Harsens Island
 Harsens Island
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mouth of the St. Clair River at Lake St. Clair |
| Coordinates | 42°35′24″N 82°33′05″W / 42.59000°N 82.55139°WCoordinates: 42°35′24″N 82°33′05″W / 42.59000°N 82.55139°W |
| Administration | |
| State | Michigan |
| County | St. Clair County |
| Township | Clay Township |
| Demographics | |
| Population | ~2,000 |
Harsens Island is a wet marshy location at the mouth of the St. Clair River on Lake St. Clair, in the U.S. state of Michigan. Politically, the island is in Clay Township of St. Clair County.
The island was named by Americans for its first settler, James (or Jacob) Harsen, of Dutch descent, who migrated from New York state in about 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, with his daughter and son-in-law Isaac Graveraet (or Graveret). Harsen bought the island from the Indians in 1783. It was also known as "Jacob Island" (also James or Jacobus Island) as late as 1809. The name of the post office, Sans Souci, was changed to "Harsens Island" in 1960.
Great Britain and the United States disputed the island's jurisdiction for many years. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, described the international boundary line with imprecise terms in several places, including the mouth of the St. Clair River. The area had not been surveyed at that time. In the most commonly known map of the area from that period, made by John Mitchell in 1755 and which was used in negotiating the treaty, the delta and all the islands at the mouth of the St. Clair River are absent.
According to the 1783 treaty, the boundary line was to run through the middle of Lake Erie until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron, "thence along the middle of said water communication into the Lake Huron". Due to this vagueness, all of the delta islands, including Harsens and Dickinson, were claimed by the British. Some persons located in the new United States who did not want to renounce their status as British subjects following the war moved to make their residences there. The area was administered by the Hesse District of Upper Canada, which also awarded land grants in the islands. In 1809, surveyors for the British government placed the boundary line in the north channel, which placed all of the delta and islands under British control. May
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