A rare beach house on Florida's Dog Island is going to auction for $790K

A beachfront property on one of Florida's most notorious shipwreck-plagued islands goes to auction soon.

Located at 850 Gulf Shore Drive, the secluded beach house sits on Dog Island, which is a 6.5 mile-long private island just a few miles off the coast of Carrabelle, Florida.

Reachable by either ferry or helicopter, the fully remodeled 1,900-square-foot home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as giant clamshell sinks, an air-jetted tub, new door and windows, and some incredible views of the Gulf of Mexico.

There aren't a lot of homes on Dog Island since the bulk of the land is owned by the Nature Conservancy and is a wilderness preserve. But if you want to own a small piece of it, the starting auction price is $790,000, and the listing agent is Clyde D. Jacobs of Target Auction & Land Co.

Throughout history, the island has been home to European explorers, smugglers, fishermen and and even prehistoric peoples, with evidence of indigenous travelers going back about 8,000 years.

But Dog Island is probably best known for its shipwrecks, most of which were the result of a direct hit from the 1899 "Carrabelle Hurricane." Experts believe the storm sank 15 ships, including logging steamships and merchant schooners, along the shores of the Franklin County barrier island.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in 2018, two of these ships were unearthed on the western side of Dog Island, and today there's a full-scale exhibit on the discovery at the nearby Carrabelle History Museum.

This story first appeared in our sister publication Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.