MACHIAS – More than 4,000 acres in Whiting and Marion Township, including frontage on six lakes and ponds, will be sold at auction next month in an attempt to lure upscale development to tracts once sought for their timber.

The land is owned by Dale Thomas of Crest Hill, Ill., a Chicago suburb. The land includes frontage on Gardner, Sunken, Rocky and Long lakes and Josh and Holmes ponds, according to an auction information brochure by JP King Auction Co. Inc. of Gadsden, Ala.

The public auction will be in Bar Harbor on Oct. 12.

Thomas did not respond to a request for information on the sale. According to documents on file in the Washington County Registry of Deeds, the 4,000 acres include portions of the 7,915 acres that Thomas bought for $1.2 million in March 2000.

Thomas bought the Whiting and Marion Township land from Five Islands Corp., whose president is Herbert C. Haynes of H.C. Haynes, a Winn timber harvesting company.

H.C. Haynes bought the timberland from the Baskahagen Lumber Co. in March 1995, according to the deed documents.

The auction property also includes land that Thomas’ companies – Investment Grade Properties and Coastal Maine Investments – bought from Stephen Stoner of Barrington, R.I., in June 2000.

The property that will be auctioned Oct. 12 is advertised as “Six Lakes Ranch” and is divided into 20 parcels that range from 2 acres on Gardner Lake to 1,15O acres with frontage on both Long and Sunken lakes.

According to advertisements that appeared in local, state and national newspapers last weekend, Six Lakes Ranch may be purchased as one piece or in individual lots, and the property is suitable for “an upscale subdivision, recreational retreat, hunting preserve or golf course.”

Billed as “one of the last large parcels in Maine,” Six Lakes Ranch is described as being an hour from Bangor International Airport, near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and minutes from “the quaint town of Machias and the coast.”

According to the advertisement, 16 of the 20 lots will sell “regardless of price.” The remaining four lots are subject to seller confirmation, according to the brochure.

Those sales that Thomas must approve are:

. A 1,285-acre parcel that includes frontage on Josh Pond.

. A 160-acre parcel with frontage on Josh Pond.

. 120 acres that include Josh Pond.

. 727 acres with frontage on Rocky and Long lakes.

Approximately half of the property – 1,949 acres – is in the town of Whiting and is part of a subdivision that the Whiting Planning Board approved on Aug. 25.

Marion Township is an unorganized territory so it falls under the jurisdiction of the state Land Use Regulation Commission. Charles Corliss, LURC’s regional compliance investigator, said Thursday that he had just learned of the lots in Marion Township and was determining whether the lots constitute a legal subdivision.

Whiting Planning Board Chairman George Townsend said Six Lakes Ranch is the second large subdivision to come before the board in the past few months. Early this summer, the board approved the 2,200-acre Meadows & Mountains subdivision – 40-acre lots that run from U.S. Route 1 through to Cutler, he said.

That property formerly was owned by International Paper Co. and was subdivided by Mary Gregor of Houlton.

Townsend said Meadows & Mountains has no water frontage, but that some of the lots have already sold.

“I’ve had people from down south calling on Meadows & Mountains,” he said.