COLUMBIA COUNTY, Columbia County will auction 31 pieces of county-owned property on Tuesday, Nov. 17, from a burned-out mobile home lot on the Nehalem River to a three-parcel former farm outside Clatskanie, with opening bids that start at $368.15.
Correction, Oct. 27: The county has revised the minimum bids for this sale. An earlier version of this story reported the figures the county published Oct. 14, which the county now says were miscalculated. Most minimums went up. The total of all minimum bids is about $189,000, not $115,000; the lowest opening bid is $368.15, not $208; and the Lone Pine Road, Colvin Road, Old Portland Road, and Fishhawk Road minimums have changed. The corrected figures are below.
The sale begins at 10 a.m. in the lobby of the Columbia County Justice Facility, 901 Port Ave., St. Helens, under Board of Commissioners Order No. 34-2026. The board’s order and the county’s surplus property page both give Nov. 17, which is a Tuesday.
Together the properties carry a real market value of about $1.74 million on the county assessor’s books. The minimum bids add up to about $189,000. That gap is by design: the county sets each minimum at the amount it is owed on the property, listed on its detail sheets as the “reconveyance amount,” not at what the land is worth.
The minimums changed after the sale was announced. On Oct. 27 the county replaced the bid list on its surplus property page with a corrected one, and the Board of Commissioners adopted Order 38-2026, which makes the change official, on its consent agenda Oct. 28 without discussion, according to the meeting video. That order says “an error has been discovered in the calculation of the minimum bid price for each of those properties” in the original list and substitutes a corrected Exhibit A. Every other term of the sale stays the same. Of the 31 items, 26 minimums went up, three stayed the same, including the landlocked Robinette Road parcel, and two items, a mineral-rights parcel and a lot between Wonderly Drive and Little Street, went down by about $50 each.
What’s for sale
Nine of the 31 items are mineral rights only, mostly in the hills west of Vernonia, with minimum bids of $370 to $763. Several more are slivers of land: a small lot between J and K streets in Columbia City, a lot off Brooks Drive in St. Helens with a $610.98 minimum, a lot at the corner of West Seventh Street and Highway 30 in Rainier. On a few of the smallest items the minimum bid is now higher than the assessor’s market value: a sliver next to 80301 Quincy Mayger Road near Clatskanie carries a $976.61 minimum against a $500 real market value.
The properties of larger value are fewer:
- 58785 Lone Pine Road, Vernonia. A 1.19-acre lot with a 1996 double-wide that a 2018 assessment note says burned to the point of being uninhabitable. Real market value $196,920; minimum bid $18,490.42. The buyer must remove the damaged home. The whole lot sits in the mapped floodplain of the Nehalem River, so any rebuilding needs floodplain permits and FEMA-standard construction, according to the county’s land use research.
- Three parcels on Colvin Road, Clatskanie, sold separately but formerly run as one farm, including 13935 Colvin Road. Combined real market value about $937,500; minimum bids $2,275.90, $17,949.37, and $35,627.93.
- 56695 Old Portland Road, Warren. Two tax lots sold as one property. Combined real market value $432,200; minimum bid $55,150.53, the sum of the two lots’ minimums and the highest in the sale.
- A landlocked parcel behind 60182 Robinette Road, St. Helens. Real market value $101,980; minimum bid $2,654.61.
- A lot next to 71536 Fishhawk Road, Birkenfeld. Real market value $25,600; minimum bid $27,703.29. The minimum includes money the county must pay to clear a homeowners association lien, and the buyer takes on the association’s rules and future assessments.
The full list, with tax account numbers, assessor reports, maps and the county’s land use notes on each parcel, is on the county’s surplus property page.
How the sale works
Bidders must be present in person, at least 18, and must sign the sale’s terms and conditions before 9:45 a.m. Sale staff take signed forms from 9 a.m. Properties go in bid-number order by oral auction, and the county says there’s no way to predict when a given item comes up. Bidding ends when it’s done or at 4 p.m., whichever is first.
Everything sells as is, with no warranties, subject to liens, easements and anything else on record, by county quitclaim deed. The county’s detail sheets warn that tax lots are not necessarily legal parcels for building, and that no parcel legality research has been done. Prospective buyers may walk a property but may not enter structures without the county’s written permission.
Winning bids under $5,000 are paid in full on the spot. For bids of $5,000 or more, the buyer may put down 15% and sign an earnest money agreement for the rest. Every buyer also pays an administrative fee: $245 on properties with a minimum bid under $5,000, or 5% of the minimum bid on the others. Payment is by cash, money order or cashier’s check to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
No county elected official, appointee or employee, nor their family members or anyone acting for them, may buy at the sale. The county can pull any property before the auction.
Pre-sale questions go to Jacyn Normine, lands administrator in the Board of Commissioners Office, at Jacyn.normine@columbiacountyor.gov. Land use and code questions go to Land Development Services at 503-397-1501 for properties outside city limits, or to the city planning department for properties inside one.
How to take part
When and where: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, 10 a.m., lobby of the Columbia County Justice Facility, 901 Port Ave., St. Helens. Arrive between 9 and 9:45 a.m. to file your signed terms and conditions.
What to bring: Cash, a money order or a cashier’s check for the full bid on items under $5,000, or at least 15% on items at $5,000 and up, plus the administrative fee.
Before you go: Review the property list, the terms and conditions, the earnest money agreement and the county’s land use notes at columbiacountyor.gov under Board of Commissioners Office, Surplus Property.