12 Towns for Sale: Montana Town Where Custer Fell to Be Auctioned
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A small town in Montana where part of Sitting Bull and his Sioux army camped in 1876 before Lt. Col. George Custer fell will be auctioned this month.
Garryowen, a 7.7 acre town in southeastern Montana, will be auctioned on Aug. 15 by auction house Williams, Williams and McKissick, with a starting bid of $250,000.
For entrepreneurial real estate buyers, here are 12 towns that have been for sale, including the historic town:
1. Garryowen, Montana
Chris Kortlander, owner of Garryowen near the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, first announced plans in January 2008 to sell the town and the Elizabeth Bacon Custer Manuscript Archive for $6.5 million.
2. Pray, Montana
Located 22 miles from Livingston, Mont., and 30 miles from Yellowstone National Park, the town of Pray was scheduled to be auctioned on June 27, 2012, but the property failed to sell because the auction did not meet the seller’s reserve. The minimum starting bid was $100,000.
3. Henry River Mill Village, North Carolina
Henry River Mill Village, N.C., is on sale for $1.4 million after being used as the set of the downtrodden community of District 12 in the film The Hunger Games.
4. Toomsboro, Georgia
On sale for $2.5 million, the town of Toomsboro, Ga., is about halfway between Atlanta and Savannah.
5. Courbefy, France
The French village of Courbefy, 280 miles southwest of Paris, was up for auction in February for an asking price of $400,000, or 300,000 euro, but no one bid. An American buyer later bought the property for about $649,594, (520,000 euro), from the French Bank Credit Agricole.
6. Buford, Wyoming
Called “the nation’s smallest town” at about 10 acres, Buford, Wyo., was auctioned on April 5 for $900,000.
7. Monse, Washington
Set between Seattle and Spokane, the small mountain town of Monse, Wash., was on sale for $575,000 in 2003. It remained unsold for years until the town’s owners split up the 60 acres of land it into parcels.
8. Scenic, South Dakota
The 46 acres around Scenic, S.D., were on sale for two years with an asking price of $3 million until the price dropped to $799,000 in July 2011.
9. The Grove, Texas
Founded in 1859, The Grove was a farming community until it became a ghost town after a highway was re-routed away from it in the 1930s because some residents wanted less traffic. A woman from San Jose, Calif., whose grandfather formerly owned the town’s general store, bought it for $200,000 in 2010, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
10. Eustis, Florida
It may not be an entire town, but the Orlando Sentinel reported in October 2008, that downtown Eustis, Fla., was on sale for $7.8 million on eBay in October 2008. The Lake Community Foundation listed the 11-acre property in the lakefront city. There were no serious offers.
11. Rocky Bar, Idaho
In June 2007, half of the ghost town of Rocky Bar, Idaho, sold for $250,000.
12. Palisade, Nevada
An unnamed buyer bought Palisade, Nev., in an auction for $150,000 in 2005.
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