Wellesley Island
| Wellesley Island | ||
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| Waters | Saint Lawrence River | |
| Geographical location | 44 ° 19 ′ N , 76 ° 0 ′ W | |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Wellesley Island is an island in the Saint Lawrence River and belongs communally partly to Orleans , partly to Alexandria in Jefferson County , New York , United States .
history
The island was originally called Wells Island , but was renamed to its present name by Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen after the military leader Arthur Wellesley during his survey of the US-Canada border in 1815 . Distinctive points on the island were named after the victorious battles of Wellington, although none of these names survived. The large bay that is enclosed by the island is called Lake of the Isles and not "Lake Waterloo" as it was originally named.
geography
The island is one of the largest of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River. The stream encloses Wellesley Island on three sides. Only to the north is Hill Island , which is already part of Canadian territory. The northeast coast of the island forms the bay "Lake of the Isles", which extends far to the south and almost doubles the length of the shoreline. The easternmost peninsula runs along the Upper American Narrows of the St. Lawrence River across from Alexandria Bay .
The US-American and Canadian borders run along the northwest coast of the island.
The island consists by and large of two mountain ranges that extend in the St. Lawrence River from southwest to northeast. Only a narrow land bridge, a little more than a kilometer wide, connects the southern island bar with the northern one, and on this isthmus there are wetlands. The southwest coast forms the Eel Bay and the mountain ranges of the island continue in the southwest in Grindstone Island and in the southeast in Murray Isle , Picton Island , and Grenell . To the north, the next larger island is Grenadier Island .
Landforms
Due to its shape and location, the island has, in addition to those already mentioned, a large number of capes , bays and wetlands. The most important of these are
- Barnett Marsh , a swamp in the south of the island
- Densmore Bay , a bay on the south bank of the southeastern peninsula
- South Bay , a bay in the southwestern part of the island
- Brown Bay , a bay in the south of the island
Several streams run on the island, mostly in a north-westerly direction, and there are other small "inlets" from the St. Lawrence River.
traffic
The Interstate 81 , a major international connection between America and Canada runs from south to north across the island. The five-section Thousand Islands International Bridge connects the island to the banks of the river. One of them spans the International Rift between Wellesley Island and Hill Island on the Canadian side. The United States border post is on the northeastern headland of the island. Otherwise, Jefferson County Routes 100 and 191 are the main roads on the island.
Settlements
The area is a popular holiday region and there are a large number of summer houses, but recently more and more houses are being permanently occupied. The population increases sharply in the summer months. There are two state parks , a nature center and three golf courses on the island . At the southernmost tip is the Thousand Island Park Historic District , which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
- Grandview
- Moore Landing
- Fineview
- Thousand Island Park
- Westminster Park
Protected areas
- Wellesley Island State Park with multiple lots
- Dewolf Point State Park on Lake of the Isles on the southeast side of the Northern Peninsula
- Waterson Point State Park on the north side of the island on the US-Canada border
- Mary Island State Park a small island off the eastern tip of Wellesley Island
Individual evidence
- ↑ Susan Weston Smith: The First Summer People: the Thousand Islands 1650-1910. Stoddart Publishing, Toronto 1993.
- ^ National Park Service (March 13, 2009). National Register Information System . National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. (NRISref | 2009a)
