Mysterious buyer buys ghost town in California desert for $22.5 million | Abroad

Eagle Mountain, just on the border outside the famous Josua Tree National Park and a 1.5 hour drive from Palm Springs, is today a ghost town in no man’s land, but not so long ago it was a thriving mining town. It was founded in 1948 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Thousands of miners lived there with their families while they worked at the Eagle Mountain Iron Ore Mine. The entrance to the mine was right next to the city.

Over the years, the mine of the Kaiser Steel company grew larger and more lucrative, and with it the population in the town of the same name grew. Eagle Mountain grew into a bustling community with broad avenues lined with palm trees, hundreds of homes, eight churches, three schools, shops and businesses, a post office, two gas stations, a shopping center, as well as an auditorium, a public swimming pool and a bowling alley. During peak years, Eagle Mountain miners broke multiple production records. They were golden times.

But things began to change in the 1970s, due to growing environmental concerns and fierce competition from abroad. More and more miners lost their jobs. In 1981, Kaiser Steel’s board of directors announced that the mine would be phased out. The inhabitants had to leave. In June 1983, 23 young people celebrated their high school graduation party. After that, they and their families also had to decide.

A few years later, the town received a very striking second life: Eagle Mountain was partly converted into a prison, which opened in 1988. The former bowling alley, a café and other buildings such as the local shopping center were converted into a private prison for a total of 438 low-security inmates . These involved detainees who were serving time for violating their terms or who were incarcerated for non-violent crimes.

The penitentiary in the city made a strong effort to get detainees back to work and thus ensured that recidivism rates were strongly reduced. The prison also brought many jobs to the locals: it became the largest employer in the area. In 1992, the prison was in the news: “She has brought a ghost town back to life,” wrote ‘Press-Enterprise’.

But on an October day in 2003, things went completely wrong. A major riot broke out when inmates gathered in the prison’s recreation room to watch the World Series baseball. Prisoners attacked each other with kitchen knives, garbage cans, broomsticks and fire extinguishers. Two detainees were stabbed to death and many were injured. Eight detainees were subsequently charged with murder. It marked the end of the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facilitywhich closed the doors.

And with that, the dust of the California desert took over the desolate town. It didn’t get completely dead: curious tourists regularly stop by, and Hollywood also sometimes passes by. Multiple movies have been filmed at Eagle Mountain. For example, the climax scene with mechanical wreckage in Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Tenet’ was shot in this ghost town.

Some time ago the owner, the last of several Kaiser subsidiaries, decided to sell the place. A “for sale” sign was posted at the entrance, according to an employee of the company, trying to arouse the interest of potential buyers with the promise of stones and minerals. That sign can be seen on an image from Google Street View that dates from September 2021, so the city has been for sale for a while.

Documents show that last month, on April 17, a mysterious buyer went overboard and paid $22.5 million for all of Eagle Mountain. Not much is known about the new owner, except that a company called Ecology Mountain Holdings is involved and that it has a business address in Carritos, California.

Local news media are full of speculation about what the possible plans are for the abandoned site. “SFGATE” notes that the Ecology Transportation Service, known for its big red trucks, has headquarters in Cerritos. The website asked the company for a response, but received no response.

Another possible clue: in 2021, American trucking giant Balwinder S. Wraich purchased a 400-acre property in the nearby town of Desert Center, which shares a road with Eagle Mountain. Desert Center is still inhabited but barely alive. There is only a post office. Wraich is said to have said of plans in the area, “We’re going to build a truck stop, a gas station and a hotel.” “You won’t find food anywhere for 65 kilometers here. My goal is to develop something big in the next two years. It will help the local community,” he said.

Are there perhaps similar (or building on) plans with Eagle Mountain? Or maybe there will be a completely different spectacular third life? It remains to be seen.

There are more ‘ghost towns’ in California, also much older than Eagle Mountain. The best known and most popular ghost towns are Bodie and Drawbridge.