By the 1980s it was completely unused, and by 2015 the island was owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, managed by its Wildlife Division as part of the Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, and accessible to the public for hunting.

[7][8]: 46:47  This work involved large amounts of blasting, due to limestone bedrock in the area; the nearby Fox Island was a natural choice for storage of explosive compounds.

[9][12] In March 1880, litigation related to the circumstances of the explosion resulted in an injunction being issued by the Wayne County chancery court in the case of Walter Crane v. Charles F. Dunbar et al.[13] The injunction forbade the company's operators, Charles F. Dunbar and Daniel B. Reaume, to engage in "storing nitroglycerine or any other explosive material on Fox Island".

[7] Shortly afterwards, however, another explosion occurred at the Lime-Kiln Crossing worksite on September 24, 1880, which shook houses in Amherstburg "to their foundations", and could be felt in the town of Essex 16 mi (26 km) away.

[15][16] After the injunction was issued, Dunbar & Sullivan resorted to storing their explosives on a scow anchored several hundred yards to the east of Fox Island.

No additional structures or mechanisms were planned to help contain or redirect the energy of an unintentional detonation; the primary difference between the two sites was that one of them had not existed when the ruling was made, and was therefore (ostensibly) not subject to it.

[16] This scow was tasked with carrying rock from channel excavation to a site several hundred yards to the east of Fox Island, and dumping it on the river floor.

[21] Two men, Henry Rogers and Theodore Perry, were injured; they had just left the island, and were 100 yd (91 m) from the shore, when a sudden explosion launched them from their catboat, tore the clothes from their backs, and caused severe burns and lacerations.

Charles Stedman, a vacationer from Indiana on a trip with his wife and children to Bois Blanc Island, said: We were sprawled out in the shade of a tree [...] when the shock came.

Rocks and spray shot hundreds of feet into the air, and the report was followed immediately by a shower of white that I afterward learned was limestone.

Women shrieked in dismay, and repentant men fell upon their knees and began to offer fervent invocations for divine intercession.

[23]In the aftermath of the explosion, thousands of windows were shattered on Grosse Ile alone, plate glass was broken 3 miles (4.8 km) away in Trenton, and work on the shipping channel was delayed due to the loss of blasting equipment.

[29] Henderson appealed the case to the United States Court of Appeals in Cincinnati,[29] which reversed the prior ruling and granted an injunction (albeit with limitations) in February 1908, with Judge John K. Richards[30] giving the opinion:[31] We think it apparent from the record that a reasonable amount of dynamite, for use in the public work, might be stored on Powder House Island without injuring persons and property in the neighborhood, and to the great interest of the public in the doing of the improvement of the Detroit River now going on, and so we think that, under proper limitations, an injunction ought to be granted; the judgement of the court below is therefore reversed and the case remanded, with instructions to grant an injunction restraining the defendant from storing dynamite on the island or place described in the bill as the place where the defendant had recently been storing it, in such quantity as to create danger to the complainant or his family personally, or danger to the property, real or personal, owned by or possessed by him, at the place described in the bill as his residence on Grosse Ile.

[32] However, public opinion on the issue was divided, with some residents of nearby islands "apprehensive" about the storage of dynamite along the lower Detroit River.

[32] At the hearing, the residents of Grosse Ile and Hickory Island were represented by Dr. David Inglis, who expressed concern about the storage of explosives, and proposed that the matter be settled in federal court.

Townsend's proposal for a compromise entailed constructing three additional islands, between which a total of 60 short tons (54,000 kg) of dynamite would be divided evenly.

By March 1910, the dynamite factory on Powder House Island had returned to operation, with an output of 2 short tons (1,800 kg) per day.

[38] In July of that year, several hundred passengers of the pleasure boat Wauketa were "given nearly a three hours extension of their outing" when it ran aground on the shore of a Dunbar Island:[39] The passengers, none of whom seemed to take the occurrence very seriously, enjoyed themselves in the cool breezes counting the stars and speculating on what would happen if the dynamite magazine of Dunbar & Sullivan on the island nearby should chance to blow up.

[42][33] While the ice house and dynamite factory would again burn "to the water's edge" in 1919,[43] the company continued to carry out dredging and excavation around the Detroit River for decades afterward.

[51] The Windsor Star reported in March 1933 that "in spite of the safety of modern blasting gelatine, the Mills Company takes excellent care that not too much of it is on the job at one time", with a reserve stock of approximately 2,000 50 lb (23 kg) cases being kept on the island.

[55] In 1936, the George Mills Company and the Arundel Corporation were the subject of another lawsuit, in which Amherstburg residents sought monetary compensation for "damage and loss to [...] property as a result of the blasting operations on the channel project".