (General) Lewis Cass. Belle Isle literally means "beautiful island" in French. It is misspelled, however, and should be Belle Île. Prominent urban park designer Frederick Law Olmsted created a design for the island in the 1880s however, only some elements of his design were completed. The 1908 Belle Isle Casino building is not an actual gambling facility but rather, is used for occasional public events. A highlight of Belle Isle is a beautiful botanical garden and the Belle Isle Conservatory (1904). Both the conservatory and the adjacent aquarium were designed by Detroit architect Albert Kahn, who designed city landmarks such as Cadillac Place and the Ford Rouge Factory. On a fateful night in 1908 Byron Carter of Cartercar stopped to help a stranded motorist on Belle Isle. When he cranked her Cadillac, it kicked back and broke his jaw. Complications from the injury turned into pneumonia and he died. The tragedy motivated Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac Motors to state, "The Cadillac car will kill no more men if we can help it" and hire Charles Kettering who established Delco and developed the electric self-starter that was soon standard on all automobiles. The island park served as a staging ground by the U.S. military during World War II for a re-enactment of a Pacific island invasion by the Navy and Marine Corps. The island was temporarily renamed Bella Jima, and Detroiters were treated to the sight of an island invasion without the bloodshed. It was conducted after the invasion of Iwo Jima. Architect Cass Gilbert designed Belle Isle's ''James Scott Memorial Fountain''. Gilbert's other works include the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC. William Livingstone Memorial Light, the only marble lighthouse in the United States, is on the east end of the island, with sumptuous materials and architecture. It was named for the president of the ''Lakes Carriers Association'' who advocated safety and navigational improvements in Great Lakes shipping.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=William Livingstone Memorial, MI )〕 Additional recreational options include a nature center, wheelchair accessible nature trail, fishing piers, playgrounds, picnic shelters, and handball, tennis and basketball courts, baseball fields, and cricket pitch. At one time, the island housed a canoe concession, which provided rental canoes and stored private ones. Canoe riders often stopped at the nearby Remick Band Shell which hosted regular concerts from 1950 to 1980. The band shell replaced an earlier facility and provided more amenities for performers and audience members. It was constructed at a cost of $150,000 and was named for resident Jerome H. Remick, who owned the world's largest music publishing house at the time. Nicholas Kerschen and his family, immigrants from Luxembourg, operated a farm on Belle Isle from 1895 until the early 1900s according to Kerschen family history.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://kerschen.org/ )〕 The Detroit Boat Club moved rented facilities on the island from 1902 until 1996. The marina and building are currently closed and only rowing activities still occur at that location. The Belle Isle Golf Course opened in 1922. The Detroit Yacht Club building dates to 1923 and still houses an active private sailing club also offers swimming and other country club amenities. The Scott Fountain was finished in 1925. The Activities Building was the site of a restaurant. The Flynn Pavilion (1949) was designed by Eero Saarinen and used for ice skating rental. A ferry service to the island existed from 1840–1957, although the bridge was completed to the island in 1923. Riding stables were housed in an 1863 market building that was relocated from Detroit to the island in the 1890s. The building was disassembled and stored by Greenfield Village in the 2000s. The park headquarters and police station are each located in 1860s-era houses. The island was home to a large herd of European fallow deer since the 1890s. However, this isolated population fell prey to disease at the close of the 20th century as a result of cyclic inbreeding. In 2004, the last of the 300 animals were captured and moved to the Detroit Zoo and nature center, located on Belle Isle. The children's zoo on the island and the aquarium closed due to budget constraints. The Belle Isle Aquarium reopened on August 18, 2012 and is now run entirely by volunteers. It originally opened on August 18, 1904, and was the oldest continually operating public aquarium in North America when it closed on April 3, 2005. The aquarium was operated by the Detroit Zoological Society prior to the 2005 closure. It reopened in 2012 and is currently operated by the Belle Isle Conservancy. It is open to the public from 10:00am to 4:00pm every Saturday and Sunday, free of charge. The 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) historic building features a single large gallery with an arched ceiling covered in green glass tile to evoke an underwater feeling. In 2013, the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy and a State Emergency Manager was appointed by the state government to oversee the city's finances. As part of the process, the state proposed taking over Belle Isle and converting it into a state park. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a lease on October 1, 2013 to lease the park from the city for 30 years; while the city council rejected that offer in mid-October, the Michigan Emergency Loan Board opted for the state's proposal on November 12. It set a 90-day transition period beginning on December 1 to turn the park operations over to the state. As a state park, admittance by car or motorcycle is no longer free, but requires a user to either pay the standard state park user entrance fee or to have a Michigan Recreational Passport sticker on their license plate. There is no charge for those who walk, bicycle or jog to the park.〔(Bell Isle, City of Detroit Recreation Department )〕 The state has promised to make up to $20 million in improvements to the park over the next three years. Belle Isle formally became a state park on February 10, 2014. The park is one of the terminus's for the cross-state Iron Belle Trail which consists of separate hiking and biking trails. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Belle Isle Park (Michigan)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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