page_title: Peche Island
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Peche Island / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Morning fog inside the island.
context_page_description: Peche Island, is an uninhabited, currently 86-acre Canadian-owned island in the Detroit River, at its opening into Lake Saint Clair. It is 1.2 miles east of U.S.-owned Belle Isle, and 360 yards from the Windsor shore.
  The island was formed from a peninsula of the Canadian shore by the action of the Detroit River. There is a central marsh on the island. The present channel was eroded until the core of the island remained. There are man-made channels cut through the island to ensure fresh water supply and recreational opportunities. The island's flora and fauna have been heavily affected by human activity, and the forest is the result of a rehabilitation programme.
  Formerly an Ontario provincial park, ownership was transferred to the City of Windsor in 1999. The Detroit River passes 200 yards off its northern shore and daily 1,000-foot-long ships pass.
  The island offers attractive Detroit city views, a wide sandy beach and shallow river bottom, and is a favorite with summer boaters. As of June 27th 2018, the City of Windsor began to run a ferry service to the island for day trips. Tours operate Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, weather permitting, from June to October.
context_section_description: The island was used by natives and Ottawa Native Chief Pontiac in the summer months. It was a known as a Native fishing village because of the abundance of white fish in the waters surrounding it. After the coming of the Europeans, Alexis Maisonville purchased the island in 1774 from the Ottawa Natives. This purchase was later revoked by Governor Dorchester, and all islands became Native lands.
  The first and only known permanent residents of the island were a French-Canadian family named LaForest. In 1775 Louisa St. Aubin gave birth to an illegitimate (native) son Charles in 1774. She married on February 2 1780 at Ste Anne church Detroit to Antoine LaForest, son of William and Marguerite Tremblay, settlers at Grosse Pointe (Grand Marais) in 1750 when the King gave land grants for settlement in Detroit. She gave birth  on January 15 1781 to her second child, Jean Marie Laforest, who may have been the first Laforest born on Peche Island. There is evidence that the LaForests were living with Indians, and treated as if they were natives at this time. There is also evidence that her grandmother, Louise Gauthier St. Aubin, was fluent in the native language and went to the Ottawa village to exchange her baked goods for honey and bear grease. 
  They shared the island with local natives.  According to Laforest family records the LaForest dit Tineau families never had a deed to the island. They did ask for Liberty of the island in 1832. They received the right to fish on it. Even when ownership was transferred to the Crown by the Chippewa Indians in 1857, they were not asked to leave the island. A survey done by J. Barthey  on February 14 1859 shows three  homes on the island. They were log huts and 16 x 32 ft with an outhouse behind each one. The names on the homes were Charles Jr, Oliver and Benjamin. Charles and Benjamin were the sons of Charles LaForest dit Tineau and Ursula Soulliere. Oliver was the son of Joseph LaForest and Marie Anne Casavan. Oliver left the island and his brother Leon took it from him.
  In the tax rolls of 1868 in Sandwich Ontario these three are listed as living on Peche Island: Charles Teno Lafforette, Benjamin Teno Lafforette and Leon Lafforette. They had 18 acres of land each. It was Charles LaForest dit Tineau's sons that sold the island for 300 dollars to William Gasper Hall. They left Peche Island to farm on land across from the island where their brothers Jean Baptist and Antoine had been farming since 1838.
  Leon and his wife and family remained on the island after the sale. They were very poor. In 1877 he could not pay his taxes of $13.92 and was listed as a very poor person. He died in 1881 in Tecumseh, Ontario. His daughter Sophie Rose Champine, on behalf of her mother Rosalie Drouillard LaForest, started the inquiry into the sale of the island. They felt they did not agree to sell their share of it. They had moved to River Rouge at the time of this dispute. It was her mother Rosalie who supposedly gave the "curse of Peche island".
  Hiram Walker's sons purchased the property in 1883, from the estate of William G. Hall. There is a fable that the property was forcefully taken from the Laforet family by Hiram Walker's men and was cursed by the Laforets as they left.  
  It was used as a summer home by Hiram Walker, who attempted, for many years, to develop it. Canals were dug to bring in supplies and to ensure the flow of fresh water. Yachts were purchased - the Pastime and the Lurline - for travelling to the island from Walker's office and for cruises and parties on the river and lakes.
  Walker built a 40-room mansion. He planted many trees and established an orchard, along with building a greenhouse to cultivate flowers. He next added a golf course, stables, icehouse and a carriage house. A generator for electric power was constructed. Today, the only visible construction on the island is the ruins of the Walker estate, the result of a 1929 fire.
  According to The Ferry Steamers: The Story of the Detroit-Windsor Ferry Boats by William Oxford, the Detroit, Belle Isle, & Windsor Ferry Company, then owner
caption: Foggy morning inside the island.
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