Our History
In the summer of 2017, I was living in San Francisco and looking for undeveloped land in the rugged and beautiful Pacific Northwest for a wilderness getaway.
My goal was to find a place with trees, hills, lots of wildlife, and lots of privacy. It would ideally sit near a river. It would be a place where I could build a rustic cabin to take occasional breaks from the outside world.
After a few exploratory attempts with local real estate brokers, I met a very fine fellow named Steve Hansford from Golden West Properties who immediately understood the assignment.
Mostly retired at that point, Steve was an experienced raw land broker with a deep love of nature and a solid knowledge of the region. He found dozens of candidate properties, vetting them for hidden challenges, and setting up two days when we could drive around western Washington State to tour them all.
The day before I flew up to see the properties, most of which had been on the market for a year or more, I got an excited email from Steve saying that a promising new property had just appeared on the MLS. It was a little out of my price range, but way bigger than the other options and seemed to check all of the boxes. We switched the schedule around to see it first when I arrived the next morning.
My rental car behind Steve’s pick-up on what would soon become Riverbend Lane
We never looked at anything else.
The property was perfect. It was an astounding 120 acres (an additional 100 contiguous acres would be added in Dec. of 2021) with rolling hills, towering trees, and a golden meadow. The Chehalis River wrapped around three sides and the Doty Hills bounded the fourth, creating a quiet, private valley.
July 20, 2017 - the first Riverbend Day
There was a magical quality to the day. It was warm with the summer sun, and a cool breeze rippled over the hay field, making the trees gently stretch and sway. I felt like my heart had come home.
Steve called the seller’s agent from the field and said we were putting in our offer letter. They accepted that evening. We were the only ones who had seen it.
Panorama of the raw land on that sunny day. Can you spot Steve and his truck off to the left in the meadow?
There they are!
Over the next three months, Steve shepherded me through the harrowing land-buying process, with well-drilling logs to be researched and certified, title history going back to the first settlement in the late 1890’s to be reviewed, a forestry management plan to be outlined and filed, and a skeptical bank to be convinced that the value I felt was worth their risk for the loan.
We closed in September of 2017, and the Riverbend Preserve was born.
Ever since then, I’ve slowly been carving access roads and walking trails, taking pictures, making maps, observing the wildlife, learning about the plants and the forest, and making plans to permanently protect this place from development after I’m gone.
Steve and I remained in touch by phone and email. He told me fishing stories, I shared my plans to create a private nature park out here, and we looked forward to the day when he could come back down to sit by the river together with a couple of cold beers.
Sadly, he passed away in February of 2022, just a day after our last email exchange.
He was a friend and a mentor with a generous soul full of lively, cheerful enthusiasm. There was always a mischievous twinkle in his eye suggesting that yes, he had in fact figured out the secret of the universe…but he wasn’t ready to share it yet.
The highest point on the Riverbend Preserve, The Hansford Overlook, is named in his memory.
