Add The New York Post on Google Why settle for one private island when you can have four?
A sprawling 520-acre compound nearly strattling the border between Michigan and Ontario, Canada has hit the market for $2.3 million, offering Burnt, Wilson, Claw and Harris islands — along with a three-bedroom home and much of the equipment needed to live there.
The unusual spread sits in the St. Marys River near Drummond Island, with the main residence tucked on a peninsula between two bays. The views look out to our neighbor to the north.
And while private-island living might conjure visions of being stranded miles from civilization, listing agent Anna DeCamp of Gaslight Group said the trip from the American mainland is surprisingly manageable.
“It’s about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on weather, from DeTour up to the island,” DeCamp told The Post. “It looks much further on a map than it actually is in person.”
The sellers keep a boat slip in DeTour Village and make the journey from there, occasionally sharing the waterway with freighters traveling through the St. Marys River.
For major grocery runs, island dwellers can head farther afield to St. Ignace or Sault Ste. Marie, according to DeCamp.
Once home, however, the closest neighbors may have four legs.
Wildlife is abundant across the islands, with foxes, otters, beavers, coyotes and sandhill cranes among the visitors. “You can hear the loons calling,” DeCamp said, describing how they call to one another from the bays on either side of the house.
But despite all that wilderness, the roughly 2,131-square-foot house isn’t exactly roughing it.
The three-bedroom, two-bath home has electricity and water, as well as a sauna and gas stove.
That renovation was considerably more complicated than your average gut job: With the property accessible only over water, construction materials had to make the journey by boat.
“They had to completely gut it,” DeCamp said. “For the next owner, it’s already done.”
The current owners have held the property for roughly a decade and use it as a vacation retreat rather than their primary residence. They “absolutely love it up there,” DeCamp said, but are selling as they get older.
Most of the 520 acres are protected by a conservation easement held by the Little Traverse Conservancy, leaving roughly 100 acres outside the protected area. Any future development would still be subject to applicable restrictions and regulations.
And whoever buys the four-island package won’t have to bring their own fleet.
The sale includes a Kubota tractor and other maintenance equipment, plus two boats — including a 2006, 32-foot World Cat catamaran used to make the crossing from DeTour.
The listing has already drawn several prospective buyers. DeCamp said there have been a couple of showings, with one potential buyer “pretty interested” and another showing scheduled for next week.
So far, interest has largely come from people who already know the region but want something more secluded than nearby Drummond Island.
“They don’t want to be on Drummond,” DeCamp said. “They want to have their own place.”
