Unwanted Cabins For Sale In Aspen Area
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - Aspen doesn't usually have a problem with real estate -- but public officials are struggling to get rid of three historic cabins in the area.
The city owns a vintage 1950s cabin it has tried to sell online for as low as $661. The catch? The owner has to haul the structure away from a city park where it's sitting.
And in nearby Pitkin County forest land, the county is trying to get rid of two cabins on a parcel now owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Those cabins also need to be cleared from the area.
The city's cabin is a holdover from the Deep Powder cabins, which were cleared a few years ago in a redevelopment. Figuring they might have historic value, Aspen officials kept two and put them for sale on an eBay-like website for excess government property.
The Aspen Daily News reports the two cabins sold for $500.99 and $661. However, the buyer of the more expensive cabin pulled out, telling the city he could not get a permit to haul the 600-square-foot cabin across state lines.
Aspen historic preservation planner Sara Adams said the current strategy is a "sealed auction." A classified ad listing asks interested buyers to bid what they think the cabin is worth and send the offer into City Hall. The highest bidder will get the cabin. The auction is scheduled to end Wednesday, but the city could extend the time frame, as no bids have been received yet, Adams said.
Adams said it could cost some $10,000 to move the cabin, and the city wants to avoid having to move it to the dump.
"I've talked to everyone I can think of to see if anyone can use them," she said.
The U.S. Forest Service has an unwanted cabin problem of its own not far away. The agency has two cabins about the same age on land given by Pitkin County in 2009.
One of them, the Sunnegga cabin, was built by well-known dog sledder Stuart Mace. Starting in 1955, Mace and his Toklat huskies were featured in the television series "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon."
Mace ran a gift shop out of the cabin in his early days, selling native-American wares and his handmade dinosaur bone jewelry there. Mace moved his operations out of the cabin over the years. The cabin was moved to its current site 1977.
The Forest Service considered the Sunnegga cabin as a warming hut for the Nordic ski trail that crosses the property but discarded the idea.
Pitkin County is now responsible for getting rid of the Sunnegga cabin, either by demolishing it or transporting it to another location where it could be preserved. Dale Will, director of Pitkin County's open space department, said the county can afford to demolish it, but not pay the $20,000 estimated cost of moving it.
The other cabin dates to the late 1940s. A history of it compiled by open space ranger Trevor Washko characterizes it as a refuge built and used by Henry Fitzpatrick, a hard-drinking and eccentric prospector, to get away from his wife in Aspen.
The Aspen Daily News reports that if buyers can't be found for the properties, they'll be demolished by Dec. 22.
"I would be heartsick if it comes down to a demo with the Sunnegga cabin," Will said. "It's just a beautiful piece of Stuart Mace's handiwork ... But if nobody buys it, we're going to have to do whatever we have to do to get it off there."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
