Who buys ghost towns in the US and why?

Once there were places where cults, communes and working communities were formed, but gradually their glory sunk into oblivion, leaving only empty abandoned buildings. Now, American businessmen are acquiring ghost towns for millions of dollars. What is the reason for their interest in these seemingly unprofitable investments, the publication found out TJ.

Фото: Depositphotos

“This is not an ordinary ghost town,” said American John Voight, who in 2011 has gained Sunrise, Wyoming, for 12 million dollars. In his city almost on 90 hectares, he lives with a dog and two cats. In June, 2018, a man organized a tour of local mines for those interested.

“It's a little crowded here now, man 25 or 30. I'm not used to this. I love being alone, ”says the entrepreneur.

He is one of hundreds of enthusiasts who have acquired abandoned cities in recent years. Someone intends to make of them tourist points, someone - to give a new refuge to believers, but for others it is just a way to escape from the modern reality.

Cities of singles

Legally, only one person lives in Sunrise, its owner, but in the summer of 2017, more 1000 people visited the town to watch the solar eclipse. Coincidentally, a particularly spectacular view of this phenomenon opened up in Sunrise. In addition to this, archaeologists recently discovered remains of ancient Indian settlements in the town, estimated to be about 13 thousands of years old. After that, the rest of Vojta was again violated - dozens of researchers came to Sunrise to study the findings.

For Vojta, the purchase of the city became one of a dozen adventures: approximately in 20 years he left his native Wyoming, first in Saudi Arabia, and then in Libya, in order to engage in farming. Five years later, he returned to the United States and began selling real estate, then became interested in music, then the restaurant business, and later went on long journeys. So one day he met the former owner of Sunrise.

At the beginning of 1990, this town was founded by steelmaker Colorado Fuel and Iron billionaire John Rockefeller, but later the organization went bankrupt. Almost two decades later, the owner of Sunrise decided to sell the city, and Voight gladly bought it out.

“I craved another adventure. I still have enough strength and endurance, so I decided: “Well, let's do some mining. I haven't done that yet, ”says 62, the city’s summer owner.

He is not embarrassed that Sunrise consists of only a few abandoned brick houses, an old chemical laboratory and the building of a volunteer organization "Youth Christian Association».

The term “ghost towns” is an unofficial designation for cities whose population has for some reason (often economic) reached zero. In the US, many such cities are located in industrial areas or close to mines. When the population leaves the city, it ceases to be considered a city and becomes an “unencumbered territory” that does not have its own municipal authorities.

When a person moves to a ghost town, the postal service asks him to start his subscription box in the nearest locality or install a mailbox at the nearest freeway that is part of the state. The fact is that postal services do not work in abandoned cities.

Фото: Depositphotos

Place for religion and public relations

In addition to Vojta, there are several hundred people, companies and churches in the United States who buy ghost towns for business, preserving cultural and historical territory or creating a cult. This was the year in 1933 that an American, Marie Ogden, took over - after the death of her husband, she got carried away occultism and, according to her, once God ordered her to find a land called the “Dry Valley” in the state of Utah. Together with like-minded people, Ogden traveled from New Jersey to the south and founded a Christian commune in an abandoned city. Her followers believed that the judgment day was coming soon, and only they, the inhabitants of the sacred land, would be saved.

The community had been developing for about six years, until one day the locals had not learned that Ogden had banned members of the commune from burying a dead woman for two months. Instead, the head of the community ordered to feed the deceased with milk and eggs, claiming that she would be reborn. The scandal following the discovery of history led to the demise of the commune: its followers lost faith in the coming end of the world and dispersed.

In August, California-based marijuana manufacturer American Green acquired 2017 for the city of Nypton for five million dollars. The management claimed that it would turn the city into a “Mecca for marijuana lovers”, but later it turned out that it was just a PR move to raise the company's shares in price. In March 2018, the project is quiet turned off.

This is not the only such case: in 2012, the Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Iguuen, who produces and sells coffee, has gained the city of Buford in Wyoming for 900 thousand dollars. Immediately after that, at the entrance and around the city, he set up billboards with his image against the background of Buford. The entrepreneur says that one day the city will become the main transit destination for the distribution of its coffee brand in the United States.

In 2016, Silicon Valley investors Robert and Trish Duggans paid six million dollars for the Californian abandoned town of Holi City. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was home to followers of the cult, led by William Riker, a proponent of the concept of “white superiority,” which demanded that black Americans should not own land in California.

Duggans are members of the Church of Scientology and actively sponsor the church. Residents of nearby cities fearthat after investing, Holi City may become a new haven for members of the organization.

Not all ghost cities buy for religious or business purposes. In 2006, a small family acquired approximately two and a half hectares in the town of Mons (Wash.). There is a school, a post office, a supermarket, and there are seven more private houses. how explained buyers, they just wanted to find "peace and quiet, and at the same time to stop participating in the rat race."

Фото: Depositphotos

Revive the abandoned

In July 2018 years стало известно on the purchase of the abandoned city of Cerro Gordo, near the Valley of Death National Park in Las Vegas. The new owners of the town with 22 buildings, including the saloon of the times of the Wild West with a characteristic bloody spot on the wall, bought a place for 1,4 million dollars. According to realtor Jake Rasmuson, who sells ghost towns, Cerro Gordo has survived much better than most of his kind.

Rasmuson assures that if he had the opportunity to engage exclusively in the sale of abandoned cities, he would be happy to use it. The secret of a successful sale is to find a customer who knows the area well and loves history and who is able to attract media attention. The more often the press reminds of ghost towns, the more people are interested in buying them, the realtor believes.

Cerro Gordo acquired entrepreneur Brent Underwood and his business partner John Beer. Businessmen are planning to install a new water treatment system in the city and carry out a large-scale cleaning, and then do the decor. Underwood hopes to make Cerro Gordo a peculiar corner for history lovers, writers and those who want to escape from the big cities for a while.

Several representatives of music festivals and theater performers have already appealed to partners with a proposal to hold events in the city. Interest in the town also comes from various organizations from Japan, India and Europe. However, Underwood admits that the acquisition of the city only on 20% is related to financial prospects, and the remaining 80% is the desire to fulfill the dream.

“There are probably a lot more places you can invest your money right now than buying a ghost town. But ultimately, it’s worth asking yourself why you make money. For me personally, if I had an infinite amount of money, the best investment would be buying a ghost town,” admitted Brent Underwood.

Although the idea of ​​companions seems unpromising, there are cases of the transformation of abandoned cities into profitable places. In 2009, Brandon Isley was looking for where to invest the money left after the crisis, and suddenly he thought - why not buy a city on them. Amid falling property prices, he purchased the farm town of Albert (Texas).

At first, Easley wanted to attract people through festivals and concerts, but one day a friend came to him and asked if they could hold a wedding in the city. This was the answer - the American decided to build a business on renting Albert for weddings. According to the entrepreneur, 2017 weddings were held in the city in 44, and he expects the numbers will continue to grow.

“I often see people here who come here looking for ghosts. It's weird, ”says John Voight.

Unlike the owners of other cities, he does not think much about money. Sunrise does not bring him income, but the businessman lives quite well on money invested in other real estate. Plus, he earns a little on the supply of stones and iron from city mines.

As in the case of Albert and Cerro Gordo, Voight wants to make his city an attractive place for tourists. However, he is not interested in high-profile events like weddings - he wants to see people in his town who are interested in history and culture. In the meantime, his city is regularly visited by researchers and archaeologists, hoping to find new artifacts.

“My philosophy is this: the more people tell me that I’m doing something crazy, the more likely it will work because I’ll have less competitors. If no one has ever tried it, then there will be no competitors in this area, ”Voit noted..

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