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Here's an update:
The Mackay Bar ranch is for sale. It's the last spot on the Salmon River that's inhabited, and is always going to have no neighbors because it's inside the boundaries of the Frank.
It's offered at $6,700,000, and the buyer will need to own a horse, or boat, an airplane, an ATV, and/or a snow machine to get into the place as there are no roads into it at all, and never will be.
The ranch is only 21 deeded acres, but it has an airstrip, a low-water jet boat dock, 3,000 feet of river frontage, a great white sand beach, and is fully set up as a small destination resort with a lodge, private guest cabins and other lodging, and everything else needed. Water rights, solar, hydro and propane power w/ a new generator.
It's also a functional small livestock ranch with fully fenced pasture that is irrigated and can be cropped for hay.
(I'm not sure I would want to raise much livestock there- lots of predators in the Frank, and domestic animals might attract them.)
The ranch has been there since 1956, and has always made a go of it as a very nice small getaway resort. It's also been a profitable home base for guided hunting, fishing, and sightseeing expeditions into the Frank. Since it's the last place on the river, it's also a very popular overnight spot for all the whitewater boating that runs the Salmon.
I think there's also a general store included, and the place is a natural for operating jet boat tours and fishing expeditions.
The present owner has never lived there full-time, as far as I know, but the place has always been occupied by families who have managed the property. Any owner would have to have some excellent financial resources; anything that comes in or goes out will be costly.
It is exceptionally isolated for sure. Life there wouldn't be lonely year-round, though, as the Salmon is now a very popular whitewater river in the summer. The winters would be very difficult for sure. Anyone who lives there would always have a lot of maintenance and upkeep to do, and have to be physically fit and healthy.
It would be a strenuous life, but it would also be a life spent the the most beautiful wilderness Idaho has to offer, and the only area that will always remain true undeveloped wilderness that exists in the lower 48.
For someone who wants to experience pioneer life in the western wilderness, this place is the ultimate.
Last edited by banjomike; 09-03-2022 at 04:56 AM..
Carole King's Robinson Bar Ranch (also in region but a moderate distance outside the Church wilderness) apparently sold for way way less than earlier pricing.
Carole King's Robinson Bar Ranch (also in region but a moderate distance outside the Church wilderness) apparently sold for way way less than earlier pricing.
It's breaking my heart but I'm going to have to sell my 7 acre wilderness retreat in Hokkaido, Japan and try to find something in Idaho because my wife is fed up with Japan's pandemic restrictions on non-residents entering Japan. She hasn't been able to enter Japan for 2-1/2 years while I've been able to because I have a business visa.
We've been going back and forth between Portland and Japan for years because I work remotely and it worked for me because the property has everything I ever dreamed of. Looks like the dream is over now though as the price I can get for my place is a lot less than what a comparable property in Idaho is going for now -- if you can even find it.
Buying and reselling local products (locally, nationally or internationally) would be pretty simple to set up and run. Even if for low to no profit. Or import business. Would that qualify? Internet seminars? Writer / artist retreat? English as a second language teaching business with a Japanese partner if desired or necessary. travel / ticket agent. Maybe something among hundreds of typical local jobs would qualify? I'd think there would be some way to qualify for a business visa. If a person really wanted to be there. Surely there must be others who've done it to ask.
Air bnb, even a limited availability, super picky one. (Could be partly people you know or do other business with. Talk to lawyer / obey laws.)
Set up a life in Japan news site and become the correspondent?
My wife and kids aren't interested in living full-time out in the middle of nowhere in the Japan countryside. Plus they don't speak Japanese so they don't have any local friends. So my wife just isn't interested in going thru the trouble and expense of getting dependent visas for everyone which would be difficult to maintain anyway if they're not actually domiciled in Japan. The situation worked well before the pandemic but I had sold my wife on the idea that the property would be a refuge in case things got bad but given that Japan's borders closed in April 2020 and still haven't opened to non-residents that idea's gone.
The hard part though is knowing it's going to be near impossible to find anything as nice in Idaho if you don't have millions to spend.
If you consider Idaho, what criteria for cost, house size, acreage, distance to town or city, etc.? Preferred elevation and snowfall?
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