Once recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest inhabited island, Bishop Rock is a lone lighthouse located on the UK’s Scilly Islands. However, after being renovated in 1982, Bishop Rock was abandoned. Since then, the title of the smallest inhabited island on Earth belongs to a floating beach on the St. Lawrence, in the state of New York, USA.
The smallest island in the world in the high water season. (Photo: Twitter).
According to statistics, the Thousand Islands region, located on the border between the US and Canada, has 1,864 islands. According to local convention, these floating landmasses on this vast body of water are counted as part of the Thousand Islands population, provided that they are above the water level of the St. Lawrence annual, the condition is enough to have land to plant 2 tall trees or bushes.
In the 1950s, a wealthy Sizeland family bought Hub Island , one of the smallest islands in the region. Calculated by river level on Google map, Just Room Enough is about 306 square meters, half the area of Bishop Rock in dry season.
The Sizeland family took advantage of the vacant land to plant a tree and build a small house. The new owner renamed the Hub Island to “Just Room Enough” (meaning “just wide enough”).
The facade of the house. (Photo: Grunge).
The Sizeland family’s wish for a detached house to relax in on the weekend seems unlikely to come true. The house and island quickly became an attractive tourist destination with visitors on the river. The Washington Post once recorded that, if visiting the island, visitors must be very careful because “just take a step off, you will find yourself swimming”.