Appraised value of 2 square miles inside Grand Teton National Park: $107M
By Mead Gruver, APWednesday, September 8, 2010
Not priceless: Grand Teton land valued at $107M
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Turns out that a chunk of land inside a national park isn’t priceless after all — not if you’ve got $107 million.
That’s the appraised value of two square miles of breathtakingly scenic land inside Grand Teton National Park.
The land belongs to the state of Wyoming, which has been trying for years to get the federal government to trade the land for federal land or mineral interests.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal (FREE’-den-thawl) turned up the pressure this year by threatening to sell the land to the highest bidder.
Freudenthal says that’s not necessary now that federal officials have resumed negotiating. The appraisal, announced Wednesday, is important for talks to continue.
Current talks focus on trading the land for federal coal royalties or coal reserves.
