Eagle Mountain, Calif., one of America's best-preserved ghost towns, sold for millions
Eagle Mountain, a former mining town rife with abandoned structures in the California desert, has been bought for more than $20 million.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents indicate the ghost town was sold in late April for $22.5 million. The buyer is listed as Ecology Mountain Holdings, a little-known LLC with an address in Southern California's Cerritos.
The company is registered to Aaron Siroonian, who the Desert Sun was unable to reach for comment. Siroonian appears to be connected to a number of other businesses under the 'Ecology' name dealing with recycling and auto parts. The documents reveal Ecology Mountain Holdings secured not only the real property but the mining claims to the town with its purchase.
Founded in 1948 by Henry J. Kaiser, a famed industrialist, Eagle Mountain is located east of the Coachella Valley, just off the border of Joshua Tree National Park. The town once had a population of thousands, many of whom worked at the Kaiser-owned iron mine, according to the Palm Springs Desert Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network. By the 1980s, however, iron had become an environmental concern and the once-booming town began to fold.
When the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility, a low-security private prison was opened in 1988, the town had a brief resurgence. However, a riot at the prison forced it to shutter in 2003, the Desert Sun reports. The arid, abandoned space eventually settled into its status as a ghost town, enjoying the rare glimmer of Hollywood fame when it is used as a backdrop for futuristic or dystopian films.
Ecology Mountain Holdings has not publicly revealed any plans for the town.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eagle Mountain ghost town sold to mysterious Ecology Mountain Holdings
