Шамберс аралы: тарихы мен географиясы

Island in Green Bay, Lake Michigan, U. S.

Chambers Island, named in honor of Col. Talbot Chambers, is a 2,834 acre (4.428 sq. mi.) island in Green Bay, about 7 mile (11 km) off the coast of the Door Peninsula, near Gibraltar, Wisconsin. It is part of the Town of Gibraltar in Door County. A Native American name for the island is Ke Che Mab Ne Do, which means "The Great Spirit", and the lake is known as Mac Kay See.

Two or three families of European descent lived on the island as early as 1837. In the 1860s, about 250 people lived on the island. But other frontier communities in Ephraim and Fish Creek lured settlers away and by 1987 Reuben Ridgley, a cook and year round watchman for a lumber camp, proclaimed his son, Stephen, the first person ever born on the island. Three years later, the only permanent residents on the island were the government lighthouse keeper and his wife. Since 1867, the island has been home to the Chambers Island lighthouse, which has been deactivated since 1961. The lighthouse has been the maintained at the town park since its commissioning in 1976. For more than sixty years, through 2013, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay maintained a seasonal retreat house on Chambers Island, called the Holy Name Retreat House, on a 70 acre former resort property located on the isthmus between Green Bay and Mackaysee Lake on the east shore of the island. The house opened in the middle of 1951 after being gifted to the diocese by George Baudhuin. The retreat house typically attracted thousands of people per year to reflect for several days or a week between the months of May and September. The diocese cited that 758 retreatants had visited the island in 2013, a number that made maintaining the island unsustainable.

The highest elevation on the island is approximately 55' above the lakeshore. Approximately 1/8 (12.3%) of the island's area is taken up by shallow Mackaysee Lake, in the northeastern part of the island. There rests a smaller lake to the west of Mackaysee Lake called Krause Lake or Mud Lake. The topography is flat and similar to that of Marinette County, and bedrock is not exposed anywhere on the island. The soils are sandy clayey and in general appear to be nutrient poor and somewhat acidic. The variety of plants on the island are more similar to those Marinette County than to plants on the Door Peninsula. Exceptions to this include the calcicoles Canada buffaloberry and herb Robert, which grow in deposits of dolomite gravel deposited from the Door Peninsula.

In the southeast, Chambers Island narrows to a spit, called Hanover Shoal, which extends toward the shoreline of the Door Peninsula, from which it is approximately 5 mile (8 km) distant. The shoal is located at and is open to the public as long as they "keep their feet wet".

Chambers Island's exterior shoreline is mostly privately owned with the exception of the Gibraltar town park where the lighthouse is located. On the southeast side of the island, the right of way of Base Line Road reaches the Green Bay shoreline. In addition, four privately owned exterior shoreline areas are open to public access: The public slip, in the marina, is located a mile and a half in walking distance from the lighthouse. and two segments of the north and south exterior shorelines of the island are located on parcels enrolled for public access under the Wisconsin Managed Forest program. owned by the Door County Land Trust and are also enrolled in the Wisconsin Managed Forest program allowing public access. Although the interior shoreline along Krause Lake (also called Mud Lake) is entirely privately owned, one parcel on the northeast shore of the lake is enrolled in the Wisconsin Managed Forest program to allow public access, which includes access to the lake. Additionally, the Chambers Island Lighthouse Park, a public dock, and two dirt roads are open to the public. The remaining portion of the island is privately owned by a number of different persons and corporations and is closed to trespassers.

Chambers Island Airport is located on the island. It is a private use airport owned by Chambers Island Flying Corp. with a single gravel runway. It was originally constructed as part of an attempt in the 1920s to turn much of the island into a golf course and upscale residential area. This project failed following bad economic times beginning in the fall of 1929. Lots which were originally advertised for up to $15,000 were sold for as little as $22.50 to satisfy tax claims. Electricity is not commercially available on the island, it is provided by individual generators or solar / wind power. Cellular telephone service is provided to the island and the Door County coastline by Cellcom which has a tower on the island. In 2012 the company installed a wind turbine to augment the solar panels that charge the batteries that power the site.