Ono Island (Alabama)
| Ono Island | |
|---|---|
| Community | |
 Ono Island
Location in Alabama.
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| Coordinates: 30°17′15″N 87°30′7″W / 30.28750°N 87.50194°WCoordinates: 30°17′15″N 87°30′7″W / 30.28750°N 87.50194°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Alabama |
| County | Baldwin County |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code(s) | 251 |
| Website | http://www.onoislandpoa.com |
Ono Island is a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) long barrier island in southern Baldwin County, Alabama, at the mouth of Perdido Bay on the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered by Bayou St. John to the north and Old River to the south. Surrounding communities include Perdido Key, Florida to the south and east and Orange Beach, Alabama to the west.
The island is home to a single community which is not within the corporate limits of any municipality. It is both private and gated. Although not within any municipality the island is subject to governance by the Baldwin County Commission. Emergency services are provided by nearby communities. The island is accessed via a private, guarded, bridge from State Route 182.
Ono Island was along the boundary of the treaties between France and Spain. In 1813, after protests and attempts at rebellion, President James Monroe seized Spanish lands west of the Perdido River and declared them a part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. This set the east end of the Island, Perdido Key, at the mouth of the Perdido river, as the boundary between the United States and Spain. That same boundary would later mark the boundary between Alabama and Florida. Ono Island has previously been known as “Goat Island” or “George Kee’s Island”. George Kee, a caretaker for land belonging to Fred Scott (Scott was one of the original land developers in the Perdido Key area and is believed to have owned all of Ono Island at one time) brought in goats and allowed them to roam free until there were an estimated 2,000 goats on the island, plus the wild hogs that Kee allowed anyone to shoot for food. At that time, the island was uninhabited except a small house Kee occupied that he built himself. A hurricane in 1916 changed the topography of the island by closing the Key and creating a new opening on the western end of the island. When Florida attempted to claim the land between the old pass and the new, Alabama legislators replied "Oh no you don't." That gave rise to the name, Ono Island.
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Wikipedia