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Schitt's Creek, but in Real Life: Owner Tries Selling California Desert Town
There's a real life Schitt's Creek in the California desert--with a motel, trading post and its own cast of characters. It's for sale for $2.75 million.
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A-HED
Schitt’s Creek, but in Real Life: Owner Tries Selling California Desert Town
Her husband bought Nipton 35 years ago on a whim; she’s been trying to sell it for years—trading post, ‘desert art’ and ghost included
By Kirsten Grind
May 27, 2021 10:44 am ET
NIPTON, Calif.—In the award-winning television show “Schitt’s Creek,” the owners of the tiny town of the same name try to sell it, with no luck. Roxanne Lang feels like she’s been living that story line on repeat.
For more than half a decade now, she has been trying to sell her own town, an 80-acre plot of land on the California side of the Mojave Desert, about an hour away from Las Vegas. It’s now on the market again for $2.75 million.
With almost nothing around it for miles, Nipton is located far off Interstate 15, and appears in the middle of the desert almost like a mirage, with a grove of eucalyptus trees marking its presence.
It is home to 25 residents—give or take—a general store, an old schoolhouse, a trailer park, some art structures trucked in from Nevada’s Burning Man festival, and a ghost of a Nipton owner from a century ago, named Harry. The ghost, say residents, often appears in a midthigh coat and a black cowboy hat, looking away.
Ms. Lang, who has owned the town along with her husband, Jerry Freeman, since 1985, first put it up for sale after Mr. Freeman died in 2016. It was Mr. Freeman, a gold prospector, who fell in love with Nipton, calling her at their home in Malibu to surprise her with the news that he had purchased the dusty acreage and all its structures for about $200,000.
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Schitt’s Creek, but in Real Life: Owner Tries Selling California Desert Town
Her husband bought Nipton 35 years ago on a whim; she’s been trying to sell it for years—trading post, ‘desert art’ and ghost included
By Kirsten Grind
May 27, 2021 10:44 am ET
NIPTON, Calif.—In the award-winning television show “Schitt’s Creek,” the owners of the tiny town of the same name try to sell it, with no luck. Roxanne Lang feels like she’s been living that story line on repeat.
For more than half a decade now, she has been trying to sell her own town, an 80-acre plot of land on the California side of the Mojave Desert, about an hour away from Las Vegas. It’s now on the market again for $2.75 million.
With almost nothing around it for miles, Nipton is located far off Interstate 15, and appears in the middle of the desert almost like a mirage, with a grove of eucalyptus trees marking its presence.
It is home to 25 residents—give or take—a general store, an old schoolhouse, a trailer park, some art structures trucked in from Nevada’s Burning Man festival, and a ghost of a Nipton owner from a century ago, named Harry. The ghost, say residents, often appears in a midthigh coat and a black cowboy hat, looking away.
Ms. Lang, who has owned the town along with her husband, Jerry Freeman, since 1985, first put it up for sale after Mr. Freeman died in 2016. It was Mr. Freeman, a gold prospector, who fell in love with Nipton, calling her at their home in Malibu to surprise her with the news that he had purchased the dusty acreage and all its structures for about $200,000.
TO READ THE FULL STORY
SUBSCRIBE
SIGN IN
The Wall Street Journal
Continue reading your article with
a WSJ membership
https://twitter.com/kirstengrind
kirsten.grind@wsj.com
