Bannon Island has remained in the same Irish American family since the 1880s. Now it is listed for $12 million, and its story runs straight back to Ireland.
Bannon Island sits on Lake Marion in Polk County, Central Florida, a 23- to 24-acre private retreat reachable only by boat, seaplane, or helicopter. It is a striking address even by Florida standards, but what sets it apart from the state’s other private islands is who built it and why.
The island’s first known resident was Echo Emathla Chipco, known as Chief Chipco of the Seminole tribe, who kept a camp there until the 1880s. Soon after, the land was purchased for $1.25 an acre by an Irish-born Catholic carpenter named Patrick Bannon, who had settled in New York after leaving Ireland…