Saving Hakamwe for the Hualapai is the Greatest Homage to Forrest Purdy and Janice Purdy, page-4

American tax laws favor donations of land, especially if it has gone up in value. The property may have been worth $50,000 in 2004. The gift would result in a tax deduction and they were probably paying 41% combined federal and state tax. So, the net cost of the gift was less than $30,000. And had they sold it, the tax on the gain would have been 25%, so their net would be only $37,500, and maybe only $32,500 after broker commissions.

They could probably get an appraisal, for tax purposes, of $50,000 even when the selling price would have been only $40,000. There wasn’t much of a market for hot springs in remote places back then.