John Poindexter, an 81-year-old Texas billionaire with no wife or children, plans to use his fortune to restore Shafter, a former silver-mining ghost town in Texas with only about 25 residents. John Poindexter earned money slowly and his foundation’s plans include a resort, living history museum, rebuilt historic buildings and overnight stays in adobe homes.

Poindexter is not the first wealthy American to try to restore a historic town