A little gem of an island with its surrounding oxbow channel may see recovery from decades of neglect and industrial pollution according to recent media reports. Fordson Island was created during the industrialization of the lower Rouge River and today mainly serves as dockage for tug boats and barges.

The north end offered dramatic vistas of the Dix Street bridge opening to admit ore freighters into the mighty Ford Rouge complex. Until the 1990's an abandoned charming house existed at this point, but was later vandalized then destroyed.


To the west of the island is the oxbow channel that always had the feeling of pirate's cove with an assortment of beat-up and abandoned boats set in an idyllic setting so ironically peaceful compared to the industrial giants nearby.


What made the island miserable was the continual powdering of lime dust from the Levy Lime facility just across the oxbow. Shown in these pictures, taken in 2004, it towered over the island. Fortunately for the island and the adjacent Oakwood Heights neighborhood, it has since been demolished. Smoke and other pollutants from the Rouge complex to north and the river being little more than an industrial sewer further degraded the island's inhabitableness. Much has improved over the decades but soil and river remediation will be a huge task.


Forsdon Island has fascinated me since I first visited it in the 1970's. Later the site became the inspiration for this 38 x 55 inch 1980 painting simply title "Rouge". The cylindrical gasometer on the right that dominated this scene has since been demolished. Gone also is the power plant on the far right following explosions in 1999 that killed six workers.


Aerial View Click Here