Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 5, 2022

Powder House Island as it appeared on a 1906 map by the United States Geological Survey, along with other islands of the Detroit River near the Livingstone Channel
The island appearing as a small island in the center of a map from 1906

Powder House Island (also known as Dynamite Island) is an artificial island on the lower Detroit River in southeast Michigan, directly adjacent to the Canada–United States border. It was constructed in the late 1880s by the Dunbar & Sullivan Company to manufacture and store explosives during their dredging of the Livingstone Channel, in a successful attempt to circumvent an 1880 court order forbidding the company from storing explosives on nearby Fox Island. In 1906, twenty short tons (18,000 kg) of the island's dynamite exploded after two men "had been shooting with a revolver" near it. The explosion was clearly audible from 85 mi (137 km) away. By the 1980s, it was completely unused; by 2015, the island was owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, managed by its Wildlife Division as part of the Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, and accessible to the public for hunting and camping. (Full article...)

Recently featured: