Craigslist Ad: “Ghost Town With Liquor License” For Sale

Seneca, Calif., was once a bustling mining town with a hotel, dance hall, grocery and opium den

The abandoned gold-mining town of Seneca has been crumbling in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains for decades.

And it could be yours for $225,000: nearly 10 acres of remote wilderness with three worn, wooden cabins and a run-down bar called The Gin Mill - liquor license included.

The property's owner posted a Craigslist ad for the site in September, titled, "$225000 Seneca -- ghost-town with liquor license (Seneca)."

"There are no utilities and there was no business activity at the bar this past season," the ad reads. "A generator is required to provide power."

Seneca is about 161 miles northeast of Sacramento - a nearly 3 1/2 hour drive along flat, straight highways and over rugged mountain roads.

A plaque embedded in a boulder in the ghost town says that Seneca sprung up in 1851 after a gold discovery. The plaque recalls the mining town's heyday, when it boasted a hotel, dance hall, grocery store and an opium den for the town's estimated 500 Chinese miners, who worked for 10 cents a day in rice.

The land and structures in Seneca are valued at about $72,000, according to Plumas County Assessor's records.

But the sale also includes a seasonal liquor license and rights to minerals, timber and more on the property.

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