Belle Isle Hosts Outboard Motor Show at Dossin Museum

Need an excuse to visit Belle Isle this weekend? Okay, so given the park's amazing offerings—the Albert Kahn-designed aquarium, the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, the riverfront beach and water slide, and playgrounds galore—the only excuse anyone should need is that Belle Isle is there, it's summer and it's the weekend. If you've got a partner who needs persuasion, though, the park's Dossin Great Lakes Museum is hosting a vintage outboard motor show Saturday, August 1 with a "Made in Michigan" theme. While you're there, visit the Dossin, the aquarium and the conservancy—with our special gallery as more incentive.

Displays in the motor show will include many of the 33 outboard motors built in Michigan, including the first of its kind, the Waterman, made in Detroit in 1904. Motor enthusiasts are encouraged to bring their own engine to display, and to partake in the events "free-sell-swap-trade" area. Members of the Great Lakes Chapter of the Antique Outboard Motor Club will attend to answer all your burning questions about these fascinating bits of marine tech.

If this gives you the Belle Isle bug, the park has a noter installment of Belle Isle Summer Saturdays (BLISS) coming our way at the August 29th, offering visitors the chance to hear tunes at the Music Shell, enjoy special tours of the aquarium, and to catch a screening of the critically-acclaimed 2009 documentary Soul Power (featuring 1974 performance footage of James Brown, Bill Withers and Celia Cruz, among others) on the Lighthouse grounds at dusk.

·Vintage Outboard Motor Show>Vintage Motor Show [Belle Isle Conservancy]
·Great Lakes Chapter of the Antique Outboard Motor Club [Antique Outboard Motor Club]
·Belle Isle Summer Saturdays (BLISS) Flyer [Belle Isle Conservancy]
·Hidden for Decades, Belle Isle Aquarium's Skylights Are Back [Curbed Detroit]
·Zaire's Moment of the Soul [New York Times]