Apple Island (Michigan)
 Apple Island
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Orchard Lake |
| Coordinates | 42°35′21″N 83°22′18″W / 42.58917°N 83.37167°WCoordinates: 42°35′21″N 83°22′18″W / 42.58917°N 83.37167°W |
| Area | 0.14 km2 (0.054 sq mi) |
| Administration | |
| State | Michigan |
| County | Oakland County |
| City | Orchard Lake Village |
| Demographics | |
| Population | Uninhabited |
Apple Island is a 35-acre (140,000 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, until ceding the island to the United States in the Treaty of Detroit. Currently, the West Bloomfield School District uses the island as an educational nature center.
Apple Island is a 37-acre (150,000 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 (290 m) in elevation, approximately 31 feet (9.4 m) above the normal elevation of Orchard 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 region. Over 400 species of flora live upon the island, including many rare varieties in Oakland County.
In the 1930s an Apple Island resident discovered a French-made spun pewter 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 probably 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."
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Wikipedia