If you open Google Maps and search for “Volvo Island”, you will find one of the strangest landmarks in the United States: a tiny artificial island in the middle of a lake, occupied by exactly one resident — a silver 2001 Volvo S80. The car has been sitting there since 2012, exposed to Illinois winters, summer heat, rain and snow, and has somehow turned a completely ordinary stretch of water into an internet curiosity.
The story begins near Ottawa, Illinois, in Rutland Township, on land that was once part of a strip mine.
After the mining operation ended, the excavation filled with water, creating a lake.
At the time, however, a narrow strip of land still extended into the water like a peninsula.
That was enough for Scott Mann, a local mechanic and owner of two car repair shops, to have a rather unusual idea.
In early 2012, he had his Volvo S80 towed along the peninsula until it reached the end. Then came the truly bizarre part: using an excavator, he removed the land connecting the peninsula to the shore.
The result was a brand-new island, just large enough for a Volvo.
The car was therefore not left behind by accident. It was deliberately turned into the sole inhabitant of its own private island.
Scott Mann originally had an even more elaborate plan.
He considered organising a contest in which people would have to figure out how the mysterious Volvo had ended up in the middle of the lake. It could have been a wonderfully simple piece of local publicity — and a pretty effective one for a man running car repair shops.
There was, however, one obvious problem: the lake was dangerous.
The water around the island reaches roughly 38 feet, or about 11.6 metres, in depth.
He eventually abandoned the contest because he did not want curious people, particularly children, attempting to swim out to the Volvo to solve the mystery for themselves.
So the mystery was never really allowed to become a mystery.
The Volvo simply stayed there.
And then the internet did the rest.
Google Street View captured the bizarre scene in 2015, giving the car a global audience.
From there, “Volvo Island” gradually became one of those strange places people discover almost by accident while exploring Google Maps. The island has received hundreds of reviews from people who have never necessarily set foot anywhere near it, turning a lonely car in a flooded former mine into a minor digital tourist attraction. At one point, it was reported with a Google rating of 4.9 stars — an impressive score for a place whose main attraction is literally a parked Volvo.
There is also something strangely appropriate about the choice of car.
The S80 was Volvo’s large executive sedan, introduced for the 1999 model year and positioned as a comfortable, safety-focused flagship. More than two decades after its production, this particular example has acquired a much stranger kind of longevity: instead of being preserved in a museum or restored by a collector, it has spent more than fourteen years sitting alone on a tiny piece of land in the middle of a lake.
Its apparent survival has become part of the attraction. Photographs and Street View images have repeatedly shown the S80 still recognisable after years of exposure to the elements. It has effectively become an accidental monument to an era of Volvo engineering — although it is probably the only Volvo in the world whose parking space requires a satellite image to find.
There is no grand historical event behind Volvo Island.
No shipwreck.
No strange geological phenomenon.
No forgotten millionaire’s eccentric retreat.
Just a mechanic, an old mine, an excavator, an ageing Volvo and an idea that was probably supposed to be a joke.
And perhaps that is exactly why it became memorable.
Most landmarks exist because somebody wanted them to become landmarks. Volvo Island became one almost by accident. A publicity stunt that never quite became the contest it was supposed to be turned into something much better: a bizarre little piece of internet folklore that can still be found exactly where it was created more than a decade ago.
One car. One tiny island. One very long parking job.
And absolutely no bridge.
Images form web – Google Research