Cost-Effective Ownership

Buying a cabin retreat on leased land.

- Stacey Freed

Back in the 1930's, Jane Lininger’s grandfather paid a permit fee for a one-room log cabin on Hebgen Lake in southwest Montana about 10 miles from the town of West Yellowstone. Flash forward to 2016. Lininger still owns that cabin – but not the land on which it sits. Lininger’s little slice of heaven is part of a U.S. Forest Service program begun in 1915 to entice Americans to enjoy the great outdoors. The program was a cost-effective way for average citizens to afford seasonal getaways near lakes, mountains and streams. There are only about 15,000 of these “recreation residences” still in existence, and while vacant ones are few and far between, there are still opportunities for cabin lovers to find them.

From generation to generation

Lininger grew up in Idaho Falls and spent summers at the cabin. “I learned to swim in the lake. There are pictures of me in a playpen made of chicken wire and logs,” she says. Her grandfather’s friends had bought cabins on the lake, too, and four generations of her family and theirs have spent time there. Though she now lives in Oregon, Lininger drives 14 hours to spend two or three weeks at the cabin each year.

Handing down the cabin from one generation to the next is typical. Permits last for 20 years and will next renew in 2028, says Jay Tripathi, president of the Board of Directors of the National Forest Homeowners, an association of cabin owners with recreational residence permits on Forest Service land.