Hungry Horse land sells for $1.3 million

Hungry Horse News

If all holds true, the Hungry Horse Ranger Station and several parcels of surrounding land will have sold for about $1.3 million, according to Linda Perry of the Forest Service.

The Forest Service put the surplus land up for sale via an online auction in June. At first, the land appeared to be going at bargain basement prices. For example, the initial bid for the Hungry Horse Ranger Station and surrounding five acre tract was a paltry $4,500 back in June.

That all changed, however, as the auction attracted some press and also came under what's known as a soft close status.

A soft close happens when there are no bids on parcels for a 24 hour period. That's when the bidding actually heated up, Perry noted, with parcel prices jumping as much as $74,000 over a weekend.

The bidding appears to have capped out, however, and was set to close Monday.

That $1.3 million bid is being put up by a single bidder, Perry said. The bidder's identity is an alias known as "Pro1usa." All bidders under the auction are identified as aliases. Once the auction closes and the deal is closed, the identity of the bidder will be made public, Perry noted.

The sale includes not only the ranger station and surrounding land, but also about 92 acres of land in the townsite, most of which would make good housing lots. The bid price right now is about $14,100 an acre.

The Forest Service utilized a recent federal law, which allows certain lands to be sold to offset costs of a new project. In this case, the Forest Service will use this land to build a new ranger station to replace the old one.

The new station will be located away from the highway, but in the same area. It's expected to cost about $2.5 million, with a groundbreaking sometime next spring or early summer.