Get the latest gossip

The circus that bought a tiny California town: ‘We’re creating our own Disneyland’

Nipton sat neglected for years until Las Vegas’s Spiegelworld turned it into a circus haven

The show was to be completely created and rehearsed in Nipton over the span of two weeks, then performed in the town’s trading post for a select audience, and finally showcased for one night only in Spiegelworld’s restaurant and bar Superfrico within Vegas’s Cosmopolitan hotel. An old schoolhouse built in the 1930s, an unassuming one-room space with a tin roof, was their favorite place to practice; the weathered wooden floor and high ceilings made the building feel like an upscale dance studio – just in the middle of nowhere. Over the past few years, they’ve removed roughly 350 tons of trash from the property (including old mattresses, toilets and an abandoned boat); fixed the area’s electrical issues; and transformed a sludgy hole in the ground into a pristine pond with a little dock.

Get the Android app