The GSA sells off the land on line, so I don't exactly know what you
mean about it going before you get there.

The problem with buying old government land is you can't option it, so
you may not be able to convert it to the use that you desire. If you
option it and then lose in the planning commission, you just walk away
from the options. [That gives the owner real tax problems, which is
another story.]

I think it wrote it up here, but the deal of the century was done with
the BLM in both Tonopah and where the mega shopping center is just a
bit south of Mt. Charleston. It's a bit complicated, but the feds
wanted to expand their BLM operation in Tonopah to the location where
the bowling alley is located. The feds did some land swap for the land
in Vegas and the Tonopah. The guy who got the Vegas land did have to
put in some cash too, but the Vegas project was just a killer
development deal. It has every known big block you can think of. Now it
turned out the feds didn't expand the BLM in Tonopah, and later put up
the bowling alley to auction.

Here is the offer to auction:
<http://www.auctionrp.com/auctions2/documents/item/Bowling_Alley_IFB.pdf>

Here is the land swap deal:
<http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1999/Jun-07-Mon-1999/opinion/11315640.html>

I think the bowling alley sold, but I can't find it on the net.

There are better private land deals in the desert. Do a bit of
googling, and you will find that "artist" who built a city in the
desert, well, a city of modern art. He bought most of the land for
pocket change. I've heard he shows up to the Little Aleinn with his,
er, um, women.

Krackula wrote:

On 31 Jan 2006 13:11:50 -0800, miso@sushi.com wrote:

Space for storage isn't a big deal, but it doesn't bring big bucks
either. To develop land, you need water and sewer.

I have to give the Day family credit. Buying land and and chopping it
up is done all the time, but getting the BLM to surrender land to form
a town is something else.

Basecamp has been encroached by those hay farmers. I'm not sure how
they get the right to convert the BLM land.

If you have a claim that you can develop, you can build on the claim.
You don't really own it unless the claim is patentable. such as the
Lincoln Mine.

BTW, the BLM sells maps that indicate their land versus private land.
Fallini owns a bit of land that some people think is public. His no
trespassing signs are real.

I'm not much of a pioneer  these days !! that plus my wife is allergic
to too much distance from a Macys store to boot  !  ha ha ahah
A little vacation / weekend  place in Hawthorne , say 3500 sq feet,
with  a garage and RV + boat parking would be about right.  city
water, sewage, mini marts and  that Casino right down the street
would be the basics.  dunno about  that Walker Lake there tho .......
dunno if you've been there  but it has some pretty strange looking
algae ( if that's what it really is ) growing in the water.  nice
little   park  there at the ( usually out of the water ) boat  ramp
that actually has clean rest rooms with REAL toilet paper !  it's
not mineral water but " real " water in the lake , even has an indian
reservation on the n.e. side of the lake ..... and they have decent
boats in that odd water , so it must be fairly OK for the area. still
looks like the gushy water plants from mars , tho ............. yuck.

if the government moves out of the place , I'll  certainly be there
looking to pick over the leftovers if everybody else doesn't beat me
there first.   tried to grab a place over in Monterey when Ft Ord
closed up , waited until the troops pulled out thinking  there would
be lots of stuff available ....... WRONG !!!! everything was snapped
up 8 months before I got there. TOTALLY gone .... cleaned out.
that plus prices jumped about 400% - 600%  as well.

maybe I'll  have a better run of luck in Hawthorne.  still got some
left over building ruins and the remains of a cement water tank
up at the mine , but it's  about  2500' - 3000'  higher than the
valley floor where Hawthorne is and a truly miserable place in the
winter to say the least. it's pretty inhospitable in mid summer  , but
in the  winter ..... forget it !!     hawthorne's no  paradise in the
winter either, plenty of ice and snow there , off and on .

the " stuff " has  GOT  to be gone from the tunnels before I'll
" hang " there very long. I even get   creepy feelings just hanging
out at that  casino..... waiting for the  massive explosion to take
the whole place out.  don't want to be there for another event
(  like back in  N.J.   ) that caused the ammo dump   to get
relocated  to Hawthorne in the first place. real ugly when one of
those places goes up all at once like it did !   probably wouldn't be
much left of Hawthorne if it all went up like it did before !
ha ha hahaha   hard tell'in how many nukes they have  stored there
as well. if the place went, the nukes probably wouldn't blow but the
resulting  potential environmental contamination  could  make the
place uninhabitable for a LONG time  ( 25000 year half life for Pu-239
isn't it ?) !    not your most desirable  real estate location with
the  munitions dump still there , to say the least !  <lol>