Island in middle of Lake Erie once used for smuggling, mob casino, researcher finds

But it served a much darker purpose a century ago, when it was used by gangsters to move alcohol during prohibition, and hosted a casino that attracted criminals and the people tasked with catching them.

He created a huge hotel with a basement casino that was, as they said, fit for the Vegas Strip- Craig Mitchell

Craig Mitchell, an outdoor education teacher with the Toronto District School Board, recently wrote an articlefor Outdoor Canada about the history of Middle Island.

He joined Windsor Morning on Monday to talk about what he found.

"It's not often that we get to find a relatively untold story, especially one that's almost 100 years old,but Middle Island's areally neat little island considering it's kind of isolated in the middle of Lake Erie," he said.

"It became quite a little hub for some illegal activities under the name and guise of being a fishing club."

'If we build it, they will come'

"So he had this brilliant idea if we will build it, they will come and and that's what he did," Mitchell said.

"He created a huge hotel with a basement casino that was, as they said, fit for the Vegas Strip. So everything from poker, slot machines and I've been told through my research and interviews that the craps table was a particular favourite for people in the area."

Rum-running

Because of Middle Island's proximity to the American-Canadian border, it was an ideal location for alcohol smugglers of the early twentieth century to transport their cargo.

Today, what remains of the gangster lifestyle on Middle Island is a distant memory, according to a representative from Parks Canada.

"Vandals set fire to it [the hotel] in the winter of 1998-1999, and all that remained were the burnt walls," Parks Canada said in an email. "The remaining structure has since been demolished due to safety concerns."

"Staff visiting the island have shared that the remains and rubble of the structure are hard to find even with GPS coordinates, and often only successfully done when there is not yet greenery on the island ...Any abandoned materials and outbuildings are in similar conditions."

Middle Island's greenery

Today, the island is a place of research and monitoring.

These includeblue ash, common hoptree, Kentucky coffee tree, red mulberry, wild hyacinth, eastern foxsnake, Lake Erie watersnake, barn swallow, shagreen, eastern banded tigersnail, and monarch butterfly.

Conservationists from Parks Canada visitthree to five times a year. But, with a history of bootleggers and bandits, the island's role in the early 20th century is still of interest today.