tom
such gradual normal accretive changes in the river delta &
shipping channel as i believe you are describing here couldnt
have left the border high & dry like this
but would have caused it to move about slowly & infinitesimally
with the channel
just as caus may continue to do elsewhere along the seaway
only a sudden avulsive shifting of the watercourse
& a complete rerouting of the shipping lane
whether owing to natural or manmade causes
could have stranded the border on dry land here like this
the bottom of
http://www.midwestconnection.com/Lighthouses/lk_st_clairLT?S
ChannelLT.htm
suggests this is just such a new channel
& a manmade one at that
http://www.bkejwanong.com/history.htm
mentions the 1958 seaway island treaty that evidently prepared
for the change
which may thus have been part of the greater saint lawrence
seaway construction project beginning in 1959
if any part of seaway island even existed as an insular feature
before the seaway construction
it must at least have had a different shape & a different name
but it sounds as tho the canadian part of seaway island could
just be a remnant of the former & now somewhat reduced
walpole island
http://www.bkejwanong.com/waters/leasing.htm
& an akwesasne connection
http://www.tarandus.ca/nations.htm
indicate at least the canadian part of seaway island & all of the
new shipping channel remain entirely within the walpole island
indian reserve territory
suggesting this part of the seaway might even be a sort of
panama canal zone for the walpole island nation
thanx to the 1958 treaty preceding the presumed construction
http://www.midwestconnection.com/glshpng/OglebayNorton/Buc
keye.htm
has a nice view of the part of seaway island that is crossed by
the dry caus border
& it even appears to be marked by a fence line or tree line
the place where that fence ends at the water line would appear
to mark one of the prospective new multicountry points
if any of this ever gets real
tho i suppose any & all of these new countries would still have a
right to add some territorial waters too
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Tom Sanders
<hilversum96@y...> wrote:
> Seaway Island is natural. The border has always
> followed the main shipping channel through the St.
> Clair River and Lake St. Clair. I'm sure lower water
> levels on the Great Lakes have left part of the island
> in both countries.
>
> One possible scenario is that the border follows an
> old, smaller, channel that low water levels have
> exposed. However, that would mean the small sliver of
> land in the US was once a separate, named, island. And
> it isn't.
>
> It's more likely that low water has simply made Seaway
> island larger. The whole region is mostly marshes,
> wetlands, and sandbars. It would be easy for a sandbar
> under shallow water to become permanently exposed. As
> the island grew across the border, the border remained
> in place. And, since it's uninhabited, neither the US
> nor Canada is concerned about the island straddling
> the border.
>
> The border, all the way from Port Huron through the
> St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, is carefully drawn
> around even the smallest islands. So my guess is that
> Seaway Island was once entirely in Canada, and nature
> has permitted it to reach into the USA.
>
> If Harsen's Island ever did secede from the USA, I'm
> just wondering if Russell Island, to its north, would
> go along with them. The lady who thinks Harsen's still
> belongs to the Indians doesn't say if Russell Island
> is part of the land never formally given to Great
> Britain. There's a separate ferry from Algonac to
> Russell - so, if that did happen, Russell would not be
> reachable only through the Republic of Harsen's.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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