MARBLEHEAD, Ohio — A preservation group has two months to buy an Ohio landmark that includes the last undeveloped Civil War prison site.

        Two Civil War forts, a cemetery for Confederate prisoners of war and the remains of a Union prison are on Johnson's Island, where lakefront lots now sell for up to $200,000 an acre. The Sandusky Bay island was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

        After 12 years of negotiating, Friends and Descendants of Johnson's Island have reached an agreement with developer and landowner Carl Zipfel to buy 16.5 acres encompassing one of the forts and about half of the prison compound.

        If the group raises the $350,000 purchase price for the prison site, Mr. Zipfel said he would donate the rest of the land. He is president of Baycliffs in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville.

        The preservationists also want to raise a $150,000 endowment to pay for maintenance and security.

        The group must raise $50,000 by mid-January to secure financ ing, said David Bush, a Heidelberg College anthropologist and leader of the Friends group.

        Johnson's Island is the only one of about 30 Civil War prison sites not destroyed by new construction, Mr. Bush said. The island was farmed and quarried but wasn't developed until the 1950s.

        The Union built the forts in 1864 to protect the prison from Confederate raids. Fort Hill has already been partially bulldozed.

        The preservation area would include the surviving Fort Johnson. None of more than 40 prison buildings remains, but excavations of two dormitories and a hospital have turned up several relics.

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