S22 S U N DAY, J U N E 11, 2 017
CO M
ROAD TRIPS CALIFORNIA
THE TOWN OF NIPTON , pop. 20, is for sale for
$5 million. The century-old Hotel Nipton is included.
AWE AND ART
By David Kelly
There’s no road trip like a desert
road trip. You rarely run out of
road, and you’re sure to meet peo-
ple far more compelling than your-
self. But I wasn’t interested in the
irrigated, moneyed enclaves of ex-
presidents and chief executives. I
wanted to explore the remoter
edges of the Mojave — those
threadbare hamlets, burned-out
ghost towns and unsettling moon-
scapes that often prompt the ques-
tion, “Who would ever want to live
there?”
I set out in April to find the an-
swer. Along the way I met a tor-
mented artist, an isolated man
planning an epic party, a band of
gentle monks and a woman selling
the town she loves. All of them are
playing out their lives against a
backdrop of enveloping light and
unrelenting solitude. Sometimes
the road trip less taken is the most
inspiring.
I began at the eastern edge of
California in tiny Nipton and
worked my way northwest, with
stops in Shoshone and Tecopa, be-
fore heading through Death Valley
to the ghost town of Ballarat. From
there I traveled south into Trona
and finally to Newberry Springs.
Nipton
I drove into town on Nevada 164
shortly after sunrise and wandered
through the cactus garden outside
the century-old Hotel Nipton.
The community of 20 sits on
the edge of Mojave National
Preserve, a few miles from Nevada,
and for $5 million it can be yours.
Roxanne Lang, Nipton’s owner,
JENN McMANUS and her husband, Mike, ride
along California 127 in Shoshone, an eco-destination.
is looking to sell.
You’ll get the wells, the hotel,
the café, the general store, two
houses, an RV park, solar panels,
80 acres and Jim Eslinger.
“My price is $5 million, and the
town comes with me,” said 60-year-
old Eslinger, who manages the
place.
The former truck driver came
eight years ago with a buddy from
Washington state looking for gold.
His friend claimed he had found a
river full of the stuff inside a desert
cave. If only he could remember
where.
They scoured the desert for
months. The friend bailed but Es-
linger stayed.
“This place grows on you,” he
said, as a train rumbled past. “I still
think there is a river of gold out
there somewhere.”
Gerald Freeman, a geologist
from Hollywood, bought Nipton in
1984. He and his wife revitalized the
place. Freeman died last year, and
running the town is too much for
Roxanne.
“My husband basically saved
Nipton,” she said, standing inside
the general store. “There aren’t
many towns like this left. It’s bitter-
sweet.”
Shirley Howard, 82, of New Jer-
sey walked in. She was here looking
for fossils.
“My primary mission is to find
trilobites,” she said, referring to the
extinct marine arthropods.
Why?
“There is a certain thrill in find-
ing them,” she said. “And I enjoy
staying out here away from the
crowds.”
Lang smiled. I think she missed
the place already.
L ATI M E S .
CHINA RANCH is a date farm in Tecopa. Here, a
worker jumps down after hand-pollinating a tree.
Shoshone 50 MILES
I left Nipton on Interstate15 and
headed into Baker, where I hopped 190
onto California 127 north. The 190
desert had begun its dress rehears- 190
al for Death Valley. Death Valley
National Park
Gray hills emerged, tall sand 178 Las Vegas
dunes arose and dry lake beds 127
Ballarat
gleamed white in the sun.
395 Shoshone
Susan Sorrells greeted me in
Tecopa CA NE
Shoshone, the little town she owns LI VA 15
Trona FO DA
with no plans to sell. RN
Sorrells graduated from Smith IA
178
College in Massachusetts, lived in M o j a v e D e s e r t
Geneva, served in the Peace Corps Nipton
in Liberia, worked as an intern in 127 15
the U.S. Senate and is the grand-
daughter of the late California Sen. 395 Baker
Charles Brown. SAINT ANTONY
COPTIC ORTHODOX Mojave
“This was a mining town when I MONASTERY National
was growing up,” she said. “We Preserve
58
15
might have a prospector at our din- Barstow
58
Harvard
ner table or a governor or a bunch
of geologists. 395
15 40
“My life here was very rich and
cosmopolitan.” Sources: Mapzen, OpenStreetMap
When her mother became ill in L o u S p i r i t o Los Angeles Times
the late ’70s, Sorrells returned to
Shoshone.
We wandered through an oasis If you go
of palms and clear pools where Sor-
rells played as a child. Now it’s the
last refuge of the Shoshone pup- Hotel Nipton, 107355 Nipton www.chinaranch.com
fish. Road, Nipton; (760) 856-2335, Ballarat is off Trona-Wildrose Road,
She showed me around the im- www.nipton.com/hotel.html. near Death Valley. Look for signs.
pressive Shoshone Museum, Ecolodges from $68 a night;
hotel rooms $84 a night plus tax. William Fuller’s art is outside his
packed with historical documents,
house on Marshall Road in Trona.
mining relics and fossils. Shoshone Inn, 491 Highway 127, Look for the yard sign. Tell him
Sorrells is transforming Sho- Shoshone; (760) 852-4335 or David Kelly sent you.
shone into an eco-destination (760) 852-4224, shoshone
where travelers can bird-watch, village.com/shoshone-inn St. Antony Monastery, 43725
hike and have a beer at the Crow- .html. Rooms $140 a night. Bragdon Road, Newberry Springs;
(760) 257-1204, www.saintantony
bar Café & Saloon, which attracts
visitors from around the globe. In China Ranch Date Farm, monasteryus.org. Respectful,
China Ranch Road, Tecopa; appropriately dressed visitors
many ways life here is as rich and
(760) 852-4415, welcome.
cosmopolitan as it ever was.