Tashmoo Park

Tashmoo Park was an amusement park in Algonac, Michigan that opened in 1897. It was closed in 1951 and later mostly demolished, although the dance pavilion remains today, used by a marina to store recreational boats over the winter.

The park was located on Harsens Island in the St. Clair Flats at the northern end of Lake St. Clair. The St Clair Flats is the largest fresh water river delta in the world. Tashmoo Park offered visitors an escape from the oppressive heat and humidity of packed, sweltering Detroit in the summertime.Tashmoo Park had picnic tables, a baseball diamond, swings and rides, as well as a casino and a dancing pavilion. Some visitors swam in the St Clair River. Indians from nearby Walpole Island sold moccasins and beadwork.

The park was served by many steamships that travelled several times a day between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, delivering passengers and freight. This was during a time when automobiles were rare and roads practically non-existent.However, the connecting waters of the Great Lakes made steamships travel almost like riding a bus, and up to 250,000 people visited Tashmoo Park in the summers during the 1890s and early 1900s. The most famous steamer was the "SS Tashmoo", which made several stops daily on trips between Detroit and Port Huron.

External links

* [http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/amuse.asp?id=321&type=2 Amusement Parks - Tashmoo Park]
* [http://www.mervuepublications.com/lifeattheflats.htm Life at the Flats (a book about the St Clair Flats area)]
* [http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=22&category=events The SS Tashmoo and her date with doom]