There’s a roughly 1 acre parcel of land in rural Frannie, just south of the Montana state line, that a neighboring cattle ranch has been using to access some of its land. When ownership decided to see about acquiring the land, they ran into a wrinkle. Turns out, it’s land that has been owned by the county since the 1960s. 

The land was acquired by the county via the treasurer after the prior owner had stopped paying taxes in the 50s and, when no one wanted to purchase the land in a tax sale the county acquired the deed. 

“We didn’t even realize we owned a piece there,” Park County Engineer Brian Edwards said. 

That led to the question, posed by Commissioner Lloyd Thiel, as to how many pieces of land does the county have that aren’t needed. 

Turns out there are few. County Project Manager Ben McDonald identified around 17 parcels of land that aren’t currently being used, although most are along roadways and could be useful for future road maintenance or changes to roadways. 

Still, there are some, like the parcel north of Frannie and a roughly half-acre lot bordered by Town of Frannie land, that the commissioners have decided aren’t needed and could be sold. 

At Tuesday’s first commission meeting of 2026, commissioners unanimously agreed to move forward with the process to put the two Frannie parcels up for auction. 

Edwards said there’s another property, an old 40-acre parcel on Lane 5 that was an old landfill, that could be made available to be sold soon as well. He said he’ll check with DEQ on whether the monitoring period required for landfill has gone on long enough.