1 Starlight Ln

A 2016 cabin on one deeded acre at the summit of Mineral Hill in Idaho County, 1,272 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath, listed at $625,000. The listing says the cabin sits at 8,500 feet, a hundred feet below Buffalo Hump, surrounded by the Nez Perce National Forest and the Gospel Hump Wilderness, looking down on Bear and Crescent Lakes, and that it is the highest private residence in Idaho. Water is listed as spring. Sewer, electricity and the road are not listed at all. When the same cabin was listed in 2023 the remarks said access was limited and not for the faint of heart, offered it with 55 surrounding acres and three patented mining claims, and set showings for after the Fourth of July. It sold that summer. This listing went up in July at $675,000 and was cut to $625,000 on September 4. This is the first Idaho property we have written up.

The land and setting

The listing gives 1 acre, one parcel, RP26N06E135000A, ownership fee simple. Idaho County has the parcel on record under the same number with no lot size, no building data and no tax record on file. The remarks call it a deeded summit. The 2023 listing said the cabin could be bought alone or with the surrounding 55 acres, which included three patented mining claims. This listing is the acre alone and says nothing about who owns the 55 now.

The photos show a cabin on a granite outcrop at the top of a ridge with the country falling away on every side, two lakes in the cirques below, and firs scattered across the rock. The remarks say the views reach the Seven Devils and Montana. Nothing in the listing names the road, its surface, who maintains it, whether it is plowed, or how a private acre inside a national forest is reached across federal ground. The 2023 remarks said the access was limited and the showing season began in July.

The remarks pitch the hunting and fishing in the forest and wilderness around the acre. That is public land, open to everyone, which is the point of it and also the limit of it.

The house

Built in 2016, two levels, frame construction, no basement. Two bedrooms, one on the main floor and one upstairs, a family room upstairs, one bath. The listing gives 1,272 square feet and the remarks say 1,300. The county has nothing on file.

Inside is a pine-paneled great room with a stone chimney, a wood stove, arched windows to the view and a loft with a sofa and a second sleeping space under the roof. The kitchen has white cabinets, a range and a sink. The bath has a shower stall and a toilet. Heating is listed as wood only. The only appliance listed is a gas water heater. Solar panels show on the roof in the exterior photos and the listing does not mention them, a battery, a generator, or any electric service.

Water is listed as spring. Sewer is not listed. The cabin has a flush toilet, a shower and a kitchen sink in the photos, and it stands on a granite summit at 8,500 feet.

The facts

What to know before you call

How you get there, and for how much of the year. The listing does not name the road. A private acre at 8,500 feet surrounded by the Nez Perce National Forest and a wilderness area is reached across federal land, by Forest Service roads that are not plowed and that close under snow for most of the year. The 2023 listing said access was limited and not for the faint of heart and could not show the cabin until July. Ask what the route is, what vehicle it takes, whether the last stretch is a road at all, when it opens and closes, and whether the right to cross federal ground to a private inholding is by deed, by recorded easement, or by a Forest Service permit with its own terms. Ask what happens if you need to leave in October.

Spring water on a summit. Water reads spring. Springs come out of hillsides, not off the tops of granite peaks, so the spring that serves this cabin is somewhere below the acre, on the 55 acres the last owner sold separately or on national forest land. Idaho water is governed by prior appropriation: the right to use a spring belongs to whoever holds the water right, not to whoever owns the cabin, and a domestic use from a source on another owner’s land needs both a water right and a right of access. Ask where the spring is, whose land it is on, how the water reaches the cabin, whether a water right is recorded with the Idaho Department of Water Resources, and what the line does in winter.

No sewer listed. The cabin has a flush toilet, a shower and a sink in the photos and the sewer field is blank. A septic system in granite at 8,500 feet is not a given. Ask what the toilet drains to, whether Idaho County or the North Central health district ever permitted it, and where it is.

No power listed. Solar panels are on the roof in the photos and the listing says nothing about them, about batteries, a generator, an inverter or propane. Ask what the system is, what it runs, how old the batteries are, and what the winter looks like on it.

Wood heat only, at 8,500 feet. Heating reads wood. The stove is in the photos. Nothing else is listed. Ask where the wood comes from, whether cutting it on the national forest around the acre needs a permit, and how the cabin is kept from freezing when nobody is there.

Mining claims, patents and mineral rights. Elk City and Buffalo Hump are old gold country, and private ground inside the national forest here is mostly patented mining claims, land the federal government deeded to a claimant a century ago. The 2023 listing said the surrounding 55 acres held three patented claims. Ask whether this acre’s title comes from a mineral patent, whether the mineral rights run with the surface or were reserved, whether any unpatented claims are staked on the ground around it, and whether anyone holds a right to mine near or under the cabin.

The price against the last listing. The cabin was listed at $390,000 in May 2023 and sold in July 2023 for a price Idaho does not disclose. It is now $625,000 after a cut from $675,000, with no updates named in the remarks and no changes visible in the photos. Ask what was done since 2023 and what the sale price was, and remember the 55 acres and three claims were on offer alongside it then and are not now.

Taxes in Idaho. The bill is $1,062. Idaho assesses at market value and updates every year, with each parcel physically reappraised at least every five years, so the county’s value follows the market rather than resetting at sale. The homeowner’s exemption applies only to a primary residence, and a cabin you cannot reach for half the year is not one. Ask the Idaho County assessor for the current assessed value and what the bill would be without the exemption if the seller has been claiming it.

Deeded, and only one acre. The remarks lean on the word deeded, and one acre of summit is what is deeded. Every trail, lake and hunting ground in the pitch is public land. The county holds no lot size for the parcel, so have the title company pull the legal description and a survey and confirm that the cabin, its deck and its steps are inside the acre.

What conveys. Furnished throughout in the photos, listed as furnished in 2023, not mentioned now. Ask.

What is not shown. The road, from any point. The spring. The septic, if there is one. The batteries or any power equipment. The cabin in snow.

Forty-four days on the market, with one cut.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. At the same price we have a 1953 log cabin with its own lake on 80 acres inside the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan, and for another cabin with no plowed road in winter, a furnished off-grid cabin on 40 acres with its own pond in Michigamme, Michigan.

The agent

Nathan Bedard holds this listing for Assist 2 Sell Discovery Real Estate. The listing prints only his office’s main line, so he gave us his direct number, his email and his photo, which is more than most agents do and exactly what a property like this one needs. Every question in the section above, the road, the spring, the claims, the winter, is a question for the person who has stood on that summit, and that is him. Reach him directly.

To ask about this one, call Nathan Bedard on 208-816-1394 or email nathanbedard@assist2sell.com, and reference MLS 98995313. The office line at Assist 2 Sell Discovery Real Estate is 208-798-7822. Tell him where you saw it.