Location taken: Thousand Islands
Time Taken: June 2010
Just like the post three days ago, this picture was taken at the Thousand Islands at the border between the US and Canada where the St. Lawrence River emerges from Lake Ontario.
This one actually features one of the islands.
This island is called Chimney Island, and is also known as Bridge Island. The chimney is quite visible in this picture, standing on the highest part of the island. A bit less visible is the house on the left of the island in this picture, one of the many summer homes that dot the islands. No sign of any bridges though.
Part of the reason for the dual names is because there’s another of the thousand islands who claims the name Chimney Island. That one also has a second name, Isle Royale, though that shares its name with several other, much more famous islands (such as Isle Royale in Lake Superior). There’s also a French variation to the name, Île Royale, which is also an island off the coast of French Guiana in South America. This made it a bit challenging to find more information about this island, but I did find that a fort was built on Isle Royale by the French, and a battle was fought there. The fort survived the battle, but didn’t survive the building of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Apparently, not even the island truly survived that. Only remnants survive.
But that’s the other Chimney Island.
As for this one, it seems that there was also a small fort on it, a poor miserable place on bare rock with smokey chimneys. It fell into disrepair over the years, vandalized by the very soldiers who lived there.
The island does have some interesting tales about it, though. According to this interesting webpage, there’s an older tale of mysterious murder lurking in the annals of history.
Apparently, back in the days of trappers and traders, a French-Canadian of unknown name and occupation built a house on this island, and brought home his beautiful bride, a woman of mixed white and native blood. One day, some farmers looked and saw the island coated in flames. They rushed to help, and found a canoe, half-burned and bearing the French-Canadian, his head cleaved in two by a tomahawk. His bride was nowhere to be found, their identities were lost to time, and the murder never solved.
