California Ghost Town For Sale

California ghost town for sale, including liquor license: $225,000

Down a narrow dirt road in the Sierra Nevada lies a once-bustling gold mining ghost town — “the real McCoy” — complete with a gin mill and memories of an opium den.

And for $225,000, the Northern California town of Seneca could be yours, according to an ad posted on Craigslist.

Liquor license and all, the sleepy Plumas County town is for sale by its private owners, who are selling due to health issues, the ad states.

The remote property includes the bar, three run-down cabins and 9.8 acres through which the Feather River runs, the ad says. But you will need a generator — there are no utilities — and access depends on the weather.

The town sprung up after gold was found in 1851, according to a bronze plaque on a boulder near the bar. It had a dance hall, feed store, post office and a hotel with solar-heated showers, but the most famous spot was the Gin Mill, a bar run for decades by Marie Sabin, known as “the guardian angel of Seneca.”

Remnants of a mine where Chinese immigrants worked also remain, the ad states.  In the 1970s, owners Jerry Manpearl and Tim TenBrink held music festivals there, calling it “Woodstock West.” Now, the bar is the only draw, but even that has mostly dried up.

“You get weekend warriors, and folks who are panning or prospecting,” TenBrink told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But that’s about it.

The pair bought the town in 1975 when they visited the bar on a hunting trip, TenBrink’s nephew Jeff Potter told ABC News. 

The sketchy dirt road to get to the town is dangerous, with a 1,000-foot drop on the side, Potter wrote in a blog post. The cabins are run-down, but the liquor license is a draw, the ad says. It’s one of only a few in the county.

“Expand it into a unique getaway!” the ad states, cautioning that visitors should be acquainted with remote territory before visiting.