Chambers Island facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Chambers Island

Chambers Island from Fish Creek
Chambers Island Location in Wisconsin
Etymology	Talbot Chambers
Geography
Location	Green Bay
Coordinates	45°10′56″N 087°21′19″W / 45.18222°N 87.35528°W / 45.18222; -87.35528
Area	10.04 km2 (3.88 sq mi)land area
Highest elevation	600 ft (180 m), 55 ft above lake level (approx)
Administration
United States
State	Wisconsin
County	Door
Town	Gibraltar

Chambers Island, named in honor of Col. Talbot Chambers, is a 2,834 acre (4.428 sq. mi.) island in Green Bay, about 7 miles (11 km) off the coast of the Door Peninsula, near Gibraltar, Wisconsin. It is part of the Town of Gibraltar in Door County.

Land description

Approximately 1/8 (12.3%) of the island's area is taken up by shallow 348.73-acre (1.4113 km²) Mackaysee Lake, in the northeastern part of the island. There rests a smaller lake to the west of Mackaysee Lake called Mud Lake. There are two islands in Mackaysee Lake. The islands are classified as third order recursive islands due to being in a lake on an island in a lake. The land area is 10.04 km² (3.8765 sq mi, or 2,481 acres). 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 40-acre (160,000 m²) Chambers Island County Park since its commissioning in 1976.

The highest elevation on the island is approximately 55' above the lakeshore. 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 (8.0 km) distant. The island has a small number of cabins.

On the island

Other than the Chambers Island Lighthouse Park and two dirt roads, the entire island is privately owned by a number of different persons and corporations, and landing at any other area is considered trespassing under Wisconsin law. No permanent population was reported in the 2000 census.

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. On January 15, 2014, the Diocese announced that it would cease to offer retreats at the property. The diocese cited that 758 retreatants had visited the island in 2013, a number that made maintaining the island unsustainable. Guests were charged $210 to attend a retreat and it cost the diocese $409 per person for transportation, food, and administration. Another concern cited was potential medical emergencies on the isolated island. Over 62,000 people had attended a retreat in sixty two years.

Chambers Island Airport is located on the island. It is a private use airport owned by Chambers Island Flying Corp. with a single 1,200 by 40 feet (366 by 12 m) gravel runway.

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.

Climate

Gallery

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  Chambers Island across frozen Green Bay

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  Chambers Island and lighthouse

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  Map of northeastern coast of the Door peninsula with Chambers Island on the left.

Images for kids

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  Hanover Shoal on July 27, 2020; the average lake level for July 2020 was 177.45 meters.

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  The public dock is at the far right and closer to the top