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Buy your own ghost town -- on Craigslist

Zoinks! If you don't mind fixer-uppers, you can live out your Scooby-Doo mystery-sleuthing fantasies with a California ghost town for sale online for a mere $225,000.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
2 min read
Get your own cabin in the woods!
Get your own cabin in the woods! Craigslist

Why live in a boring suburb when you can buy your own ghost town and spend your days reenacting favorite scenes from "Cabin in the Woods"? For a mere $225,000, you can be the proud owner of the remote and empty California town of Seneca.

The Gin Mill bar during its heyday
The Gin Mill bar during its heyday. Craigslist

The ghost town, which is located about 100 miles northwest of Tahoe, consists of a bar with a liquor license, three rundown cabins, and 9.8 acres of land that also includes a small island with a swimming hole.

While a ghost town doesn't automatically insure ghosts will be your neighbors, Seneca has a very interesting past.

According to the Craigslist post advertising the deal: "Seneca is the real McCoy. Historic. It was a Gold Rush mining town with hotel, stores, houses, a population of maybe a thousand. Very close to historic Chinese-built gold mines -- with 500 Chinese miners and an opium den. Old mining equipment is laying around."

Welcome to the Gin Mill Bar.
Welcome to the Gin Mill Bar. Craigslist

The bar, which is named "The Gin Mill," is so remote and dangerous (1,000-foot drops from the dirt road access) that only truly adventuresome tourists and motorcyclists make the trip.

The property is the ultimate fixer-upper. According to the Craigslist ad, "There are no outside utilities. A generator is required to provide power. A water pipe is connected to a spring up the hill a bit. A propane tank can be filled for cooling for a refrigerator. The two bathrooms have a septic system."

The deed to the land also comes with all rights to mineral and timber -- so you could also test your luck panning for gold in the Feather River that runs through the property.

Drive at your own risk! The road to the ghost town of Seneca.
Drive at your own risk. The road to the ghost town of Seneca. Craigslist

For a better perspective of what it's like to visit the ghost town, the owner's nephew, Jeff Potter, blogged about his time hanging out at the Gin Mill.

"You drive a 5-mile dirt road to get there from either direction," Potter wrote. "It's about 8 feet wide and there's a 1,000-foot drop-off to the side. An amazing road. Quite a few people find it, surprisingly, so [my uncle Tim] gets a steady stream of customers on summer weekends when he's open. It's also considered the most beautiful train route in the country, as some parts have no road."

Taking the road less traveled never sounded so quaint (and slightly creepy).

Commemorative plaque detailing the history of Seneca.
Commemorative plaque detailing the history of Seneca. Craigslist