Becker County Board discusses purchasing Toad Mountain for public use

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The Becker County Board is discussing a proposal made by the Trust For Public Lands to purchase Toad Mountain on Highway 34 for non-motorized public use.

Barry Nelson, chair of the Becker County Board, explained the proposal to the other board members during their Oct. 17 meeting.

“We have this group that has come to us that is trying to look at Toad Mountain,” said Nelson. “Toad Mountain is for sale and there’s a nonprofit that is trying to keep unique pieces in public hands and this is a very special piece of land. They are looking to put together a funding package and put it in county hands … through a purchase using grant dollars.”

Toad Mountain is the tallest point in Becker County and sits on the western edge of Toad Lake, about 8 miles west of Snellman.

Nelson said he think the area would be perfect for birdwatching and scenic trails, if it ever did come under county control.

“They asked what our intent would be, if we did have the land, and both Richard (Vareberg) and I kinda thought this would be a non-motorized, hiking, birdwatching, kind of a non-motorized use area out there,” he said.

Nelson also admitted the county doesn’t have money to spend on new land acquisition, but Trust For Public Lands told the commissioner they would apply for multiple grants to cover the costs of the acquisition.

“The people that own it are interested in … it being public land and they’d like it to be in the county hands,” said Nelson. “So the next step would be looking into this and I think at that point we will incur some expense as an appraisal … so we do want to look into this a little further and I think we’ll have to expect some expenses and I think we should get those numbers down, but I think it’s a pretty interesting property.”

The commissioners agreed to begin looking at the possible purchase of Toad Mountain and will order an appraisal for the land as a first step.