California: Ghost town abandoned for 40 years sold for £18 million | US News
What was once a thriving town with houses, shops and a school has been gathering dust since 1983.
In its heyday many decades ago, Eagle Mountain was home to more than 4,000 people before it slowly became an empty shell.
It now stands in the California desert, USA, and looks much the same as it did when it was abandoned 40 years ago.
But now the eerie ghost town near Joshua Tree National Park could soon be coming back to life after a mysterious buyer acquired it for a whopping £18million ($22.5million).
A company called Ecology Mountain Holdings bought the town from another company called Eagle Mountain Acquisition LLC.
Very little is known about the buyers other than the business address, which is listed as Cerritos, California – and the fact that it is reportedly associated with Ecology Transportation Services, known for its red big rigs.
So how did it come to be completely deserted in the first place?
Well, Eagle Mountain used to be a Kaiser Steel company town and most of the people in the community were employed at the mine.
Workers who lived in the area drilled in search of iron ore and once broke records in daily production, reports SFGATE.
However, when the results fell sharply, the mine was closed and much of the population left the mine.
From the late 1940s it had managed to boom before finally starting to dry up in the 1970s.
In November 1981, Kaiser Steel began closing the mine and two years later the last nail was driven into Eagle Mountain’s coffin – and it was left utterly abandoned.
Since then? It was mainly preserved by sand and a few foremen guarding the hundreds of abandoned buildings in what was once an idyllic setting.
The former bowling alley, café and other town buildings also housed 438 inmates in a low-security prison from 1988 until it was closed in 2003 after two men were killed in a riot.
Hollywood even came to us when it needed a unique setting for a film – notably the climax of Christopher Nolan’s film Tenet was filmed in the city.
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Eagle Mountain, but there may be a clue.
Another town called Desert Center is down the same road a little over 12 miles away, and a truck mogul named Balwinder S. Wraich bought 1,000 acres of land there in 2021.
He co-owns Wraich Transport in nearby Fontana and recently said, “We’re going to develop a rest stop, a gas station and a hotel.”
“There’s no food within 40 miles.” My goal is to do something big in the next two years. It will help the community.’
Recently, an abandoned vintage restaurant was discovered in Canada, with spices and coffee mugs still on the tables.
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