Ever dreamed of becoming mayor of your own Wild West town? There is just one condition: you would have to buy the place first.
Belden, a Gold Rush-era settlement tucked into California’s spectacular Sierra Nevada, has been listed for $4.75 million.
The sale includes a riverside lodge, restaurant and bar, brightly colored cabins set among the trees, a swimming hole, a former schoolhouse and even a private stretch of the Feather River.
The buyer would also take on a town of just 15 residents, along with its rich history and the tantalizing possibility that more gold could still be hidden beneath the ground.
After 56 years, Belden’s longtime owner, 87-year-old Ivan Coffman, is ready to hand over the keys to the mountain settlement he made his home, business and personal kingdom.
“I love the town, I love the area, it has so much to offer. I’ve been living and mining here for many, many years,” Coffman told the Daily Mail.
He also highlighted one of the town’s best-kept features: “We have a lodge that has decking on the back of the river and the fresh canyon air. I love to sit out there and watch the river go by.”
Belden, a tiny settlement hidden deep in the Sierra Nevada, has gone on the market for $4.75 million, giving one buyer the chance to own what is effectively an entire town.
The property includes a riverside lodge, restaurant, bar, general store, cabins, gardens, a swimming hole, a former schoolhouse and even an abandoned telephone booth.
Ivan Coffman, Belden’s current owner, discovered the settlement in 1970 while working as a young masonry worker from Fresno and taking a week away from his job. He followed the winding road to where Yellow Creek meets the Feather River, then noticed gold nuggets lying in the stream.
The find changed the course of his life. Coffman estimated that he recovered about 50 ounces of gold from the area that week. With gold selling for roughly $35 an ounce at the time, he chose not to return to his old life and instead stayed in Belden.
“Who wants to be the next mayor of Belden Town?” joked Josie Litchfield, a friend helping Coffman market the property.
Coffman’s remarkable ownership story began with an extraordinary stroke of luck.
“I was a young masonry worker from Fresno, dredging for gold. In 1970, I had a week away from work and decided to drive up the Feather River,” he said.
Near Belden, he stopped at the point where Yellow Creek joins the Feather River and set off to explore upstream.
What he found in the creek bed convinced him that he had stumbled upon somewhere worth staying.
Gold nuggets were scattered among the gravel.
Coffman returned to his truck, grabbed a five-gallon bucket and began filling it with pebble-sized pieces of the precious metal. “It’d been hidden for all them years,” he recalled.
By his estimate, he found about 50 ounces that week. Gold was selling for approximately $35 an ounce at the time; at today’s price of around $4,400 an ounce, the same haul would be worth roughly $220,000.
Now 87, Coffman is still mining for gold in the area. But after more than five decades in his adopted home, he is finally ready to leave, and the unusual property is being offered as one package for $4.75 million.
The settlement sits in a dramatic canyon, squeezed between steep forested mountains, the Feather River and a railroad line
At its heart is the two-storey Belden Town Resort and Lodge, the eccentric centerpiece Coffman spent decades rebuilding. Inside, prospective buyers will find a restaurant and bar filled with curiosities – including taxidermy, antique bottles, artwork, a vintage slot machine, a leather saddle and a remarkably lifelike human-sized rooster.
Outside, brightly painted cabins sit beneath the trees, while murals and hand-painted signs announce that visitors have arrived in ‘Belden Town’
He called his business partner in Fresno to explain that he would be staying in Belden longer than planned.
As it turned out, he never went back. Over the following decades, Coffman made a life around the gold he found in the Feather River, becoming a jeweler and lender crafting ‘all kinds of necklaces and rings’ while continuing to prospect in the surrounding country.’
Then, in 1989, he took the biggest gamble of all and bought Belden itself.
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However, by that point, the former Gold Rush settlement was a shadow of its former self. During its heyday, around 1,000 people lived in the canyon as prospectors arrived in search of fortunes buried in the river, but by 1989 the once-bustling mining camp was in serious decline.
Later, the railroad brought a new wave of activity, followed by tourists drawn to the Feather River for fishing and the mountain scenery.
But the boom eventually faded. A series of dams transformed the river into a chain of hydroelectric reservoirs, while declining fish populations and a struggling local economy left Belden facing an uncertain future.
A fire in the 1970s had already destroyed much of the old settlement when Coffman arrived on the scene and left the settlement derelict.
Yet, rather than let it disappear, he rebuilt it and the result is the wonderfully eclectic collection of buildings that exists today.
The place has become particularly famous among Pacific Crest Trail hikers and motorcyclists, while summer music festivals can bring thousands of visitors to the otherwise sleepy canyon
During California’s 19th-century gold rush, thousands of fortune seekers descended on the Feather River Canyon, extracting millions of dollars in gold. Belden reportedly reached around 1,000 residents during its heyday. Then the gold rush faded
Railroads and tourism took over, with fishing and riverside resorts attracting a new generation of visitors. But dams built along the Feather River transformed the landscape, fish populations declined and the local economy suffered
At the center is the two-story Belden Town Resort and Lodge, overlooking the river. Inside are a restaurant, bar, general store and hotel rooms, surrounded by an extraordinary collection of curiosities, including taxidermy, antique bottles, artwork, a vintage slot machine, a leather saddle and most unique of all – a human-sized rooster.
Outside, colorful cabins are scattered beneath the forest canopy, while murals and hand-painted signs give the place the atmosphere of a Wild West movie set.
There is an old mechanic’s garage, a long-shuttered schoolhouse slowly being reclaimed by vegetation, trailers and RVs, and a phone booth that has become almost entirely colonized by stickers.
Belden has also developed a devoted following among travelers.
Pacific Crest Trail hikers pass through the settlement, motorcyclists stop during rides through the Lost Sierra and, in summer, music festivals can transform the normally sleepy outpost into a destination for thousands of revelers.
Author Cheryl Strayed even wrote about arriving in Belden during her Pacific Crest Trail journey in her bestselling memoir Wild, describing it as less a conventional town than a rambling building beside the railroad.
Yet the community has faced much darker moments, in recent years.
In 2021, the devastating Dixie Fire swept through the surrounding region and destroyed the nearby town of Greenville. Belden was threatened by the flames, but Coffman’s son and several employees courageously remained behind to help protect the property.
By the time Coffman bought Belden, much of it was in danger of disappearing altogether. A fire in the 1970s had destroyed many of the original buildings. His creation survived another terrifying threat in 2021, when the massive Dixie Fire tore through the surrounding region. Nearby Greenville was destroyed, while Belden narrowly escaped the flames
Coffman’s son and employees stayed behind to help defend the property. Coffman told the Daily Mail of his son’s recent passing emphasized how attached the pair were to the area, so much so that Coffman had planned to leave the town to his son. The gazebo (pictured) was built to continue his legacy
He estimates that tens of thousands of travelers have passed through during his years there. One recent visitor, a cancer survivor, asked for bottled water when he discovered the store was closed. Coffman quietly went inside, returned with a cold bottle and refused payment
Coffman’s son died earlier this year following health complications, and after planning to leave Belden to his son, his death was one of the reasons he decided it was finally time to move on.
A garden beside a gazebo now serves as a memorial to him. Coffman said the place holds ‘a lot of memories we were able to share through the years’.
It was in Belden that the two would hike the hills together, Coffman revealed the pair bonded over their joint hobby of gold-seeking, adding: ‘We would set off dredging even when my son was very young.’
After scattering his son’s ashes in the stream they cherished so dearly, Coffman is now preparing to leave the place. Yet Coffman is so attached to the town, he refuses to stray far, his relocation spot in Quincey is just 30 minutes away.
Yet when asked what he will miss most, it isn’t the nuggets, the lodge or the extraordinary property that comes to mind –
‘Oh, all the people you meet over the years,’ he said, ‘everyone knows everyone for sure.’
According to Coffman, there may even be a little gold left in it.
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