In 1964, a 27-year-old woman bought an abandoned 18 acre island off Maine and built a small house to live there alone; 22 years later the island was donated to become a wildlife sanctuary

Before it was a wildlife sanctuary, it was a woman’s abode. Witch Island is an approximately 18-acre land area off the coast of South Bristol, Maine, United States. Named after the woman who used to live there, it was sold off to another who donated it to become a wildlife sanctuary, as per a report […]

In 1953, a California family bought a 58-acre berry farm for $3,500; decades later they reportedly refused a $90 million offer from Disney and kept farming beside Disneyland

The Fujishiges watched the area around their farm change as Disneyland took shape nearby. For decades, a small family farm stood next to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. While the theme park expanded around it, the Fujishige family continued to grow strawberries, vegetables and herbs on their land.The farm had become an unusual sight in an […]

In 1912, a Black couple bought California beachfront land and built a resort; the city seized it in the 1920s, and a century later their heirs got it back and sold it for nearly $20 million

Charles and Willa Bruce on their wedding day (Left) and Margie Johnson and John Pettigrew in Manhattan Beach in 1927 (Right) A prime piece of Southern California oceanfront property taken from a Black couple through eminent domain a century ago was formally returned to their descendants and then sold back to Los Angeles County for […]

In 1999, a Texas couple bought 828 acres and discovered endangered whooping cranes, then protected 817 acres for the birds | World News

In 1999, Al and Diane Johnson thought they had finally found the place where they could build a home and settle down. They had bought 828 acres on Texas’ Lamar Peninsula, a broad stretch of marsh, grassland and live oak woodland near Rockport. Then they noticed two very large birds walking across their newly acquired […]

A Florida couple bought a 45-acre swamp to protect it from development; 15 years later, 275 wood storks were nesting there in a thriving ecosystem filled with wildlife

Jim Stevenson (left) and Tara Tanaka (right) at their wildlife sanctuary in Florida. A Florida couple made an unusual decision more than a decade ago when they bought a 45-acre cypress swamp beside their home in Tallahassee, Florida, rather than allowing the land to be cleared or developed. Jim Stevenson and Tara Tanaka purchased the […]