Ever think you might want to own a whole town? Well now just may be the chance of a lifetime and a small town with a population of only 350 is for sale in Nevada. It is about an hour south of Las Vegas and is within easy striking distance of both Arizona and California.
Fifty years ago, Nancy Kidwell and her husband Slim headed out into the Nevada desert and decided to turn a long abandoned air strip into a thriving town. They turned the barren land that had been abandoned by the American military into a thriving little oasis in the desert. The town features a store, a casino, a campground, a motel and bar, and a restaurant that is so famous that people travel hundreds of miles just to eat there.
Slim died from Alzheimer’s in 1983 and, the now 78, Nancy is just too tired to run the town anymore. She has decided to put the entire town up for sale, along with the 350 residents and 22 town employees, for $8 million. She has mixed feelings about leaving a place she has loved since her and Slim first saw it back in 1965.
Nancy wistfully said that, “I’m going to find out what you do after you spend 51 years of your life working in one place; when you suddenly don’t have to wake up at 5 AM anymore to get the work done.”
The town lies right on Highway 95 and has about 500 acres that are all ready to be developed some more. The infrastructure is already there at the town including wells and electricity. Kidwell worked seven days a week and was also the town’s police chief and mayor. A couple of years back, she decided to sell the town and had two parties fighting it out. The bidding price had reached $17 million when the real estate market crashed and the Crash of ’09 exploded.
Kidwell had met Slim when he was 62 and she was 28 but they both had big dreams even though everyone laughed at them and told them they were crazy. They bought the land from the government, found water and were off and running.
Her 22 employees are saddened by the news and don’t want their beloved Kidwell to retire and step down. To try and cheer them up, Kidwell promised them that she would take them and their families on a long vacation to Hawaii once the sale was finalized.
PHOTO CREDIT: David Becker (AFP)