If anyone ever wanted to become the owner of some tourist cabins, Columbia Cabins in Columbia, NH, (Miss Teresa knows the place) are for sale. As I understand it they’re being sold by the town for back taxes. If you want to live your Newhart/Baby Boom fantasies, this is it.

Bids start at $25K.

More detail:

You can see this with Google Street Views; it’s at the intersection of US Rt. 3 and South Jordan Hill Rd. in Columbia, NH. (You have to scroll south to find the correct end of Jordan Hill Road. It’s on the next screen.) Google Street Views labels US Rt 3 as Daniel Webster Highway even though it’s the Trooper Scott E. Phillips Memorial Highway, and labels South Jordan Hill Rd. “Jordan Hill Rd” even though it’s South Jordan Hill Rd. The town (for some reason) is labeled Groveton, NH, even though Groveton is really two towns south of there. The property is across the street from the sand-and-gravel pit on Tri-County Drive. (That’s Columbia Sand and Gravel, and isn’t visible from the cabins.)

The story: The owner died. The folks who followed him weren’t interested in running tourist cabins. Eventually the copper was stripped from the buildings (six cabins plus the caretaker’s house so whoever buys it will have to re-wire and re-plumb), and abandoned the property. Which is how the town came to own it.

It’s right on the snowmobile trails. It was always full during snowmobile season, leaf-peeping season, hunting season, on Motorcycle Weekend … you get the idea. Hunters, fishermen, hikers, snowmobilers, skiers who didn’t want to pay Balsams’ prices for a place to stay.

I figure that the purchase price would be just the down payment on getting a going business, but it’s a bargain anyway.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll go out there and get photos. It’s quite pretty.