My wife and I are considering investing in what we're calling a "foothold" property in Alaska; that inspired this question, but it applies to all states. Where can someone find maps showing the borders of areas referred to as "state land" or "public use areas"? As an example, I am wanting to know where the borders of the Nelchina Public Use Area are. There seems to be resources online, but they either don't show what I want, or I can't figure out how to properly use them. My best guess, at this point, is calling someone up there.

When I bought my new Jeep, the dealership recommended a mapping tool:
XOffroad.
I have used it a couple of times and it shows private, State and Federal boundaries. I took a quick look at Alaska and it showed Federal, State and Indian land boundaries. I think I have a non paid subscription but you might have to pay to use it.

https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt/a...p-maps-parcel-viewer


Gets good reviews, several others out there...

onX Hunt will do it. I imagine the other onX Maps apps will, as well?

The OnX stuff is really good.
Gaia is pretty good as well.

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My wife and I are considering investing in what we're calling a "foothold" property in Alaska

While the online maps etc. should be informative, if/when you get to the point of actually buying a parcel, I'd recommend you have a survey done prior to close to make sure of the boundaries and just who/what is on its borders.

Thank you for that advice, joel9507. That is likely worth the cost. It's not uncommon for parcels to boast of sharing boarders with state land; verifying claims like those is what I am trying to do. I may be able to use something like OnX (which I'll try the free trial of) to quickly debunk some, and then invest in a survey for the top contender(s). Also, where OnX is concerned, verifying borders of, and distance to, nearby public use areas is something that plays into the process of considering parcels. We're considering something relatively small (10 acres) and off-grid.

If you know where you are looking, OnX should tell you what youre looking for. DNRs Alaska Mapper, go to Manage Layers and uncheck everything except Legislatively Designated Areas, then zoom in on the Eureka area until you see it. Doesnt take much, its pretty big.
https://mapper.dnr.alaska.gov/...9798.61/8929300.64/0

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Legislatively Designated Areas

AHA! That's one of the resources I came across, but couldn't figure out how to use. That sure does it; cool. Thank you, tenmm.

Happy to help. Do you have piece of property in mind or are you still looking?

I just Googled, "Nelchina Public Land Boundaries", and found this legal description...

https://casetext.com/statute/a...hina-public-use-area

The search also had links to maps and other info.

Another user of onx here. Love it.

quote:

Do you have piece of property in mind or are you still looking?

Still looking. Honestly not entirely sure of our strategy. We want something somewhat remote; and that comes with logistical challenges. I inquired about the Nelchina area because I'm interested in something near it; perhaps near enough that I could enter it from the property, or through others' property with their permission. We would very likely be only visiting in the summer, as my wife has an aversion to the cold. It's something we've been considering for a while now, and have recently begun more seriously browsing available options.

Access to the area is not a problem, there are many trailheads along the Glenn Highway that get you back into the Talkeetna mountains.

We did purchase a 9 acre parcel in a watershed basin north of Anchorage, in the vicinity of Trapper Lake. It's west edge is on a pond of sorts; it's east edge borders state land (~2.8 million acres, speckled by some private parcels); and it's north and south edges border, as far as we can tell, unoccupied private parcels. It may be a couple years before we can even make it up there, to check it out. We went in on it with my wife's father and a mutual friend of many years; financial impact is quite minimal, considering the shared burden. The Nelchina area is not far, to the east, but does not share a border with the state land that our parcel is within. Access will be the hardest part, as is likely often the case, with these pieces of property. Float plane access is possible, on the pond the property is on (~3/4 mile long); snowmobile access in the winter; access by foot and 4x4 in the summer, in accordance with Alaska DNR policies regarding impact to the terrain. Float plane trips aren't cheap, so that's likely out, unless the other access methods prove unsustainable. We're keeping our eye on another spot that's been for sale, that has easier access, a cabin already built, and shares a border with Nelchina; it's spendy though. We figured we may as well get the ball rolling on something cheap, as opposed to holding out for something ideal that we may never find, or be able to afford. We'll keep an eye on other stuff though. I'll probably create another thread sometime, when we make it up there.

Here you go.
https://www.zillow.com/homedet...&utm_source=txtshare

Hahaha. That's the exact one we've been keeping tabs on. There's just no way we could make it work, money-wise; though it is a great buy. We were able to get very doable seller financing terms on the one we did get; and the overall cost was about 6% of that one.

I thought it might be. It’s relatively easy to get to, and they got a nice place there. Great country, I grew up a couple miles away from there.