Apr 15, 2024 - Real Estate
Private island on Buckeye Lake up for sale
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If you've got millions of dollars and always wanted your own private island, here's your chance.
Driving the news: Journal Island on Buckeye Lake is listed for $5.75 million, the first time it has ever been on the market.
State of play: One of 21 islands on the lake, it has been owned by the Wolfe family since the early 1900s.
- The powerful clan once owned the Columbus Dispatch, helped found influential organizations like Columbus Partnership and has supported institutions such as the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Scioto Mile and Franklin Park Conservatory.
- The "site for decades hosted power brokers and regular lake gatherings on its immaculately groomed grounds," the Dispatch reports.
What you'd get: Over 11 acres of island space, for starters, with gorgeous landscaping and walking trails.
- There's a main home with six bedrooms and a guest house with four more, plus a pair of boat houses and a dedicated theater building.
The intrigue: The island made news headlines in 1919 when a hydroplane making its first flight crashed into nearby waters. The pilot was rescued from the wreckage.
- Five years later, the island was raided by state prohibition officers who found "corn hootch" in a cottage kitchen.
- A cook claimed he used the liquor to treat rheumatism and a snake bite and initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed his plea and paid a $100 fine.