In 1968 I was 20. that same year my Grandfather passed. He had owned a 200 acre dairy farm and orchard. It was not really good land except the orchard area. He had not run any dairy for quite a few years because his kids had all grown and moved away. He could not handle it himself. I was raised about 10 miles away from the land but spent a lot of time hunting and trapping all through it.
My uncles and aunts couldn't wait to sell it. they all wanted their share. I tried everything I knew of to buy it but could not swing it. There were a lot of hard feelings throughout that entire trial. I vowed that one day I would have my own place.
I moved from PA to SC about 30 years ago. Eventually we bought this place. It's only 25 acres, but it's home and I can hunt deer and turkey on my own property.
About 16/18 years ago my one cousin and were talking and thought about buying a piece of property in PA. I still went back every year to hunt with him and another cousin. At the time his daughter was in real estate. We asked her to keep an eye out for about 100 acres of worthless land that was only good for hunting. We talked about it every year. He went and looked at dozens of properties but there was always something that didn't fit our desires.
Finally, about 12 years ago we found 135 acres that seemed perfect. It had no buildings, was not good for much of anything, the asking price was doable and it was reasonably close to his home. (About 35 miles each way.)
During the negotiations, we were close on a price. The son and daughter that had inherited the land lived a good distance away and had no use for it. we were real close on a price. My cousin suggested that we would pay $50 more per acre for the mineral rights. Why he said that I have no idea. They agreed to the deal.
Three years later, we got a call from Range Resources. We had never heard of Marcellas Gas. They offered us a 5 year lease that totalled almost three times what we had paid for the land. We still owned the land, but they had 5 years to drill or the lease expired. If they drilled we would also get royalties. They never drilled.
About a year after the lease had expired, Consol Energy called. They owned thousands of acres of land in the area. They paid us 4 times what we had paid for the land. We still own the land though. They will be drilling this spring. We will also get 4 times the royalties that Range had offered.
Several of our relatives have tried to get us to invite them to hunt but we keep it to just the two of us and our kids. We have our own place and we still remember when we were treated quite badly years ago.
As an aside, the land my grandfather left to them was sold for $250 per acre. 25 years later a developer bought it for 1.5 million to put in a huge shopping development. I mention that at family get togethers every chance I get. Karma is really kinda cool.