Hungry Horse News

An auction to sell off about 90 acres of Forest Service land in Hungry Horse has closed, with the high bidder purchasing the entire property for $2.381 million.

That includes several parcels of land as well as the old Hungry Horse Ranger Station. The high bidder was Stephan Byrd.

Linda Perry, of the General Services Administration, which handled the online auction, declined to release Byrd's address and other information, noting an official press release on the sale had not been prepared and the sale itself had not been closed.

But folks familiar with the deal confirm Byrd, who is from Spokane, Wash., is related to the Byrd family in the Canyon. Byrd has local business partners in the sale, including a Columbia Falls businessman.

Byrd has 90 days to close.

The Forest Service auction started off slowly, but then ramped up substantially in the past couple of months, gaining almost $1 million in value over the past few weeks.

Perry said that was due to the number of bidders. There were a total of 56 bidders on the land and the buildings.

Hungry Horse has a water system, but no sewer system. The land is unzoned, so there are few restrictions on how the land can be developed.

The sale averaged out at $26,309 an acre, includes Highway 2 frontage and plantation-like lots with mature trees.

The auction was possible through an act of Congress, which allowed the Forest Service nationwide to sell off select surplus tracts to upgrade facilities. The Forest Service will now use the proceeds to build a new ranger station in Hungry Horse.

This one, however, will not have highway frontage. Hungry Horse District Ranger Jimmy DeHerrera said the new ranger station could break ground as early as this spring and they would like to be in the new 15,000 square-foot facility in about a year.

He said the auction price should allow the district to have a complete building, with landscaping and a paved parking lot. If the bids had come in lower, there might not have been enough money to complete finish work.

The auction doesn't cover the cost of the entire structure. The district will also utilize funds from the regional capital fund, he said.