Nipton - Circus Town? - California — Abandoned Places, Gold Rush & Route 66 Travel Photography

At the crossroads of two wagon trains, a town was born in 1905. Originally known as “Nippeno Camp,” the name was changed in 1910 to Nipton. As there were numerous mines in the area, as well as several cattle ranches, the town served as a social hub for the miners and ranchers. The Union Pacific Railroad served the area, bringing in supplies for the mines and taking cattle out for the ranchers. During its heyday, the community included a school, post office and several small businesses.

As the mines played out and the cattle ranching dwindled (although both are still active in the region), the fortunes of the town and its settlers also diminished. In 1940, President Roosevelt approved the transfer of title of Nipton to Harry Trehearne under the homestead act. It stayed in his family until 1956, when it transferred to six owners. Since then, the town has been bought and sold several times. American Green, Inc. purchased the town in 2017 for a reported $5 million dollars, with plans on turning the area into a cannabis tourism destination. That plan went up in smoke and the following year Delta International Oil & Gas purchased Nipton for roughly $7.7 million dollars. In 2023, the town was purchased by Spiegelworld, an American theatre company for $2.5 million dollars. Why? Click HERE to visit their website to read all about it, but in a nutshell, it seems they want to create a destination “where performers and artisans can retreat to dream and create. A place to tell stories around the campfire, to dine under the stars and wake up to a panoramic view of the mountains” (paraphrased).

I don’t know if any of that is going to ever happen, but I hope something magnificent does transform Nipton. It’s such a cool spot out in the Mojave Desert, with a fascinating history and beautiful setting, even if nothing ever comes from the circus, it’s still a place to stop and see what you can find.

Entering town from the east, the first thing you might notice is this patrol car seemingly in wait for speeders. Don’t worry.

It doesn’t look like this one has seen any actual law enforcement use in many years. But it probably helps keep the traffic speed down.

Following are some of the sights to see in Nipton, first along the north side of Nipton Rd, then a bit south of town via the railroad tracks, and then back into town along the south side of the road. Click on any of the images to see a bigger version.

This building holds a really cool gift/antique shop, where you can also get a cold bottle of water or soda. And information on the town as well.

So heading out a little ways along the rr tracks, there’s an art installation that used to hold quite a few interesting sights. Now, only about four remain and they are on fenced, private property so this is about as close as I could get to them.

The image on the left is an 1800 pound Manta Ray created by Peter Hazel. It’s made of fused glass and steel. It’s called “Fly By.”

The center is a collection of shopping carts that have been welded into these huge wheels. It was created by Clayton Blake and is called “Perpetual Consumption.”

The image on the right is “Bloom.” It’s a 40-foot-tall Jellyfish covered in hand-made recycled glass by Peter Hazel.

The California Hotel is an old adobe structure that dates back to around 1910. I’m not sure how much of the building is adobe, or if it’s all original, but it’s a neat looking place. It was known as Hotel Nipton for many, many years and reportedly had many famous guests over the years. It’s also claimed to be haunted. I especially like the garden and walkways. The hotel appears to be closed to the public, the new owners of the town most likely have plans for the historic structure.

The Whistle Stop building dates back to the 1940s.

The Nipton Trading Post building dates back to the early days of the town, perhaps as far back as 1910. Unfortunately, neither the saloon next door nor the trading post were open.

This looks like a pretty nice come, it appears empty, but it’s hard to tell from the street and I wasn’t about to go onto the property and start looking in the windows….

And a few trailers marked the end of the Nipton trail. If you’re like me, you’ll easily spend a couple hours here walking the streets and taking pictures. The lady who runs the gift/antique shop mentioned earlier is a good contact for info about the town and area. Hope you enjoyed this walkthrough, thank you for reading to the end!

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