Where was it: Chickenbone Reef

[Detroitnerd]

I'd always heard it was called that because it was off the D&C docks and supposedly galley scraps and other things were thrown over the side there. However, in reality, it's further out in the river than where that would happen, so I think it's just legend.

Maybe it was unsubstantiated lore was grist for the name of the actual bar. Some articles from about 100 years ago and more described it as further east. Here's one piece that places "Chickenbone Reef" at the foot of Townsend Street, though it does seem to take lore with a grain of salt:

http://discoverfunhistory.webs.com/yantic.pdf

Stories- both factual and fictional- swirled around the Yantic’s masts like the Great Lakeswinds and the ocean storms that she battled, including the report that she had originallybeen designed to be the yacht of Abraham Lincoln and the slightly demeaning story of“Chickenbone Reef” in the Detroit River.Tradition has it that after her thousands of Great Lakes training cruises, the Yantic sojournedso long and faithfully at her dock at the foot of Townsend Street in Detroit thatdecades of garbage dumping created a bar alongside her hull. Newspapers and marinerspromptly dubbed the bar “Chickenbone Reef.”

But another bit from UD-Mercy seems to say it was nearer Woodward Avenue.

http://research.udmercy.edu/find/spe...sNum&start=100

OLD TIMERS ABOUT THE GREAT LAKES ALL TALKED ABOUT "CHICKEN BONE
REEF," BUT NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN IT, AND NO CHART SHOWED IT; BUT
ANY SAILOR WOULD TELL YOU THAT IT WAS IN THE DETROIT RIVER JUST
OFF WOODWARD AVENUE. IT WAS HERE THAT THE GOVERNMENT REVENUE
CUTTER "FESSENDON" AND THE NAVY GUNBOAT "MICHIGAN" AND OTHERS
USED TO ANCHOR FOR LONG TIMES. ORDINARY MERCHANT SAILORS CLAIMED
THAT "CHICKEN BONE REEF" WAS BUILT UP FROM THE RIVER BOTTOM BY
ALL THE CHICKEN BONES THAT WERE THROWN OVERBOARD FROM THE TABLES
OF THE SHIPS ANCHORED THERE.