 The original and much smaller Dodge Island was created during the dredging of Government Cut in the early 1900s.According to "The Miami News", the island went unnamed until 1950 when Mr and Mrs Ray Dodge of Wisconsin, friends of Frank Stearns, director of the City of Miami Planning Board, were visiting and asked what the island was called and, "unable to come up with a name of the island ... Stearns gave the parcel of land its present name.