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Belle Isle refers to two different islands in Michigan
Belle Isle, Detroit
Belle Isle is a 702 acre island in the Detroit River
that is a park managed by the Detroit Department of Parks and
Recreation. It is connected to the rest of the city by the MacArthur Bridge. It is home to the Detroit Yacht Club , the Dossin Great Lakes
Museum, a Coast Guard post, a municipal
golf course, and a zoo, which was temporarily closed in
2003 due to budget constraints. The island includes a half-mile swimming beach, the only beach in the city of Detroit.
The island was landscaped in the 1880s by Frederick Law Olmsted, a prominent urban park designer. The 1908 Belle Isle
Casino building is still used for occasional public events but no longer a casino. The highlight of Belle Isle is the
combination of the America's first public aquarium and a beautiful botanical garden. Both the casino and the conservatory were built by Detroit architect Albert Kahn, best known for developing open floor plan concrete factories. The island
is home to a large herd of escaped European fallow deer.
Additional recreational options include a nature center, wheelchair accessible nature trail, playground, picnic shelters, and
tennis and basketball courts and baseball fields.
Belle Isle is a small island just off the north shore of Isle
Royale at the head of Belle Harbor. It is the site of a primitive campground and is visited every second day during the peak
season by the island-circling ferry.
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