The real life Schitt’s Creek being turned into a circus town

​​In a tiny town on the eastern edge of the Mohave desert in California, there is a population of just 25.

Called Nipton, the remote mining community comprised of a homestead, general store, town hall, and school house. Well, it did – but now it can add a circus to the list.

With a price tag of $2.5million, it’s been lauded as a real life Schitt’s Creek – the name of the town bestowed to fallen billionaire Johnny Rose and his family in the Netflix hit – after a live entertainment production company that runs ‘rowdy, raunchy’ adult shows bought the place.

The usual home of Spiegelworld, the business behind the buy, is Las Vegas, an hour’s drive away, but now the town is set to be taken over by some of its singers, acrobats and performance artists.

Nipton has an interesting history. It was established during the gold rush, at the intersection of two wagon trails. However, after the boom years it fell into neglect. 

Businessman Jerry Freeman bought it for $200,000 over 30 years ago, with aspirations of turning it into a green and sustainable community, with little success. His wife has been trying to sell it since his death in 2016. 

Although cannabis cultivators American Green bought it in 2017 with notions of setting it up as a cannabis consumption destination, their plans went bust during the pandemic and the company foreclosed. 

Not much goes on in Nipton these days. It is a near-ghost town, which people stop at on their way through. While the circus-oasis is yet to open to the public – so far only two performers live there permanently – its buyers have promised an exciting future.

Proposed plans include a huge sculpture park, underground accommodations in a bunker and a performance venue nesting in a grove of eucalyptus trees. The 80-acre site has been cleaned up, but the building has not yet begun.

Ross Mollison, founder of Spiegelworld, said he bought the site because it reminds him of his native Australia. ‘When we visited as guests a few years back, we fell in love with the peacefulness, the vast desert vistas, and the fireside chats with freight train drivers, miners and workers,’ he explains, adding, ‘Jim Eslinger, self-proclaimed mayor of Nipton, warned me that you need to have respect for the Mojave, and the desert will tell you if it is happy or unhappy with what you’re doing.’