The Ludington Dunes Conservancy noted on April 19th (listing media sources) that:

"The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund Board has recommended an additional $7.5 million to purchase approximately 337 acres of private land adjacent to Ludington State Park in Mason County. This adds to $5 million previously recommended by the board for acquisition of the land, for a total of $12.5 million. The board made the recommendations for the purchase – which is still being negotiated – at its April 11 meeting in Bath.

"The property, currently held by Sargent Minerals-Ludington LLC, has long been viewed as a high priority for the state to acquire to make part of Ludington State Park. The land has significant natural resource attributes such as critical dunes, inland water features, and overall connection with adjacent recreational amenities at one of the most visited state parks in Michigan."

Let us take a look at the three major purchases of land made by the US government in history before considering the numbers behind this deal that may happen between the Michigan government and Sargent Sands.

The Louisiana Purchase (1803) had the US government pay France $15 million (equivalent to $300 million in 2016) for 828,000 sq mi/529,920,000 acres of land.  In today's dollars, this amounts to $0.57/acre.


The Gadsden Purchase (1853-4) had the US government pay Mexico $10 million (equivalent to $270 million in 2017) for 29760 sq. mi/19,046,400 acres of land.  In today's dollars, this amounts to $14.18/acre.


The Alaska Purchase (1867) had the US government pay Russia $7.2 million (equivalent to $105 million in 2016) 586,412 sq. mi/375,303,680 acres of land.  In today's dollars, this amounts to  $0.28/acre.

It's quite telling that even in numbers adjusted for inflation, that the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory and the Alaska Territory are still well under a dollar an acre.  But our state government is looking to buy for $12.5 million what amounts to 337 acres of little more than sand-mined out scrub land for $37,902 per acre.   That's over 132,000 times the amount paid per acre for resource-rich Alaska, and about 66,500 times the amount paid per acre for the more pleasantly-climed acreage of the Louisiana Territory.  

Consider also that when you look for large (100+) acreage of undeveloped land for sale in Mason County, you don't see any listed for over $2000 per acre-- and these actually have livable hunting cabins on them already.  Does anybody really believe this land has an actual value of $37,000 per acre despite its close proximity to Lake Michigan?  

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I agree with our money paying for thoughless projects such as Michigan water trails, however purchasing critical and endangered land, to me, is a priority because land is finite and preserving unique Michigan property when possible not only benefits us now but future generations. I doubt that lowering taxes is a priority for any politician. Look at Ludington for example. Only a few short years ago Ludington's tax debt and burden was much lower but now thanks to Shay and his minions Ludington is in debt up to it's ears and it's still rising. 

The acquisition of critical lands was one of the main purposes of establishment of the DNRTF, but what is missing in this attempt is any kind of transparency in showing that the Board is following its own policies of receiving multiple and honest appraisals of the land they wish to purchase.  

This same board earmarked originally $5 million rather than a $20 million figure bandied about in order to get this parcel.  They were apparently led to believe they could get it for under that price; if they followed their own protocols, this would mean that at least two honest appraisals were conducted that led them to believe the $5 million figure would cover the purchase, closing, and perhaps more for development.  

Without warning they put in this new figure, undoubtedly buoyed up by their earlier consideration of the $20 million price and Sargent Sands notice of that fact and their innate desire to satisfy their shareholders.  But like most State agencies, the MI DNRTF Board is not very transparent with the way they spend your money, you will notice at their site that they have had two meetings this year on Feb. 14 and April 11. 

Neither of those meetings has minutes made available, the agendas are up but very light on content.  They list no appraisals made of the SS property anywhere, nor do they attempt to justify this big monetary deal in any way on their website or in any news release.  This is a deal made totally in the shadows with a lot of interests in the shadows as well.  

Whenever an article like this drives poignant discussion on both sides as it has done here, and so much of the data is obscure or incomplete, it generally precipitates further investigation through a FOIA request.  I am sending out a FOIA request to this board to find out more of what's going on.

Thanks for your work on the FOIAs.  It will be interesting.

As for the 3 land acquisitions noted in the original post above, not only was that property purchased a very long time ago when land had very little value and the fact that the land was purchased from foreign Governments but more importantly the land didn't belong to either party in those transactions. Those land deals were akin to the fencing stolen property. The original owners were left out of the deal.

Again, credos to X for further investigative efforts on this subject matter. Will be interesting to see how the DNRTFB responds in kind, or if they sweep this too under the carpet for suits later. I believe this was the same board that made the original deal with COL/Municipal Marina to not have any commercial/charter boats at their facility. In the last 1-1/2 years or so, after private Lud. marinas pursued this subject, they stated by phone this would be corrected back from 12 to 0 boats. That simply never happened at the formal mtg., they simply reduced the amount to 8 boats, the board chrmn. is a nice fellow to talk to, but in fact, a liar in actions.

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