Owls Head Cliff is part of a 360 acre “in holding”, a piece of private property that is almost entirely surrounded by the 780,000 acre White Mountains National Forrest. Many people thought it was already part of the WMNF. Over the years some climbers and hikers found out the hard way that it was private property as a previous owner did not like visitors on his land.
In September of 2006 the owners placed this beautiful and unique property on the open market for $750,000. That’s about twice the price of typical forest land in the area. However, this is anything but just another piece of forest. The property boasts about 5,000’ of frontage on NH Route 25. It has about 6,000 feet of the Oliverian Brook, including a small waterfall. Much of the land is flat and suitable for large scale development.
Perhaps most important to high end home builders and resort developers, it is surrounded by WMNF land that can not be developed and it is just a stones throw from the famous Appalachian Trail.
Almost immediately the Trust for Public Land meet with the realtor and expressed interest in the property. With in a few weeks the TPL, after discussions with the US Forrest Service, the Town of Benton and others key players, obtained a one year option to purchase the property.
On August 31, 2007 the TPL exercised its option to purchased the property and is presently holding the property for its anticipated future purchase by the US Forrest Service for addition to the White Mountain National Forrest.
Looking Across Oliverian Pond
So, what’s going on?