Taking Over a Ghost Town

The town itself remains nameless, but writer Antonya Nelson delves into its uniquely hermetic populous, and the process of buying land in the area.

"The woman from whom we bought our first parcels was not on speaking terms with at least six of her neighbors. The man who offered us some other lots thought a strong selling point was the fact that from a particular hillside, we could "pick off" the folks below. You have to imagine him mimicking the action of aiming a rifle to get the full effect.

An old Colorado mining town at 9,400 feet, it is a place that produced plenty of silver and other shiny booty back in the day, and even more toxic residue (it was a Superfund site not that long ago). It is isolated and incorporated, yet without a single business. "None of your business" might be the town motto."