Property Listing: www.whitetailproperties.com/h...
Official Website: www.whitetailproperties.com/
Brandywine Island is powerful, breathtaking, overwhelming; much more an experience than a place. The rarest of the rare and quite possibly the finest jewel ever to be cut by Ol’ Man River. To be present here is to most assuredly be absent from all the rest of the world. An expansive, tranquil, pristine wilderness born-and even named-of a violent past, nurtured on ultra rich soils, and now exploding with all its abundant excess of timber and fish and game and…solitude. Mark Twain himself might find it hard to begin to capture Brandywine Island’s true essence: it simply must be experienced to be understood. As a professional forester and wildlife biologist, I have been privileged to visit many-and even manage a few-of the finest private recreational and wilderness properties in the eastern US over the last 30 years, but I have never seen anything to rival the massive size, raw productive power, and endless recreational and conservation opportunities of Brandywine Island. It is absolutely in a league of its own and is among the most special privately-owned wildlands in the world. Approximately 9,800 total acres, 3 miles wide, 7 miles long, 5 miles of river frontage, 17 miles of perimeter, 30 miles of roads, 200 acres of crops and food plots, 300 acres of lakes, and 9,000 acres of mature hardwood forests. Brandywine Island is simply monumental in size, and may, in fact, be the largest island on the entire Mississippi River under a single private ownership. With the 13,500-acre Tennessee Shelby Forest State Park directly across the river, large private ownerships in every direction, and the 5,400-acre Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge nearby, Brandywine Island is well protected. Decades of professional, purposeful management have resulted in a vigorous and diverse forested habitat that sustains equally vibrant and robust wildlife populations. Oak, pecan, ash, cottonwood, willow, bass, bream, crappie, catfish, dove, rabbit, turkey, teal, mallards and world-class trophy whitetail bucks are just a wisp of the seemingly endless flora and fauna that adorn this rich paradise. Brandywine Island is almost its own entire ecosystem! And yet Brandywine Island is incredibly accessible for such a seemingly remote wilderness. Arrive by air via your own private airstrip right beside the lodge, or via Memphis International, an easy 1-hour drive. And with your own private causeway across Brandywine Chute, you can simply drive in from the mainland. But for the most enjoyable scenery, and a grand entrance with your guests, the short ride on a luxury cabin cruiser from the nearby Memphis Yacht Club and Marina will be hard to beat! And with the Memphis Grizzlies, Beale Street, Rendezvous BBQ and the rest of downtown Memphis only 45 minutes away by land or water, there is plenty to keep everyone fully entertained. This proximity to a metropolitan area, combined with its special conservation values, make Brandywine Island a prime candidate for a nature-preserving conservation easement if the owner so chooses. In turn, this unique and substantial tax-saving structure with significant existing improvements and timber value may provide a very accommodating financial scenario for the owner. Precious few properties anywhere offer the kind of recreational, conservation and economic opportunities of Brandywine Island. To step onto Brandywine Island is to step into a reality that is nearly non-existent in this day and age. The River isolating it, and its wildness seemingly frozen in time, Brandywine Island is an experience so unreal that it can almost feel like a dream. Ducks falling in through the towering timber, bucks chasing and grunting, thundering turkey gobbles, a distant churning river barge, calm hidden lakes, and every other unimaginable hint of solitude, serenity and natural enjoyment all in one place. Brandywine Island is the rarest of places to experience, and all-the-more-so to own.