Sandy West sold Ossabaw Island for half

In 1978, Georgia appraised 26,000-acre Ossabaw Island at $16 million. Heiress Eleanor "Sandy"Torrey West sold it to the state for half that price, $8 million"fiercely auditing every state decision against the spirit of the original deal. She remained through her seventies, eighties, and nineties."Sandy" Torrey West died on January 17, 2021. It was the morning of her 108th birthday. She had outlived Governor George Busbee, who bought the island, philanthropist Robert Woodruff, who helped fund it, and nearly the entire century that shaped her.

The state acquired a significant asset. Georgia paid $8 million for an island whose developed value today would be in the billions. The $8 million discount was West's donation, in 1978 dollars. What she purchased was permanence. The Heritage Preserve restrictions have held. The mansion is now maintained by the Ossabaw Island Foundation.

Visitors still arrive only by private boat with permission. This contrasts sharply with other developed barrier islands along the Georgia and Carolina coasts. West understood the island's most valuable asset was its absence of development. She sold it at a discount to a buyer legally forbidden to improve it, reserving only her house and view. She then personally enforced the terms for thirty-eight years.