No takers for uninhabited Lake Erie island

by John Affleck
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND - A pristine, 10-acre island in Lake Erie is uninhabited, undeveloped and still unsold.

No one bid on Middle Sister Island at an auction yesterday.

The island sits in the lake's western basin, just a mile inside Canadian waters and 23 miles north of Port Clinton, the nearest sizable Ohio port.

The island is home to great blue herons, gulls and barn swallows. An information booklet distributed at the auction said it also has 105 plant species, including 21 that are considered rare.

"Snakes and amphibians are apparently absent but land snails and spiders are very abundant," the booklet said.

The nearest thing to development on the island is a beacon tower for boats. The roughly triangular island has no running water or electricity and is an hour-long boat ride from Port Clinton, although it's closer to Colchester, Ontario.

Auctioneer Paul Basinger said he fielded plenty of calls about the property, but when it went up for sale at an asking price of $400,000, no one bid. Only one unidentified agent for a potential buyer showed up.

"The property is still going to be there tomorrow. We will look at what we can do to sell it," Basinger said. "You never fail if you continue to try."

The island's owner, Rick Osborne of Mentor, bought the island 10 years ago for $300,000. He wanted to develop it, but health problems kept him from following through on his plans, said his daughter, Beth Osborne, a real estate agent who is working on the sale of the island.

"I'm disappointed, but it just takes a little bit of time sometimes," she said.