Shack for sale: A hunter sells his deer camp

CANYON, Minn. — At the end of a mile-long, winding road that divides pines and popple, Mike DeGrio stopped his SUV in front of a cabin whose presence in the wooded setting seemed natural enough.

This was on St. Louis County leased land, about an hour north of Duluth, an area DeGrio has learned well since purchasing the wilderness bungalow about 15 years ago.

Alongside the cabin is a wood-fired sauna, while inside are a half-dozen beds, enough pots and pans to feed a small gang of wool-clad hunters, and a gallery-like presentation of snapshots dating back 15 years.

Welcome to Deer Camp.

"We call it a shack,'' DeGrio said. "I had always wanted a place to hunt deer. But after I bought it, we ended up using it pretty much year-round for snowmobiling and four-wheeling, in addition to deer hunting."

Now the shack is for sale, and as such is part of a transition process that occurs every year in Minnesota, perhaps most notably beginning now, on the eve of the state's whitetail season, when some landowning deer camp traditions end — and others begin.

DeGrio, 60, is selling in large part because he's less interested today than he once was in perching himself in a tree on November mornings, freezing.

"I'm getting older," he said. "It's just time."

Among real estate transactions, hunting-land transfers are unique, in part because multiple owners oftentimes sell to multiple buyers — few of whom, as DeGrio suggests, object if accompanying buildings are referred to as cabins, camps, shacks, shanties …

Or "dumps," which in some instances might be the most accurate description.

Years ago, pre-Internet, the chief marketing venue for Minnesota deer-hunting land was the Star Tribune, whose Sunday classifieds not only offered a peek into hinterland values, but fodder for a week's worth of fantasizing for would-be landowners.

Vintage ads such as one that appeared in this publication in 1973 offering 40 acres in northern Minnesota for $4,500, payable over 20 years, are telltale of how times, and prices, have changed in the years since.

Today, Craigslist is the chief purveyor of Minnesota properties whose primary attractions are deer — or ducks, pheasants, grouse or wild turkeys.

Said DeGrio, a third-generation Duluth resident who owns a sign-making business: "I hesitated before listing the shack for sale. My wife wrote the ad on Craigslist. Then she said, 'Do you want me to push the button and put it on the Internet? Do you really want to sell it?'

"I thought about it a while, and said, 'Yes.' "

Glen Bessler, a Bemidji-area Realtor who specializes in backcountry properties, said interest in hunting land is picking up, after the door closed to many such sales beginning in 2008.

"During the recession, banks weren't lending money," Bessler said. "Business dropped about in half."

In the last two years, inquiries and sales have improved, Bessler said. "But people today seem to be working harder to keep up. They don't have as much free time."

Good deer land, defined

The land on which DeGrio's shack sits, as well as the property surrounding it, is owned by St. Louis County. His is one of hundreds of similar pacts in which lessees own their cabins or shacks, but not the property beneath or surrounding them.

Such arrangements keep initial purchase costs to a minimum, depending on the size and condition of the cabin. But land surrounding leased land is open to anyone, which can be problematic for hunters seeking solitude. Lease fees, taxes and insurance can total about $1,000 a year.

"I looked and looked for property of my own to buy before I bought this place on leased land," DeGrio said. "But land was too expensive for me to purchase outright. So I started looking for a shack on leased land, and found this one, which was ideal for what I wanted, because it's good deer-hunting land and it's secluded."

Knowing what constitutes "good deer-hunting land" is critical to properly assessing the value of property used for this purpose.

Land dominated by old-growth forest, such as tall pines, for example, is beautiful by most measures. But such landscapes oftentimes aren't the most hospitable to deer, which typically prefer a mixture of tree types and age-classes.

And swamps?

Deer frequent lowlands and often hide in them once firearms season begins. But to be optimally huntable, and most attractive to deer, marshes and bogs should be part of a topographical mosaic that includes higher ground.

Locations, north to south, also affect Minnesota deer-hunting land values, in part because northern Minnesota often endures harsh winters, increasing the chance that whitetails living there will succumb to severe cold and deep snow.

Deer in southern Minnesota, meanwhile, are less likely to fall victim to winter. And in some parts of the south, particularly the southeast, trophy animals reside.

Other land-valuation considerations include:

• Wolves: These predators have become a major concern in recent decades among prospective deer hunting land purchasers in northern Minnesota

• Access: Acreages that can be reached by four-wheel-drive vehicle, or at least by four-wheeler, usually bring higher prices than landlocked properties.

• Electricity: Camps with power enjoy lights and other conveniences. But power lines often parallel well-traveled roads, on which vagabond hunters can easily travel, sometimes intruding on the privacy of hunting-land owners.

Making a cabin a camp

A quick look-see around DeGrio's shack hints at what has made his hideaway a "deer camp."

On two walls are collections of whitetail antlers, some with names and dates scribbled alongside.

And on nails near the ceiling hang a haberdashery of orange hunting caps, one of which belonged to DeGrio's late father, Armand.

"My dad died 11 years ago,'' DeGrio said. "His dad came over on the boat from Italy and settled in west Duluth. One of his brothers owned a nice cabin on Morgan Lake, and when I was a little kid, I used to enjoy going there to fish and play."

Whether those early adventures inspired DeGrio to purchase his leased-land shack, or whether, like many deer hunters, he simply heard his own private call of the wild, and acted on it, is unknown.

What is known is that every November his dad concocted a stew that the camp's hunters relished.

Known also is that DeGrio's wife, Shelby, an avid hunter, once killed three bucks in three successive years, and that Sunday afternoon spaghetti feeds at the camp, served with healthy doses of generator-powered Vikings football, were every bit the memory makers as any deer killed that day, or the previous or following days.

In the month that DeGrio's shack has been advertised, he's received a half-dozen or so inquiries from prospective buyers.

"I priced it at $60,000, which I think is fair," he said. "It's a good shack in a good deer hunting area.

"We've had a lot of fun here."

Dennis Anderson • 612-673-4424

Editor's note: DeGrio's property appears on Craigslist at http://duluth.craigslist.org/reo/4694787257.html