The "Back 40"

The land we are going to buy (hopefully) actually happens to belong to the builder. It isn't part of his business, just some hunting land he owns with his in-laws that they had been looking to sell. It is heavily wooded, and has some sloping areas good for a walk-out basement. It is truly a "back 40" with a driveway roughed in along an easement. It has state land on two sides which is nice.

We looked for land for what amounted to about 2 months and couldn't find anything that matched our requirements other than this one. Its near enough to town (23 minutes to Saint Mary's), has the minimum 40 acres, off a rural quiet dirt road. The approach is from the north so its ideal for our walk-out rambler with the big south facing windows and backyard deck. At first we were put off by the fact that it is a "back 40", but I just decided we will just have to invest in a bobcat!

Here's a rough picture from Google maps that I tried to draw in the various surrounding plots:

Lakewood is a major ("major" is a relative term - we're talking about Duluth here) north-south road that turns off of hwy 61 about 5 minutes north of town. It takes about 10 minutes to drive completely to the end of Lakewood, then take a right on Pioneer and you are practically to what will be our driveway.

You can see a large path cutting diagonally through the SE portion of the property. There is an underground natural gas line that cuts across a fair chunk of the rural land north of Duluth. Every few years the state comes through and clears the path just to keep it accessible. otherwise it isn't used for anything. It's actually a nice walking path!

I cant figure out how to get a dang hyperlink to work in this stupid blog otherwise I'd post a link to Google maps. Just search for "East Pioneer Rd Duluth MN" in Google maps and you will find it. We are to the west of the creek.

Here's an image capture of the map: