For sale: Island in Occoquan Bay with mysterious history

Maybe Capt. John Smith visited it in the 1600s.

Maybe Indians hunted on it and later so did J. Edgar Hoover.

Or maybe it was built in the middle of the night.

The only thing that is certain is the little speck of an island – only a quarter-acre with a few scrawny trees and a duck blind – in the middle of the Occoquan Bay is on the market for $477,000.

“To some folks, including myself, that’s a lot of money to pay for a small little island. However, for some people, it’s not,” said owner Mary Ann Ridge of Lorton.

“If it’s something that they can enjoy – if they are a conservationist or a duck hunter – it would be worth it to them. It's a ‘beauty in the eye of the beholder’ kind of thing.”

Prince William County’s most recent assessment values it at $2,500.

Ridge and her ex-husband bought it from his grandparents William and May Howard in 2000 for $10,000. She got it as a result of the divorce and says she is selling it now because she needs the money.

“It’s my hope and my prayer that it will attract somebody who wants to have a unique piece of property that also has some interesting history,” she said. “Who’s to say that somebody just wants to say, ‘I own an island.’ It would be a feather in their cap.”

While it’s tiny, area boaters and fishermen know where it is. It also can be seen from Featherstone Road in Woodbridge.

Locals refer to it as Rock Island, Smoot Island, Spider Island and even Duck Blind Island. The Ridges called it Pap’s Island, after William Howard.

Mary Ann’s trip to Gilligan’s Island

Mark Perry, captain of the Miss Rivershore, a 50-foot commercial pontoon boat, recently took Ridge and her real estate agent out to see it. It was Ridge’s first visit in seven years.

“When the pier was there we used to dock up to it and just hang out, enjoying the peace and quiet,” she said.

As the Miss Rivershore approached the island during the recent trip, Ridge shouted out, “There it is! Gilligan's Island. Mary Ann is coming!

“I am so thrilled to see it,” she said. “Thank God it hasn’t been wiped out. It’s a very unique piece of property in a wildlife sanctuary.”

During the ride out from Occoquan to the island and back, Perry pointed out about six bald eagles, osprey, ducks and other waterfowl.

Is it the historic Dogue Island?

While the island has many names, county records call it Holiday Island. The oldest transfer of the island’s deed at the county courthouse is dated in 1947 and states “Holiday Island, being part of the island which in the Colonial Days (about 1651) was known as ‘Dogue’ or ‘Doags Island.’”

Dogue Island is where it is believed that Smith encountered the Indian town of Tauxenent.

Occoquan Mayor Earnie Porta wrote a book on the history of the town and the Occoquan River. He studied the work done by Fairfax County archeologist Michael Johnson on Smith’s exploration of the area.

“Smith makes no mention of any islands that are likely to be Holiday Island. I’ve always known it as Smoot or Rock Island,” Porta said.

“Michael Johnson’s research, which I find pretty convincing, indicates that the original Dogue Island, which at some point was probably a peninsula and the location where Smith encountered the Indian town of Tauxenent, probably is now submerged underneath the waters of Belmont Bay near the coastline of Mason Neck between Sandy Point and Kane’s Creek – in other words, in a different bay than Holiday Island.

“So, Holiday Island is almost certainly not the Dogue Island mentioned in the 1650s,” Porta said.

If not Dogue, is it man-made?

“Local lore is that [a lawyer or judge] hired a barge and went out there and started dumping rock, got the rock up to the level it was out of the water and then brought another barge out there with a cement mixer and started pouring a little jetty on the south side of it,” Perry said during the recent trip to the island.

“I understand that it was once a government perk and J. Edgar Hoover used to duck hunt on it,” Ridge said.

“Another rumor is that Teddy Roosevelt was part of the reason the island was constructed,” Perry said. “It had to be somebody in the government to get away with simply taking a barge out there and dumping rock. I have always understood and believed, it was passed back and forth through the legal community.”

Land records show the Howards bought the island in 1973 from Ann Smoot, president of Smoot Sand and Gravel Company of Alexandria. Ann Smoot became president after her husband Lewis Egerton “L.E.” Smoot died in 1962.

L.E. Smoot was president of the company when it bought the island in 1947 from Columbia Sand and Gravel for $1. However, L.E. Smoot also owned Columbia Sand and Gravel so he bought and sold it to himself.

Others familiar with the waterways offer more details.

“I own an island north of there called Craney Island,” said Paul Ebert, a longtime waterman and Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney. “I heard that both these islands were built by a fellow named Smoot.”

Ebert said Smoot dredged the waterways in the area for material for his business. When he came across rocks that were too big to use, he deposited them in various places, such as what is now Craney and Holiday islands.

Vernon Dawson of Occoquan, 83, learned about the island from his father who grew up on Deep Hole Farm, which is now the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

“The story he told me was that someone wanted to put an island out there and they couldn’t get permission from the powers that be,” he said.

The Dawson’s house overlooked the bay. “They came out one morning and looked out and there was an island,” Dawson said.

His father surmised the only person in the region with the capability, the equipment and the materials to do it was Smoot. “Nobody saw it done,” he said.

The story is that Smoot took two barges, bolted them together, took them out in the middle of the night and sunk them, Dawson said.

This happened in the mid 1920s, he said.

Terry Hill of Hampton’s Landing Marina on Neabsco Creek also heard about the island from his father. J. Carl Hill built the short-lived Freestone Point resort in the 1950s located where Leesylvania State Park is today.

“I believe it was man made,” he said. Hill recalled seeing land records from the 1920s for the island years ago listing Smoot as owner. Those records are not in the county’s computerized system.

“It changed hands a couple of times,” Hill said. He was likely referring to Columbia Sand and Gravel Company.

“There may have been an island out there at one point but the way I understand it, a barge was floated out there and sunk. And then they either pushed some of the rock off or added to it. And, it was rock from Smoot Sand and Gravel,” Hill said. “Back in those days, there were no permits required, no nothing.”

“Smoot put the island out there for duck hunting,” he said.

Hill said the waterways of Prince William County, sparsely populated and heavily wooded back then, made for prime hunting.

“There were thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of ducks,” Hill said. “There’s been a little bit of work done to the island on and off, but there has always been a duck blind out there.”

What about the Hoover and Roosevelt connection?

Hill said he never heard Hoover’s name connected to hunting in the county.

“However, there is an island down river called St. Catherine’s Island that was a hunting and fishing camp,” Hill said. “I remember hearing as a kid that big politicians and high officials would go there.”

It is now known as Jefferson Islands Club on St. Catherine’s Island which is located south of Colonial Beach. It was founded by Congress in 1931. While President Teddy Roosevelt died before the club was established, President Franklin Roosevelt once hosted members of Congress, Cabinet members and members of the Supreme Court there. Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were members of the club.

Hoover was director of the FBI beginning in the 1930s. So, while it is possible one of the Roosevelts and Hoover could have hunted on Ridge’s Island, it is more likely they were at St. Catherine’s Island.

And what about the story about the lawyer or the judge?

L.E. Smoot was a longtime friend of U.S. Rep. Howard W. Smith of Virginia. When Smoot’s widow built a library in King George and named it after her husband, Smith attended the dedication. A portrait of Smith, along with Smoot, hang in the library’s memorial room.

Smith, who served in Congress for 35 years, was a former judge and often referred to in Congress as “Judge Smith.”

Maybe that was the connection to the island.

Still looking for the right buyer

No matter its origins, Ridge remains anxious to sell the island. In addition to listing it, she plans to place an ad in Ducks Unlimited magazine, possibly putting it on eBay as well as looking for ways to reach potential international buyers.

“Everyday I am thinking of different ways to market it to people who have the money to buy something like this, people who have cash,” she said.

Since the island is priced far above its assessed value, it is unlikely someone could get a loan to buy it.

“It’s going to sell eventually,” she said.

While it’s only been on the market since December, Ridge has gotten two offers on it. The second was double the amount of the first. Ridge declined to say how much, but she is holding out at this point for her asking price of $477,000.

“The reason I priced it at that amount is a matter of faith,” she said. “My ex-husband owes me that amount so that is what it is worth to me. If I get that, it would be wonderful. This really is all about faith.”

For more information about Holiday Island, contact Gail Peterman at gpeterman@verizon.net or 703-978-9400.

Staff writer Aileen M. Streng can be reached at 703-530-3907.