HAINES CITY, Fla. – To get to Bannon Island, you leave your car behind.
There’s no bridge, no causeway, no road. The only way onto the 24-acre island in the middle of Polk County’s Lake Marion is by boat — or, if you’re feeling extravagant, by seaplane or helicopter. Waiting on the other side of the water is something that feels less like a house and more like a castle with a moat.
When people ask Dr. Patrick O’Leary what it feels like to have a moat around your castle filled with alligators, he says, laughing, “I’d say — just as it should be.” O’Leary’s family has held this island for roughly 150 years. Now, for the first time in more than a century, it’s for sale, listed at $12 million…