By my calculations, the state's public school endowment has made $7,555,000 so far today at the auction of Priest Lake cabin sites. That's the amount that's been bid just for the land; the successful bidders were all the current lessees, so they already own the buildings on the property. But if anyone else gets a high bid, they must pay the current lessee appraised value for the improvements, which in the first batch ranged in value from $45,760 to $1.7 million, on top of the cost of the land.

The first 16 of 60 properties have been auctioned so far; three more groups are still set for auction, at 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., all Pacific time.