Tar Island

Tar Island is an island near the town of Rockport in the Canadian waters of the St. Lawrence River, and a part of the Thousand Islands, a freshwater archipelago.

Tar Island in the foreground, looking south over the St. Lawrence River.

Geography

Tar Island is about three kilometers long and a third of a kilometer wide, and separated from the northern shore of the river by sixty meters.[1] It measures 262 acres (106 hectares) in area and 8.0 kilometers (5.0 miles) in perimeter. Situated on a small unnamed island near the head of Tar Island is an automatic lighthouse directing traffic for the Canadian Middle Channel of the St. Lawrence.[2]

Natural history

A large deposit of black tourmaline is located just southeast of the island,[1][3] intermixed with white quartz, cream colored feldspar, and green-yellow mica.[4] The waters around Tar Island are home to American eel, now endangered.[5]

History

Tar Island was a site of Iroquois settlement, and contains arrowheads, bones, and a star painted in red ochre.[6][7] According to the 18th century French captain Pierre Pouchot, a narrows between the island and Canadian shore was previously called Petit Detroit by the Iroquois, and used for baptizing newcomers to the river.[8] During the War of 1812 Tar Island was the site of the 19 June 1814 ambush and capture of the British gunboat Black Snake, along with her captain Herman Landon, by American sailing master Francis Gregory.[9]

Inhabitants of Tar Island have included entomologist William Steel Creighton,[10] industrialist Robert Hewitt,[11] farmer Ralph Hodge (described in Thompson's Soul of the River,)[12] and videogame designer Brian Reynolds.[13] Farming (including products such as corn)[14] has not been practiced on Tar Island since 1990, with land now primarily used for summer cottages.[15]

See also

References
  1. Bigsby, J. J. (February 1829). "Dr. Bigsby's Sketch of the Topographical and Geology of Lake Ontario (continued)". The Philosophical Magazine. 5 (26): 85. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  2. Sailing Directions: Gulf and River St. Lawrence. Canadian Department of the Environment. 1977. pp. 454–58.
  3. Coste, E (1899). "Statistical Report of the Production, Value, Exports, and Imports of Minerals in Canada". Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. 3 (1): S 67.
  4. Silliman, Benjamin (1824). "A list of minerals and organic remains". American Journal of Science and Arts. 7: 62.
  5. Cheek, Darcy (29 March 2015). "Study targets wintering American eel in St. Lawrence River area". The Whig. Recorder Times. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  6. Thompson, Shawn (1989). River Rats. General Store Publishing House. p. 31.
  7. Patenaude, J. O. (1936). Report of the Department of Mines and Resources Including Report of Soldier Settlement of Canada. Canadian Department of Mines and Resources. p. 43.
  8. Hough, Franklin (1880). The Thousand Islands of the River St. Lawrence. Syracuse, NY: Davis, Bardeen & Co. p. 104.
  9. Ontario Historical Society. 21–22: 132. 1924. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. Buhs, Joshua (2000). "Building on Bedrock: William Steel Creighton and the Reformation of Ant Systematics". Journal of the History of Biology. 33 (1): 27–70. doi:10.1023/a:1004712911037.
  11. Smith, Susan. "Thousand Islands Life in April 2011". ThousandIslandslife.com. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  12. Thompson, Shawn (1997). Soul of the River. Burnstown: General Store Publishing House. pp. 47–52.
  13. Au, Wagner James (2009-07-19). "Can Social Games Make More Money?". GigaOm.com. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  14. Keats, John (1987). Of time and an island. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780815602118.
  15. Bell, Michael (2007). "In the River: A Socio-Historical Account of Dialogue and Diaspora". Humanity & Society. 31 (2–3): 219. doi:10.1177/016059760703100204.

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