patrick.net

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/2017/08/02/you-can-buy-island-chesapeake-bay-and-its-goats/518116001/

The 55-acre enclave is listed at $1.5 million, a bargain compared with their original asking price of $15 million a decade ago.

The property was once under contract to be sold for $14 million to a Texas buyer, but it unraveled when the national real estate market collapsed in 2008, Bradshaw said. Since then, he and his family have progressively lowered the price tag in search of what the market would bear.

Things may be starting to look up. The Bradshaws recently brought in a third real estate agency in a succession of representatives. A broker with Crisfield-based Tull and Price Real Estate said one potential buyer is interested.

Tillie Doyle attributes the renewed interest to a real estate sign she had put up on the edge of the marshy island. During the summer tourist season, cruise boats bound for the Smith Island community of Ewell regularly tack past neighboring Goat Island.

How the goats ended up there is anyone's guess, Bradshaw said. He has never set foot on the island himself. He doesn't know where they came from, except that they appeared some time after his grandfather became the owner.

It should be noted that islands around the Eastern Shore of Maryland have been used for centuries as natural livestock pens. In the days before barbed wire, their watery barriers gave livestock owners a way to keep their herds from roaming far and wide.

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