Detroit’s Belle Isle Park Is About to Become a Racetrack Again

On Earth Day, crews for the Detroit Grand Prix (officially, “the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Corporation”) began setting up for the annual auto race, which will begin on May 31. The site of the race is Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River that has been the city’s most significant public park for more than a century.

The 982-acre park attracts an estimated 4 million visitors per year, who come for family reunions and weddings, to use amenities like the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, and to enjoy the natural areas on the island’s east end that attract a number of migrating birds. But the Grand Prix—which has taken place on the island intermittently since 1992—complicates these pursuits for weeks during Detroit’s short summer.