History of Tashmoo Park Told in New Book

March 28, 2012 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Tashmoo Park and the Steamer Tashmoo by local author Arthur M. Woodford. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images providing readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that helped shape their community. For nearly 50 years, Tashmoo was Detroit’s most popular park destination and a trip aboard the Tashmoo was a highlight of the summer season.

Tashmoo Park, located 20 miles north of Detroit on Harsen’s Island, opened in 1897. Owned by the White Star Line excursion boat company, the park was a pleasant two-hour ride from the city. In its heyday, 250,000 people visited the park annually arriving aboard one of the many excursion steamers out of Detroit.

To reach the park, visitors traveled aboard one of the White Star Line’s excursion boats, the most famous of which was—without question—the steamer Tashmoo.  Completed in 1900, the Tashmoo was the grandest excursion steamer of her day. The park was a 60-acre resort that included picnic grounds, a large dance pavilion, two baseball diamonds, a bicycle track, amusement rides, and a bathhouse and swimming beach.

Sadly, after the steamer sank in 1936, the park went into decline and finally closed in 1951. Today, Tashmoo, the park and the steamer, are only a happy memory of a far simpler time. To tell this fascinating story of the park and the steamer, historian Arthur M. Woodford has selected images from a variety of sources including libraries, museums and archives, as well as from a number of noted private collections.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.

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With more than 7,500 local history titles published to date, Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Widely recognized sepia books feature hundreds of vintage historical images.