In one of the largest sales in recent history, Victoria Land and Timber recently purchased 570 acres of land between Red Fields and Burkeville roads in Lunenburg County for $1.6 million in an auction sale held by the Nicholls Auction Marketing Group.

According to Sidney Smyth, a licensed real estate auctioneer for Nicholls — a firm based in Fredericksburg — bids for the property started at $250,000. The final bid was for $1.595 million.

According to Smyth, an associate broker Long & Foster Real Estate, the assessed value of the standing timber on the property is $720,000.

“It ran quick,” Smyth saiad of the auction. “We had five people online (bidding) … I would say, as far as the number of bidders, we probably had … about 20.”

According to Smyth, the firm sold the property for the estate of Elmer Watson. “He was out of California,” he said of the trustee of the estate, Arlan Watson.

As for the new owner’s plans for the property, Smyth said, “He is from Louisa and he owns several large tracts of land. That’s what he’s in the market for. What a lot of people are doing now is … diversifying their portfolio. And so, in addition to stocks and bonds, they’re also buying timberland.”

“He is primary in the landowner and timber business,” Smyth said of the new owner.

Part of the estate sale included the sale of a home on Ninth Street in Victoria. The home, Smyth said, was about 2,500 sq. ft. and was one and a half stories tall.

“That sold for $44,000,”

Smyth said of the home, which was sold in a separate auction and purchased by a separate party.

Smyth has been in the auction business for about 10 years and has been in real estate for a longer period of time.

“I’ve been in real estate sales for almost 20 years. And, you know, an average sale for us (is) 100 acres, maybe 150 acres, you know smaller. And that’s basically because the county’s pretty well cut up … To see a 570 acre tract, it’s just very, very rare. And, obviously at $1.6 million that’s even rarer.”

Smyth said the $1.6 million sale is the biggest he’s ever been involved in in Lunenburg County, and thinks it has put Nicholls on the map in Southside Virginia.

According to Smyth, there were many at the auction from other areas of Virginia and out-of-state.