Want a free vacation cabin? It’s yours, but there’s one catch—you’ve got to move it yourself.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is offering Paul’s Cottage, a vacation cabin located on the southern shore of Great Bay in Greenland, to any individual or group capable of moving it to a new location and keeping up its historic nature.

“It’s impossible for us to maintain it at its current site,” says Peter Wellenberger, manager of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Orman Paul, who owned Paul’s Market on Daniel Street in Portsmouth from the 1920s to the 1970s, built the cabin in 1940. It was used as a vacation getaway on the shores of Great Bay as recently as 1997, when Fish and Game purchased the 35-acre parcel of land the cabin is on from the Weeks family in Greenland. There are two other cabins located on the land, although Wellenberger says those cabins are in such disrepair that they can’t be restored.

Paul’s Cottage has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It’s an artifact from a bygone era, when the Bay was a prime summer vacation spot for those looking to avoid the heat of Boston. Vacation cabins like Paul’s Cottage dotted Weeks’ and Brackett’s points. Agriculture was on the decline and the cabins were a way for farmers to draw extra income and make use of their land, according to Wellenberger. The building was also leased as a sportsman’s cabin for hunting and fishing enthusiasts taking advantage of the area’s abundant waterfowl and fish.

The cabin is roughly 28 feet long and 15 feet wide, with indoor plumbing, a small kitchen area on the back and an external chimney on the side of the building. It has a white clapboard exterior and the foundation is made of cedar posts and concrete blocks. Wellenberger thinks it could still be used as a seasonal getaway. Whomever claims the cabin won’t have to restore it to its original state, but will be asked to repair it and keep it open to the public.

Before that can happen, a lot of work needs to be done. Since 1997, the cabin has been vacant save for animals seeking shelter, teenagers looking for a place to drink and have sex, and paintball enthusiasts, according to Wellenberger. Maintaining the cabin has been difficult because of its remote location. Wellenberger says there’s no road access to it, and the Fish and Game Department pretty much leaves it alone.

Wellenberger says there have been a lot of calls since the opportunity was announced last week, but no potential caretakers have been found.

“We want to target some of the more local groups interested in history,” he says. According to Wellenberger, one caller said he wanted to take Paul’s Cottage to replace his previous cabin, which had burned down.

Though the cabin can go anywhere in the state, Wellenberger says the Fish and Game Department would like to keep it local. “The ideal situation would be if a local historic society put it out on Route 33 and restored it,” he  says.

Moving the cabin will be a big undertaking. Before the cabin can be spirited away, some kind of road access to the cottage would have to be created, Wellenberger says. Wellenberger couldn’t give an estimate on how much it would cost to move the cabin; however, since it is on the National Register, he says there are grants available to ease the cost of moving the structure, and the state Division of Historic Resources would assist the potential owner.

“There’s a lot of steps involved,” Wellenberger says. “It’s not simply pulling up with a truck (and taking the cabin), but it could be done.”

For more information about how to obtain the cabin, call the Fish and Game Department at 603-868-1095.