Tiny Ghost Town of Cleator, Arizona (Pop. 8) Can Be Yours for $1.25 Million

You could spend $1.25 million on a relatively normal-sized house in a really expensive area—or you could use the money to buy a whole ghost town in Arizona.

Located almost 70 miles north of Phoenix, the 40-acre town of Cleator, Arizona, comprises 20 buildings and eight full-time residents, all of whom rent their property from the current town owners. There’s a general store, a bar, and even a yacht club (though without a nearby body of water, the complimentary yacht club T-shirts and membership cards are mostly a joke).

“You’ve heard the term ‘where everybody knows your name?’ That’s Cleator,” bar owner Mike Brown told 12NEWS. In addition to local customers, Brown’s watering hole is frequented by bikers, travelers, and day-trippers. There’s even a second bar built into an old pontoon boat in its backyard, complete with non-operational jet skis and tables made from surfboards—a cheeky nod to that aforementioned “yacht club.” And if a piece of scrap metal nailed to the establishment’s exterior is to be believed, Cleator isn’t only home to humans: There are also five dogs and two “grumpy cats.”

As realtor Justin Godsey explains in the video above, Cleator was originally established as a gold mining town in 1864. James Cleator named the town after himself when he bought it in 1925, and it's been in the family ever since. But Cleator’s descendants are ready to hand over the keys to the kingdom—and with those keys comes the opportunity to rename the town whatever you want.

If you’re interested in learning more (or buying Cleator for yourself), you can reach out to Godsey through the North&Co. real estate website here.

[h/t 12NEWS]