ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Give it away and they will come.
In this case it was land for grabs in Alaska's frozen interior. People dropped everything to fly or drive north. They camped out in temperatures as cold as 25 below to join other hardy hopefuls. They dreamed of the homes they would build amid the spruce and cottonwoods of the town of Anderson, population 300.
By Monday morning, 44 parties waited in line for a shot at the 26 large lots offered to the first people who applied for them and submitted $500 refundable deposits. There were very few locals among them but plenty of people from other areas, including Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Wisconsin and Washington state.
"This is a brilliant and innovative way to create a neighborhood because now we all know each other and we've been through this together," said Jeremie Dufault, an attorney in Boise who claimed one of the 1.3-acre lots for a summer home. He even talked a friend into claiming an adjacent lot so they could vacation together.
Others were still pulling up to town even after all the land was spoken for.
"People are jacked," said Mayor Mike Pearson. "They're jubilant. It's like a mini festival."
And those are just the ones who hustled to show up after news broke about the giveaway, which requires that winning applicants build a house measuring at least 1,000 square feet within two years.
City phones were ringing nonstop all weekend and were still going strong Monday. Thousands of people called from all 50 states and numerous other places, including Canada, Taiwan, India and South America, according to locals, including Anderson high school teacher Daryl Frisbie, whose social studies class developed the homesteading idea to boost the town's dwindling population.
Frisbie said his own residential phone has been ringing round the clock. Nobody was deterred by the brutal winters of the interior where temperatures can plunge to 60 below. Callers from around the world were all focused on two words: free land.
"This is insane," Frisbie said. "It's more than I ever imagined."
Never mind that there's no grocery store or gas station in Anderson, 75 miles from the regional hub of Fairbanks. Would-be land owners included several prospective entrepreneurs like Pavel Prokoshev, 24, of Sarasota, Fla., who has been visiting his parents in the interior town of Delta Junction the past two months.
He plans to build and operate a gas station, and he vowed to charge less than the nearest competitor in Nenana, 20 miles away.
"It would be easier for people to come here, to my place, than to Fairbanks," he said. "And I'll be two cents cheaper than Nenana."
Alas, Prokoshev was among those who failed to make the initial cut for the lots. And so are the piles of applications expected this week in the mail. City officials last week said people who apply in person or have someone stand in for them would have the best shot, since the post office doesn't open until noon.
But city officials have given the first 26 people in line a week to change their minds about making a huge commitment. So Prokoshev and the others haven't officially been ruled out.
Number 26 was Ross Shoger of Portland, Ore., who was on a 6 a.m. flight Saturday just hours after he heard about the offer. The 23-year-old flew to Fairbanks, then hitchhiked to Anderson, where he plans to do odd jobs to make a living in a town where most employment opportunities require some driving.
"If this doesn't work out, I'll go to Europe," he said.