The island, which is accessible only via passenger ferry or by private watercraft, contains about 150 cottages.

[2] Russell Island was settled in 1802 by Christian Frederick Denke, a Moravian missionary to the Ojibwe; the mission was abandoned in 1803.

In the years 1905-1910 the island was leased by the Detroit, Belle Isle and Windsor Ferry Company (DBI&WFCo) as a summer resort colony, where visitors arrived on excursion steamers and lived in tents.

In 1914, the owners of the island, justices William L. Carpenter and Flavius L. Brooke of the Michigan Supreme Court and Detroit real estate developer William W. Hannan, formed the Russell Island Company and subdivided the island for sale as individual plots.

The island was accessible via the White Star Line's steamer Tashmoo.