A 100-year-old ghost town founded during the California Gold Rush is being modernized for the “green rush” after a cannabis company purchased all the land, buildings and businesses for $5 million.
On Thursday, American Green, a marijuana technology company, announced they purchased a small town in San Bernardino County with the intention of turning it into the “the country's first energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospitality destination.”
"The Cannabis Revolution that's going on here in the US, has the power to completely revitalize communities in the same way gold did during the 19th century,” David Gwyther, chairman and president of American Green, said in the announcement.
Located on the border of Nevada and California, the desert town of Nipton has a population of around 20 people, according to the Los Angeles Times. The town also comes with its own water supply, a general store, an RV park, a campground and a five-room hotel from 1904.
Last year, the previous owner, Gerald Freeman, placed the entire town on the market for $5.2 million dollars because he was too old to maintain it anymore. He told the Las Vegas Journal-Review that he wanted to sell it to “someone who’s committed to sustainability of the human race.”
American Green, the largest and second oldest publicly traded cannabis company in the US, said they bought the town as part of a 120-acre land purchase. The company plans to keep the existing structures intact and build new ones that they hope will attract tourists and boost the local economy.
"This acquisition allows us to channel the myriad interests in cannabis production and consumption for an immediate positive impact to this community's members and to cannabis consumers across the country,” Gwyther said in a statement.
The company said it will start by bottling and distributing water infused with Cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabis compound that is believed to have medical benefits without making people feel “stoned.” Then, the company plans to spend $2.5 million over the next 18 months to revitalize the town, according to Bloomberg.
The company wants to develop the nearby aquifer system and expand the town’s existing solar farm to create a completely energy-independent town.
Tony Castrignano, who is the owner of the realty company making the sale, told the Las Vegas Journal Review that the current photovoltaic system provides up to 45 percent of the energy the town needs.
Ultimately, the company plans to host other marijuana-friendly businesses and events in town, including CBD and mineral baths, cannabis-product retail outposts, artists-in-residence programs, culinary events and Bed-and-Breakfast lodging.
After just one week of recreational marijuana sales supplies are drying up https://t.co/y0zvWTBAOM
— RT America (@RT_America) July 11, 2017Lack of weed prompts ‘state of emergency’ in Nevada — RT America
There’s a reefer shortage madness in Nevada, where – after just one week of recreational marijuana sales – supplies are drying up. The governor has approved an “emergency regulation” to ease licens... rt.com
Project manager Stephen Shearin said he hopes the work they are doing in Nipton will inspire other companies.
“We thought that showing that there was a viable means of having a cannabis-friendly municipality and further making it energy independent could be a way of really inspiring folks to say, ‘Why can’t we do that here?’” Shearin told Bloomberg.
Shearin said he wants to "create a community that is accepting and understanding" of marijuana use.
"The [idea] here isn't to create 'Woodstock 2017,'" Shearin said. "It's about creating an environment where people come to work and share in a community."
Both Nevada and California are among the four US states to have legalized marijuana. The drug is still illegal under federal law.
#1: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#0)
Uh-huh. Yeah. That's normal. That makes sense.
misterwhite posted on 2017-08-04 19:51:47 Reply Private Reply
#2: Hondo68 To: misterwhite, anti capitalist (#1)
Yeah, it is normal. Large liquor companies, etc. often buy towns. Coors virtually owns Golden, Colorado. Big pharma drug pusher manufacturers own plenty of towns too. The death toll between the two (alcohol & prescription drugs) is astronomical.
Would you be happier if WalMart bought the town to distribute their Chinese products? At least this stuff is manufactured in the USA.
Hondo68 posted on 2017-08-04 20:10:59 Reply Private Reply
#3: buckeroo To: hondo68 (#0)
I have loaded up the 2016 Jeep Overland Trail Blaze complete with 6 person camper/desert toys and goodies, such as Red Breast! Nipton, or BUST!
buckeroo posted on 2017-08-04 20:12:23 Reply Private Reply
#4: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#2)
Now you're just making shit up. Towns may form around an industry -- a copper mine, an oilfield, gold deposits, etc -- or an industry may be the largest or the sole employer in a town, but that doesn't mean they bought the town. There'd be no reason to, and the stockholders would have a fit if they did.
That said, in the late 1800's George Pullman (of the Pullman Palace Car Company) founded and built his own town named after him -- Pullman, Illinois. "He got most of his population by applying one simple rule: If you're a Pullman employee, you must live in Pullman."
It did not end well.
misterwhite posted on 2017-08-04 20:37:18 Reply Private Reply
#5: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#4)
That may be true with some exceptions where a town grew up solely as a result of mining or an operation like Eastman-Kodak building up Rochester, NY. An example of a company town. We could name others.
But you are right that they didn't just buy the town even if the town grew rapidly and was focused around just one business.
It sounds like they want to buy this town to use it as a kind of resort for smelly hippies to enjoy medicinal CBD health drinks. They'll probably drop that pretense and go whole hog for recreational THC sales and try to create their own mini-pot-laced version of Las Vegas out of it. They could name it Los Weedo or something similar.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-08-04 20:52:25 Reply Private Reply
#6: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#5)
It sounds like they were hitting the bong pretty heavy when they came up with this ridiculous idea. 'Woodstock' without the music.
With marijuana all but legal in California, why go there to buy theirs (at inflated prices, I'm sure)? Who would go to the Mustang Ranch in Nevada if prostitution was legal in the entire state?
misterwhite posted on 2017-08-04 21:11:51 Reply Private Reply
#7: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#6)
"Yeah, we drove down the coast and hung out for a few days at when we passed through Heaven's Smoke, California just to enjoy the ganja and soak up the atmosphere, man. Very spiritual there. It was totally groovy, a real happening scene."
Those hippies do say the word 'man' a lot. Or I'm having an acid flashback to the Sixties. One or the other.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-08-04 21:28:53 Reply Private Reply
#8: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#7)
If they had this idea 15 or 20 years ago, I could see where it might have a draw. But today? They're trying to sell refrigerators to Eskimos.
"when we passed through Heaven's Smoke, California just to enjoy the ganja and soak up the atmosphere, man."
Take any existing California resort and add "The Most Complete, Stupendous, Never-Before-Seen, Every-Strain-Imaginable ... MARIJUANA BAR (AND SNACK ROOM)!!!!!"
Same thing. Hate to harsh your buzz, man.
misterwhite posted on 2017-08-04 21:46:37 Reply Private Reply
#9: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#8)
I think you'd better make your reservations right now before they get booked up solid.
You already know the lingo and could probably pass as a dirty hippie now.
Let's see. Repeat this phrase, "Are you a narc, man?"
You have to say 'man' a lot. It's like a rule for the hippie tribe.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-08-04 22:48:34 Reply Private Reply