HISTORY OF NOTHING
"when you see her, everything changes...all of a sudden, it's not the stars above or gravity holding you to the planet, it's her... nothing else matters" ― stephenie meyer, twilight
"whoever said something is better than nothing, never stood in my shoes...for me it is all or nothing, because when you have nothing left to lose, nothing lasts forever"― bodhinku, nothing
the original town sign of "nothing" arizona once read:
"this is the town of nothing, arizona. founded 1977. elevation 3269ft...the staunch citizens of nothing are full of hope, faith, and believe in the work ethic. thru-the-years-these dedicated people had faith in nothing, hoped for nothing, worked at nothing, for nothing"
the settlement of nothing, az was officially established in 1977 by richard "buddy" kenworthy and his group of four friends and became arizona's smallest official community. nothing was an odd experiment to create a town on the long desolate stretch of u.s.93 between phoenix and kingman, az...at the time, the town of nothing, az had a mere two buildings: one a gas station with a garage and the other a small roadside market. and to make it more official, the arizona department of transportation installed one of four motorist call boxes on u.s.93 at nothing...at its height, nothing had a population of 4. at that time, the settlement contained only that gas station, that small convenience store with a sign, and a large rock shop with another taller sign.
the long-time locals in the area told travelers that nothing "got named by a bunch of drunks"...and since then, nothing is more noted for frequently being on lists of unusual place names.in the united states of america.
by 1998, the town of nothing, az was abandoned by its four incorporating inhabitants and became another failed experiment in the desert...
an attempted revival of nothing occurred at some time after august 2005 when nothing was purchased by mike jensen. by april 2006, jensen had opened the rock shop along with his pizza business, run from a portable oven, with hopes of reopening the mini-mart and gas station and creating accommodations for RVs...and ironically, rumor has it that the town of nothing was abandoned in 2008 after a grease fire consumed most of it while a resident was cooking a pizza...however, officially, and probably due to its remote location, in 2011 all was abandoned again in nothing due to lack interest and monetary gain...
once again, "nothing" slowly began to succumb to the extremes of arizona desert. by august 2009, the building that had contained the nothing rock shop had totally collapsed and was removed. the gas station fell into severe disrepair and collapsed in 2014 and was also removed...the sign on the "all-mart" fell down in 2017, and used to read that the population of nothing is four people, four that are obvious long since moved on. ...currently all that remains of nothing is the gutted and windowless remains of the ironically named "all-mart", the "nothing" sign, and a couple of building foundations.
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 gift card...however, the promotion was unprofitable, and now the ghost town has fallen into even more disrepair...
"nothing" now hosts literally "nothing" except a good stopping point for the curious (and photographers like me), and also a nice stopping point for sleepy long haul truckers as a roadside rest spot on their way from phoenix to las vegas...
due to a huge lack of interest with stops by motorists and travellers, nothing was totally abandoned. it is now a true ghost town. the buildings have no glass or boards over their windows, and there is no indication of inhabitants or any activity...the entire property is now surrounded by barbed wire with an adjacent tall cell phone tower beside the deteriorating 55ft-tall "nothing" sign...and that large "nothing" sign pictured in my impression here is actually the remains of signage for the nothing rock shop, which has long collapsed over a decade ago and whose concrete foundations can still be seen.
and of course, nothing is currently for sale, but if the i-11 interstate project goes through, nothing will likely permanently cease all hopes of being resurrected again, creating truly an ironic end to the town by literally becoming nothing.
"nothing else matters
just two hearts beating as one
"even though he
knew not how to swim, he
jumped into the deep end,
hoping she would follow, and
save him from drowning in mediocrity,
because one day of something wonderful,
is better than a forever of nothing special" ― bodhinku, a better one day