Thank you all for answering my question (putting my post at the bottom so it's seen easier).  After reading this thread, I have a new appreciation for how precious land is.   I'm really disappointed that my uncle Frank sold "Uncle John's" farm (in Indiana) back in the 70's.  It was 120 acres.  The next door neighbor bought the 80 acres next to her, and rented it out.  The 40 acres across the street was sold to someone else, and they have a modular home on it now.

That land is about 2-3 miles from farmland that Oprah purchased in the 80's.  When Oprah purchased her parcel, land values shot up like nobody's business (though I'm sure there were other reasons for the land prices jumping up).  Used to be before her arrival, you could get land for $1-2K/acre.  I know, my mom took me with her during my jr. high and high school/college years, as she was thinking of buying land out there, kind of a little farmette she envisioned in her retirement.  We looked at lots and lots of land, even nicknamed some places (i.e., the "Loeffler" place was 23 acres, had a fruit orchard in the front, a nice A-frame house, and woods/swamp in the back 15 acres).  

At any rate, once Oprah moved in, price per acre shot up to as high as $5K/acre.  She kept the property for a few years, then sold it.  Land prices remained high, and now the area is "Harbor Country", just a few miles from the Michigan weekend playground for Chicagoans (New Buffalo, MI).   The powers that be have done a great job marketing the area, and now there are lots of big fancy houses on a few acres there.  What a long way the area has come (good or bad) since my mom spent her summers out there on the farm.