21824 Burma Rd

This is a one-room hunting camp of 450 square feet on 40 wooded acres off Burma Road near Ewen, in McMillan Township, Ontonagon County, in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula. The listing says it was built in 1990 and has new siding, new floors, fresh paint, an improved foundation and a newly cleared driveway, and it comes furnished. There is no well, no septic and no grid power. The remarks say the parcel is surrounded by national forest and that the South Branch of the Ontonagon River lies just beyond the property lines. It was listed on September 4, 2026 at $149,000. Neither site holds a county record for it.

The land and setting

The listing gives 40 acres at 1,320 by 1,320 feet, which is a quarter of a quarter section, wooded, rolling and rural, with a gravel road and 1,320 feet of frontage marked see remarks. The photos show a clearing with the camp and a shed, a mown two-track through hardwoods, a box blind on stilts, and aerials of unbroken forest with a brown river bending through it. Several photos are taken from a high bank above the river, where a bench sits under the pines.

The Forest Service’s ownership layer puts the listing coordinates inside the Ottawa National Forest boundary on land it classes as non-federal, with federal land within half a mile. That is an inholding. OpenStreetMap puts the South Branch of the Ontonagon River about a third of a mile from the coordinates. The remarks say the river is past the property line, and the listing gives no water frontage, so the bank and the bench in the photos may be on federal land.

The camp

The listing gives one room of 23 by 20 feet and a bath of 4 by 6, one story, no basement, vinyl siding, radiant and wood heat with a wood-burning stove, no cooling, a range, a refrigerator and a microwave, wood floors, and furnished. The photos show a single room with a bed at one end, a table in the middle and a kitchen along one wall, a wood stove with a heat shield, a propane range, water jugs on the counter, and a bathroom with a shower stall, a small sink and a camp toilet.

Water is none. Sewer is none. Electric is listed as generator not included. Propane is listed with an owned tank. That is the whole utility picture: jugs, a camp toilet, a propane range and whatever generator you bring.

The facts

What to know before you call

No water, no septic, no power. The listing says so in three fields. There is no well and no drilled water listed, the toilet in the photo is a camp unit, and the electric field says a generator is not included, which means there is no grid service to the camp. At $149,000 you are buying 40 acres and a shell that has been sided and floored, and every utility is a project. Ask what the last owner used for water, where the grey water goes, whether Ontonagon County requires a permit for the toilet, what a well and septic would cost here, and how far the nearest power line is.

Surrounded by national forest, on paper. The remarks say the parcel is surrounded by national forest. The Forest Service ownership layer confirms the coordinates lie inside the Ottawa National Forest boundary as non-federal land with federal land close by. What it does not say is which sides touch federal land, and whether Burma Road reaches the parcel across federal or state land. Ask for a survey or the county plat showing the adjoiners, ask the Ontonagon Ranger District whether Burma Road is a county road, a Forest Service road or a private two-track across federal land, and if it crosses federal land, ask how the access right is held. A camp reached over a Forest Service road can be gated or closed seasonally.

The river is past the line. The aerials of the river bend and the bench on the bank are the best photos in the listing. The remarks say the river lies just beyond the property lines, the listing gives no water frontage, and OpenStreetMap puts the river about a third of a mile from the coordinates. If the bank is federal land it is open to everyone, which is fine for fishing and less fine for privacy. Ask where the bench is.

Not in Commercial Forest, and the tax will jump. Michigan’s Commercial Forest program taxes enrolled land at $1.35 an acre and opens it to public foot access for hunting and fishing. A 40-acre parcel in the program would pay about $54 a year. The listing gives $1,789, so this parcel is on the regular roll and no one can walk it without permission. Michigan caps the growth of taxable value each year and uncaps it on transfer, so the first bill after a sale resets to the state equalized value, which is half of market value. A camp is not a homestead, so it pays the 18 school operating mills a principal residence does not. Ask the McMillan Township assessor for the current taxable value and the SEV, and figure the bill at the SEV.

Flood. Neither site prints a flood zone, and the National Flood Hazard Layer has no digital polygon at the coordinates. Most of Ontonagon County has never been mapped digitally. The camp sits in a clearing well back from the river, and the aerials show it on level ground. Ask whether the county has a paper flood panel for the township.

Burma Road in winter. The road is gravel per the listing and nothing says who maintains it or whether it is plowed. This is the western Upper Peninsula, where the snow comes in November and stays until April. A camp reached by a gravel road and a mown two-track may be reachable only by snowmobile for five months. Ask the McMillan Township clerk and the Ontonagon County Road Commission whether Burma Road is a county road and whether it is plowed to this address.

Zero bedrooms, one room. The listing gives no bedrooms because there are none. The room is 23 by 20 with a bed in it. A lender’s appraiser and an insurer will treat it as a seasonal camp, and the listing terms allow cash or conventional. Ask what a conventional lender will do with a house that has no water or septic.

The renovation. The remarks list new siding, new flooring, fresh paint, an improved foundation and a newly cleared driveway. The photos show the siding and the floors. Nothing says what was done to the foundation or whether Ontonagon County issued a permit. Ask what the foundation is, what was improved, and for the permit if there is one.

Structures. The listing lists sheds. The photos show one shed by the camp and a box blind on stilts. Ask whether the blind is on the parcel and whether it conveys.

No county record. Neither site carries a county record beyond the parcel number. The 40 acres, the 450 square feet, the 1990 build date and the tax figure are the listing’s alone. Ask the township assessor for the record card.

Twenty-eight photos, seven short of our standard. Zillow and Redfin each carry the same 28 photographs in the same order, confirmed by perceptual hash. Zillow’s are larger and we used them all. Nothing is virtually staged. Not shown: the inside of the shed, the foundation, the generator hookup, the propane tank, the road in, and the road in winter.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. For other Upper Peninsula camps we have an off-grid cabin on Forest 13 Highway in Wetmore and a camp on Federal Forest Road 3920 near Iron River.

To ask about this one, call Cole Borseth at 906-250-4324 or Borseth Properties at 906-988-2329, and reference MLS 50220814. Tell them where you saw it.