Cannabis Company Buys Entire Town

Now that one of the nation's largest cannabis companies has bought the entire California desert town of Nipton, a question remains: Will the new owners rename the place Potsylvania? The name Weed already belongs to an old mill town in northern California. American Green Inc. announced Thursday it is buying all 80 acres of Nipton, which includes its Old West-style hotel, a handful of houses, an RV park, and a coffee shop. Its plans are to transform the old Gold Rush town into what it calls "an energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospitality destination," the AP reports. The town, believed to have sold for around $5 million, currently has fewer than two dozen residents.

Current owner Roxanne Lang says her late husband, Gerald Freeman, would have been amused by the buyers' plans to turn Nipton into the pot paradise of the California desert. She says that as a Libertarian Freeman he had no problem with people using marijuana—and as a proponent of green power he'd be all in favor of energy independence. American Green says it plans to expand a solar farm Freeman installed and also bottle and sell cannabis-infused water from Nipton's plentiful aquifer. The buyers are also reaching out to edibles manufacturers and other pot-industry businesses, hoping they'll be interested in relocating to Nipton—and bring jobs with them. (More California stories.)