Urban Parks: Exchange Club Island

[Metro Jacksonville]

Urban Parks: Exchange Club Island



Accessible only by boat, Exchange Club Island is a 34-acre uninhabited oasis of serenity in the heart of urban Jacksonville.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-sep-urban-parks-exchange-club-island

[Noone]

Great Pics and appreciate the history that goes with it. Another Jacksonville treasure.

[Garden guy]

Looks like a cool place for inner city kids to camp or boyscouts to camp...someone use it a little and clean it up and get rid of those dead boats...

[acme54321]

The article mentions boat slips and sanitation facilities... where did it go?

[JaxResident]

Fantastic photos and a great article!

Jacksonville has so many great places to see and stuff to do.

[Dapperdan]

Looks like this whole island has gone into disrepair. Maybe this would be a great place to  build a Maritime museum or dock a  floating museum. Could the foot bridge be rebuilt? Or maybe leave it as is and only accesible via water taxi.

[Ocklawaha]

Looks like this whole island has gone into disrepair. Maybe this would be a great place to  build a Maritime museum or dock a  floating museum. Could the foot bridge be rebuilt? Or maybe leave it as is and only accesible via water taxi.

With little help from it's friends, this place WOULD make a fantastic water taxi stop on weekends and holidays. Simple boarding dock, restrooms, picnic shelters, emergency landing area for life-flight, and BBQ and any tourist could have their very own Tarzan safari within sight of the Skyline.

HELLO! Mr. new guy at visit Jacksonville?

OCKLAWAHA

[north miami]

The sandy Gilligan Island beach on the easterly side can be very photogenic.Good to see the photo of the interior open water pooling.
The island is a perfect platform and backdrop for dandy photography.

The trash pile is a familiar land mark.Quite a bit of shoreline trash is likely not discarded on the island intentionally but rather float in from the river-much trash streams in to the river system via roadway drainage points.

Great place for kayak stop and stretch.Hang out.Fairly shoal along Gilligan Beach,deeper with current effect near the westerly shore.Fisher folk take note.In fact,the best place is....hey,wait a minute-that's a secret!

Last time I was there there was what appeared to be a 'homeless' person with rustic camp.No vessel.

I probably looked wacko too with 16 foot square stern Gruman "Guide Boat",small modern four stroke outboard,fancy shirt by Columbia,funny hat with SPF rating for crying out loud....cigar......now that is Yachting!

                      *****   The Island yet again another example of "Potential"   *****

[blizz01]

Could be like Jungle Island in Miami.  I always heard from boaters that it was infested with snakes - maybe that was an old wive's tale........

[billy]

MJ needs a clubhouse.
A namesake island would be neat.

north miami, what was in your cooler?

[fieldafm]

That sunken boat has been in that cove ever since I was a kid. 

[urbaknight]

I like the idea of having a water taxi dock for an urban park with restrooms, drinking fountains maybe even a snack bar. But no footbridge, it would give the homeless access to the island. Let's keep something for the tax paying public to enjoy.

Or on the flipside, we could round up all the homeless and simply strand them on the island, give them seeds, farming tools, small livestock and basic shelter. We could rename it Bum Island.

[finehoe]

Thanks for this.  I was fascinated by this island as a child.  Every time my family would cross the Matthews Bridge I would look at it and imagine that pirate booty was hidden there.

Here's another uninhabited refuge of greenspace in the heart of an urban core:  http://www.nps.gov/this/

[Debbie Thompson]

I had always wondered why it was called Mud Island to begin with, and now I know!  I always assumed it was a natural island the bridge just happened to anchor on to. I never knew it was man-made when the bridge was built, but it makes perfect sense now that I know.  There's a lot of land downtown that was "created" that way.  Bay Street used to be riverfront.

[heights unknown]

I think I would want someone to clean up all of the litter, beer cans, condoms, etc. before I'd let my kids camp there.  Beautiful Island; the city should do more with it like develop it more as a Park and have ferries for a nice price to take people back and forth. Nice Island; I remember looking at that Island whenever I commuted over the Matthews Bridge.

"HU"