Mark Cuban's Texas ghost town 'Mustang' is more barren and mysterious than imagined

I recently learned that Mark Cuban, the billionaire and former owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, bought an entire "ghost town'" called Mustang for about $2 million in 2021. Mustang is about an hour away from the part of Dallas I live in. But until now, I had never come across it — and almost nobody in my circles had, either. The Census reports that Mustang's population is zero, so maybe that makes sense. Typically, I would file away this newfound knowledge in the recesses of my mind — an unusual story I could later impress my friends with over coffee or dinner. But my curiosity refused to wane.

Numerous questions crowded my thoughts: Why would someone be interested in buying a town without people? Is it genuinely abandoned? What might be worth saving there? I even reached out to Cuban by email to get some answers. He had little to say about it. "I bought it to help out a basketball buddy who was dying of cancer, he needed it for his family," Cuban, who Forbes said has a $6.2 billion net worth, told me. "I have zero plans for it, I haven't ever been there." I wanted to know more, but Turner didn't call me back. In such moments, a saying often comes to mind, "The cure for ignorance is curiosity." So I went to Mustang. Yes, I hopped into my car, opened up Google Maps, and drove from my downtown Dallas apartment to a remote town that wasn't even on my radar until last week. Feeling frustrated, I asked a man working on the side of the road for directions to Mustang. He also had no idea but recommended checking out Stuckey’s, a longtime gas station and convenience store in Angus. But even the store’s clerk hadn’t heard of Mustang.