he Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) provides Alaskans with an opportunity to get off the beaten path with the Remote Recreational Cabin Sites (RRCS) program, which offers state land for private ownership in remote areas of the state.
But before Alaskans can begin building the cabin of their dreams, a lot needs to happen.
DNR Resource Specialist Justin Wholey says the first step requires DNR staff to research and identify potential staking areas, after which the public is given a chance to comment on the chosen areas. Once the public comment period closes, the director’s office chooses which staking areas to approve.
When a decision has been made, the staking brochure announces the areas that are being offered, and the drawing application period is opened. For 2019 the application period was open from August 19 through October 11.
After the application period closes, names are drawn for staking authorizations, including winners and alternates. Those authorized stakers receive instructional documents and are given access to staking workshops, which help them better understand the required fieldwork. At that point winners are allowed to stake and turn in their lease applications in the first staking period.
Wholey says alternates may be allowed to stake and turn in lease applications during the second staking period if staking authorizations were not all used by the winners. Successful stakers sign a three-year lease and start making quarterly payments. During this time, the land is surveyed and appraised by DNR. At the end of the lease, the lessee can either enter into a sale contract or receive patent—or enter into an optional five-year lease extension prior to purchasing.
To be eligible to stake a parcel in the RRCS program, applicants must be current Alaska residents and eighteen years of age or older. Corporations, businesses, and non-Alaska residents are not eligible to apply for the program.
DNR’s Natural Resource Manager II Timothy Shilling says it is the pioneering and Alaskan spirit that drives people to apply for the program.
“It is a means by which we can allow people to select a piece of land that works best for their needs,” Shilling says. “And it really gives a recreational opportunity to a lot of folks who haven’t had that.”
Roughly 30 percent of those who win staking authorization make it through the entire process and purchase their parcel. Rachel Longacre, Chief of Land Sales Section for DNR, says the DNR office tries to increase the number of applicants completing the process by providing as much information as possible upfront—from YouTube videos to workshops that guide applicants through the process and requirements for the state and the applicant.
“The reason that it’s so low—the actual success rate—is because it requires a lot of effort by the customer, by the applicant, to complete those tasks and get out there on the property,” Longacre says. “Sometimes, they’ll get out there and go, ‘Oh, you know what? This is too much work for me,’ or, ‘I need to have more four-wheelers.’”
Wholey adds that once the stakers have their parcel staked, about 90 percent of them end up purchasing.
Department of Natural Resources
Department of Natural Resources
Last year, four staking areas were offered, two of which were Innoko II and Mankomen Lake in Southcentral Alaska. The Innoko II staking area is located along the North Fork of the Innoko River, 195 air miles southwest of Manley Hot Springs and 68 air miles northwest of McGrath. The area can be accessed by boat in the summer and snowmachine in the wintertime. Currently, there are forty-one remaining authorizations for the staking area.
Mankomen Lake is 30 air miles east of Paxson and 53 air miles southwest of Tok. The staking area can be accessed by float or ski plane or the Revised Statute 2477 trail system from Mentasta or Chistochina. There are twenty-five staking authorizations still available.
Caleb Shoulders is one of this year’s winners. “I really like the idea of choosing my own spot to build a cabin,” Shoulders says. “I currently already have my own place that I have built, and while I like the land it is on, it would be nice to pick a specific location I like best. This program is as close to the Homestead Act [which ended in the 80s] as you can get in modern times. I like the challenge of exploring a remote area I have never been to before, especially one with a harsh environment.”
Shoulders says he will likely have to fly to his parcel to stake the land, but his experience surveying will come in handy to mitigate the risk of improperly staking.
“I think this program is a great opportunity for Alaskans to challenge themselves in a way most don’t get to nowadays,” Shoulder says. “For future people [who] want to participate in this program, just know that the staking areas are extremely remote, and it will take massive time and money investments to develop your parcel. It is not as simple as ‘go pick some land you want’; it must be properly staked and ultimately purchased from the state for full market value. In short, staking your own parcel is more expensive than just buying one from the owner.”
The other two areas made available in 2019 were Kantishna II and Redlands II, both in the Northern region of the state. The Kantishna II staking area is approximately 70 air miles west of Fairbanks and 30 river miles south of the confluence of the Kantishna and Tanana Rivers. There are still thirty-seven remaining authorizations for the staking area available.
The Redlands II site is approximately 25 miles west of Manley Hot Springs and 110 miles west of Fairbanks, according to DNR’s 2019 brochure highlighting the program. Both areas up north are prime locations for hunting and fishing. There are twenty-five staking authorizations available in the area.
Certain staking areas may be more attractive to Alaskans than others for a multitude of reasons, like buildable soils, scenery, location to the road system, and trail systems in the area.
“Usually, places that are closer to the road system, that makes them more popular,” Wholey says.
Heidi Lean, another lifelong Alaskan, has plans to build her cabin on Cache Lake. Her father, Jerry Hartly, encouraged Lean and four of his other children to apply for the program, and Lean won while she was in college. Hartley took care of all the staking and planning in the beginning.
“After dad staked the land, he paid the state quarterly for the surveying,” Lean says. “He thought he had staked 20 acres and the state came back with a 16.72(ish) acre parcel. But the money dad paid quarterly went to the final price of the land. At that point my dad called me and asked if I really wanted the Cache Lake land he staked when I was twenty-one and living my best life as a junior in college. The state offered an extremely low interest rate for the program. We ended up owning 16-something acres of remote land in the Talkeetna Mountains for the price of a cell phone payment.”
Lean says she and her husband have not started construction on their cabin yet, mostly due to logistics.
“It is a float plane lake and the snow conditions have made it difficult to get out there for all six years we have owned the land,” Lean says.
Lean is the mother of two young children, so there will be more opportunities to visit the property when her children are a bit older.
“After owning the land for a year, [my husband] Andy and I flew out there for the weekend alone,” Lean says. “Both of us being Alaskan—and from opposite areas—it was incredible to set foot in a place that was unfamiliar to both of us and appreciate everything about the land we owned.”
From 2001 to 2019, more than 50,462 acres have been available to stake and 3,143 staking authorizations have been made available, according to Wholey. Over the lifetime of the program 807 parcels have been sold, totaling 10,655 acres—meaning applicants have either entered a sale contract with the state or have received patent to their land.
For 2019’s drawing (held November 5) 210 applications were received.
“It’s important for folks to know that we are doing what we can to offer as much land as possible,” Longacre says. “We do have to, of course, look at the sustainability of our program.”
In addition, there is the Over-the-Counter (OTC) offering, which follows the Sealed-Bid Auction and includes parcels that did not sell in the auction. Non-Alaska residents can purchase OTC parcels, and there is no limit to the number of parcels that can be purchased.
“The remote rec cabin staking program is slightly different because we don’t know where those parcel lines are until a customer stakes it themselves,” Longacre says. “They’re actually required to get the survey done and the appraisal completed and transfer their lease during that period—because that can take a couple of seasons, sometimes—and then it rolls over into a sale.
“Our goal is to get as much land as possible into Alaska’s hand at the governor’s push—and we’re on board with it,” Longacre adds. 