Alaska Property Atop Gold Mine Up for Sale

Thar be gold underneath these hills!

That’s what the buyer of Woodchopper Gold Claim could say in Circle, Alaska. The massive property is hitting the market for $23.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The property is in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. It’s being sold by geologist Lynn Vogler. His uncle purchased the land to mine gold in 1971 for an unknown price, then passed it to Lynn in the 1990s.

Woodchopper’s biggest pull is its claim to gold. The property is on Woodchopper Creek, which flows into the Yukon River. Vogler claims more than 117,000 troy ounces of gold have been extracted along the creek; one troy ounce of gold is currently worth nearly $2,000.

The property spans roughly 1,400 acres, though it is largely unoccupied, outside of an old gold dredge and former mining cabins. It includes 230 deeded acres with patented mining claims, meaning the land and the minerals found upon it belong to the owner. The government owns the rest of the property, but the owner still owns the minerals found on it.

That being said, the property hasn’t been used for mining since the 1980s, when part of it was leased out to gold digging miners. Perhaps some of the miners saw the wildlife that wander across the property, including moose, caribou, wolverines and grizzly bears.

The property is not zoned and a buyer could build an off-grid residential home on the property, which Vogler said is common in the area. There is also a 2,500-foot-long airstrip on the property, which is accessible by plane around the year, though the strip is in need of repair. Trail hikers can get there in the winter, while a boat can only get there during the summer.

Fay Ranches’ Troy Dana and Real Broker Alaska’s Yvan Corbin share the listing.