Cache Creek lots sold at auction

WASILLA — While gold wasn’t present, the prospect of finding it was certainly in the air Saturday afternoon at the Best Western Lake Lucille Inn.

That’s in part because 73 approximately nine-acre lots went up for bid at a public land auction, part of the Cache Creek subdivision near Petersville, and many of those bidding on those lots were recreational gold miners.

Darcie Salmon, the real estate agent and a recently retired member of the borough assembly, was clear beforehand.

“When you buy it, you’re not buying gold,” he said. “We’re not selling gold, we’re not selling gold claims.”

“I’m just not representing gold mining,” Salmon added. “If you bought one of these lots and you found gold, guess what would happen?”

The intended market for the auction — the largest public land auction since the sale of Caswell Estates — was Alaskans, Salmon said.

“Alaskans of all types: hunters and fishers, and recreational miners,” he said. Some of the parcels had already sold before Saturday’s auction.

“The intent is to liquidate this asset. There were 145 lots at the beginning, and there are 73 left. Our hope is at the end of the day there won’t be any left,” Salmon said.

That might appear to have been a somewhat unreasonable expectation, based on the crowd reaction Saturday afternoon. Many present would bid on properties, then withdraw their bids after realizing they had bid on multiple properties. Salmon and auctioneer Brad Webb warned bidders multiple times they were bidding on bundles of lots instead of individual lots.

For example, a bundle of three nine-acre lots sold at the block of $10,000 would mean a total bill of $30,000.

The size of the lots was set at least in part by borough covenants for recreational land, Salmon said.

“They had to plat each lot such that it had enough area for a cabin,” he said.

At one point, Salmon reminded bidders that the owner of the property, Casa Mining Company, had to approve any auction bidding. That set off murmurs and shouts among the assembled bidders.

“Please keep in mind this auction number is subject to the owner’s approval,” Salmon said. “When the gentleman offered eight (thousand) we know that eight’s not going to do it.”

Tim Bauman walked away with more or less what he intended to buy. He bid about $13,000 for two lots, including one he hadn’t intended to buy at first. Like most bidders, he was a little rattled by the bundling system.

“It surprised me, too,” he said. “I didn’t really want that lot across the road, but I wanted the lot on the creek.

“Some of those lots, they should have gone a lot cheaper because they were mostly mountain,” Bauman added.

Most people in attendance were looking for gold, Bauman said.

“That’s what everybody’s buying ‘em for,” he said.

All things considered, he got more or less what he came for, Bauman said.

“I’m planning to get up there and have fun on my own property, where I don’t have to worry about somebody coming by with a gun,” Bauman added. Gold panning, he said, “is a kick in the ass.”

Most lots sold for between $10,000 and $14,000 Saturday night. While that’s relatively cheap for some land prices, it was high enough to price Ray Bunnell out of the market. Bunnell had had his eye on one particular lot and come with his grandson Tristan to bid on it.

“The one up in the corner, that’s the one I was interested in,” he said. “I thought they might come back, like they’re doing with some other lots.”

The lot’s unusual shape and end-of-the row position appealed to Bunnell, who’s been snowmachining and fishing up in the area before.

“You’ve got four sides to go where you wanted to go, and you wouldn’t cross anyone else’s property,” he said.

Bunnell also objected to the owner approving the bid.

“An auction is an auction,” he said. “They should go for what they were bid.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.