Roy Exum
It was with a hint of sadness that I read in Friday’s Wall Street Journal that Ted Turner was selling his vacation house in South Carolina. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to call Ted “the McCallie boy” who has had the most fun, discounting Jane Fonda, but I always felt his South Carolina place was probably the greatest beach house anywhere in the world.
Actually it is an entire island, 4,680 acres unto itself, located across Port Royal Sound from Hilton Head and closer to Beaufort.
I’ve been by St. Phillips Island, as it is called, in a boat a time or two and was always enchanted with the place. The only way to reach it is by boat and then the house is down a four-mile, tree-shrouded driveway from the dock. Lordy, the island has a mile and a half of white-sand beach that is totally private!
If memory serves me right, Ted was the only kid to be a boarding student at McCallie from the seventh grade on and, until wonderful guys like John Strang and Houston Patterson got hold of him, he was pretty much a brat in his early years on the Ridge. But in the way things still happen, he leveled out and came to love the school and his time in Chattanooga.
I always thought it was uniquely funny that “Mr. Pat” taught him to sail on Chickamauga Lake, something not lost on any of us when he earned the nickname “Captain Outrageous” while skipping the yacht Courageous in the defense of the 1977 World Cup.
And I thought it was hysterical that when he owned the Braves, he hired Dave Bristol as the manager, this after Dave had attended McCallie’s cross-town rival Baylor. Bristol’s tales about Ted were even funnier and, when Turner sent Bristol into a 10-day exile of sorts, it surprised no one when Ted took over as manager. National League chief Chubb Feeney immediately sat Turner, but it was such dadgum fun back in the day.
Ted has owned the South Carolina island for the last 35 years and the whole thing is self-sufficient. There is a huge water tower, solar panels, and a generator complex that serves the two buildings. The main house is 3,800 square feet with five bedrooms and baths. The caretaker’s house is smaller but both are stately.
Through a spokesman, Ted said, “We have enjoyed the island and made so many wonderful memories there but now we can’t visit as much as we’d like. It’s time to pass the beautiful, natural oasis to some family who will enjoy it as much as we have.”
Oh, don’t be getting all sentimental. Ted has some other land holdings where he can spend his time. For instance, there is his Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico. It covers 920 square miles and it is the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States. As a matter of fact, Ted owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota totaling 1,910,585 acres so he still has somewhere to get out and breathe a little.
For the record, 1.9 million acres is bigger than the state of Rhode Island and Delaware combined and, with 50,000 head of bison, has a higher gross domestic production than the country of Belize.
Now 75, Turner divorced Jane Fonda in 2001 and a couple of years ago, in an interview with Piers Morgan, said he has four or five steady girlfriends. Yes, he admitted it gets a little complicated sometimes but is easier than being married. So maybe he just doesn’t need the St. Phillips Island anymore. I just think it is a shame to let such a breath-taking place get away.
Anyone who is interested in buying Ted Turner’s place in South Carolina should get in touch with Plantation Services, a real-estate company based in Albany, Ga. They’ll be happy to make arrangements for qualified buyers to visit.
Oh, and the asking price is $23.777 million.
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