Jan 4, 2017: Mike Tyson is bringing a 20-acre marijuana farm to a California desert
The former heavyweight champion is set to cultivate and study the drug in a desert north of L.A
Mike Tyson has set the stage for the construction of a new facility — one that will be used not only to grow products but to train others in the science behind the operation.
It’s not professional boxers that “Iron Mike,” one of the world’s all-time heavyweights, is focused on developing, however.
It’s marijuana.
With financial support from business partners Robert Hickman and Jake Strommen, not to mention a verbal endorsement from California City mayor Jennifer Wood, Tyson has broken ground on a 40-acre plot of desert north of Los Angeles. And that land, according to the Associated Press, is where the 51-year-old boxing icon is set to open Tyson Ranch, a field for growing, studying and advancing the utilization of marijuana.
Only about half of the desert plot’s 40 acres are expected to be used for the ranch, per the AP. But The Blast’s Gary Trock reported on Jan. 1, the day California legalized recreational weed, that the future attraction is also set to feature a supply store, an “edible factory,” a campground and an amphitheater.
A separate Tyson venture, Tyson Holistic, has been tabbed to operate the ranch, Trock noted, and the former boxer has already filed for an “Iron Mike Genetics” trademark to be used in the facility’s “work to improve the medical research and treatment of the plant.”
Wood is seen in video of a Dec. 20 groundbreaking ceremony as calling the Tyson Ranch a potential “rebirth” for California City, which has a population of just over 14,000 and lies roughly 65 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park.
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