Sale ends Quincy port’s attempt to develop Bishop Rec Area

QUINCY — The sale of a piece of Port of Quincy property signals the end of an attempt to establish a recreation area near Crescent Bar. Port commissioners approved the sale of what was known as the Bishop property Sept. 11. 

“(The property) was sold to a private party,” said Port Commission Chair Curt Morris. 

Morris did not provide a purchase price.  

The land overlooks the river about 10 miles south of Crescent Bar. Morris said the overlook provides a good view of some of the geological activity that shaped the Quincy area.  

Large sections of the Columbia Basin, including the land where Quincy now stands, were covered by floodwaters unleashed during the Ice Age, when ice dams in what is now Montana periodically broke, rebuilt themselves and then broke again. The impact of the floods is visible from the property, Morris said.  

Port commissioners spent about two years looking for options to develop the property into a recreation area open to the public. The project eventually was dropped because, Morris said, developing it was too expensive.  

“It wasn’t economically feasible,” he said. 

Port commissioners originally wanted to develop camping on the property, as well as an event building, picnic tables and other amenities. However, the property didn’t have a water source, and the estimate for drilling a test well was about $150,000, Morris said in an earlier interview. The estimate to build an event building was about $1 million, and between those two projects, development was too expensive, Morris said. 

Commissioners explored the idea of partnering with a state agency to develop the site as a recreation center, but that also turned out to be unfeasible, Morris said.