If you’re fully convinced that ghosts don’t exist, you may have to travel through Arizona in the United States to experience the soul-crushing loneliness of this empty town called ‘Nothing’.
Nothing was abandoned by May 2005, and by August 2008, the gas station was collapsing. An attempted revival of Nothing occurred after August 2008 when Nothing was purchased by Mike Jensen. By April 2009, Jensen had opened his pizza business, run from a portable oven, hoping to reopen the mini-mart and creating accommodations for RVs.
As of April 2011, Nothing has once again been abandoned. The building has fresh boards in the windows and no sign of inhabitance or any activity. In 2016, Century 21 Real Estate ran a “Give Dad Nothing” promotion where a free 24-hour lease to a piece of property at Nothing, Arizona could be secured for June 19, 2016 (Father’s Day) only. The promotion was done with the participation of the current property owner and included a downloadable “Certificate of Nothing” and a gift card.
The state of Arizona is littered with long-abandoned places. Each one is weather-beaten and slowly disintegrating under the desert sun. Each of these places has decaying remnants that tell the story of the bubbling life that once existed there. Nothing, Arizona is one of such places. The dead-quiet town is on the lonely road between Wikieup and Wickenburg was barely a town at all.
When it was established in 1977 by a group of four friends, Nothing had only two buildings: one a gas station with a garage and the other a small roadside market. As of 2005, however, Nothing had been abandoned by people, probably because of its remote location. The town slowly blended into the Arizona desert. In 2009, hope came again for this ghost town as the property was purchased and life returned to Nothing.
This spark of life was, however, going to be cut short soon. The new owners cleared away trash and debris, began restoring the old store, and sold pizza from a food truck. Unfortunately, within a year, the usual trend of deserting the town kicked in again. The new owners closed up shop, took down signs, and gated the area with a fence.
Once again, there remained nothing in Nothing and the population returned to zero. Today, what’s left of the town still sits abandoned and crumbling. The fence is gone so you can wander around the area to see what’s left and many people do. The old garage is long gone, the store has been gutted with doors and windows missing, and its walls are covered in graffiti. Debris and items once standing on the property litter the ground.
