As I have written to the owner of the company that bought the island: You have no idea how much Boblo Island Amusement Park was to our society. The man that made it did it to bring families together and spend time with their children. His legacy died when the company came in and took over the park. If it wasn’t for him to have done that for everyone, our world would never have known how peaceful, relaxing, fun, and most of all memorable a park could be. Our world today, especially with the pandemic, needs what we all once had back in this society. Families need to be brought back together and enjoy their children once again. That is what the park was supposed to be about. I know had I been related to this man, I would have kept his memory alive. You do it for other people. Why not this man who gave everyone joy in life with their families?

I’m glad you made this comment. People should not be making assumptions about the island residents. I grew up visiting the island and I’m hoping to return to explore it again someday.

Yes, I list http://www.boblo.ca as a source where one can get more information in my book Great Lakes Island Escapes: Ferries and Bridges to Adventure (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016). The website is that of Bob-Lo Island Custom Home Builder, the developer of the “Marina Resort Community,” Boblo’s current rendition. You will find even more information in: Summer Dreams: The Story of Bob-Lo Island, by Patrick Livingstone (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008); Bob-Lo: An Island in Troubled Waters, by Annessa Carlisle (Royal Oak, MI: Momentum Books, 2005); and for more photographs, Bob-Lo Revisited, by Bill Rauhausuer (Chicago: Lorentz, 2003). I wouldn’t identify the owners in this suburban retreat as “millionaires,” but the island has been many things to many people over the centuries: the Ojibwe, the Ottawa, the Potawatomi, and the Wyandot all used the island before it was christened “Bois Blanc.” Later it was: a camp for European explorers, the site of a French Catholic mission, within reach of a British fort, headquarters for the Shawnee chief Tecumseh during the War of 1812, an invasion site for Canadian patriots during the Upper Canada Rebellion, and more recently, a picnic spot and a dance venue, all before the rise and decline of the amusement park. Given that the island was known as the Boblo Island Amusement Park from 1898 – 1993, I’d say, overall, it was a pretty successful run.

People quit coming in the 1980’s, then the money for upkeep is not there. Not fair to blame millionaires when often it is a corporation that can run out money after 5 or 6 bad years. Hundreds of small amusement parks went out in 1980’s as families all went to super amusement parks like Cedar Point and Six Flags and did not visit small ones often.