About Dog Island

Dog Island is located in the northwestern Florida Gulf coast just 3.5 miles off-shore from Carrabelle, Florida in Franklin County, Florida. The island is partly sheltering St. George Sound and Apalachicola Bay. It's the eastern-most part of a chain of barrier islands located off the northern panhandle of Florida just offshore from where the Crooked River merges into the Carrabelle River and then into St. George Sound. Other barrier islands in this chain include St. Vincent Island, Cape St. George Island, and St. George Island. The island has pristine marshes and forests and miles of unspoiled white sand beaches to explore. The Nature Conservancy owns the bulk of this eastern panhandle island, giving you an idea of just how untouched Dog Island is. For unspoiled beaches that you can enjoy largely by your lonesome year-round, few Florida islands can compare. The 7-mile-long island is accessed by passenger ferry from Carabelle in the Florida panhandle. There is also an airstrip for private pilots to use and several island residents offer private boat charters for a reasonable fee. You can't bring a car to the 'island that time forgot,' as the roughly 100 locals who live here call their sanctuary, but you're guaranteed quiet beaches with powdered-sugar sand, shells galore and aquamarine waters.

Dog Island has some evidence of human presence dating back as early as 8,000 years ago. The island also has a rich maritime history. The discovery of a 9th century canoe is a testament to prehistoric mariners on the island. During the 17th century and 18th century the barrier islands became a haven of piracy and smuggling.

The island and its two neighbors were discovered by the French in 1536 and named the Dog Islands, because 1) wild dogs were found on them; 2) the islands resemble a crouched dog, or 3) the early ships put their common sailors - known as dogs - on the islands before docking on the mainland so they could not jump ship. Later, the two neighbors were renamed: St. Vincent, which is a Federal wildlife refuge, and St. George, which has a causeway and is, naturally, a booming resort community. Indians used Dog Island as a fishing camp, and the 1985 hurricanes uncovered pot shards found on the west end. After World War II, Jeff Lewis, a Florida businessman, saw its potential as a vacation area and paid $12,000 for the island.