Content creator Brent Underwood purchased the abandoned California silver-mining town of Cerro Gordo for $1.4 million in July 2018, transforming a remote historical site into a long-term preservation project, according to reporting corroborated across multiple sources. What began as a business and restoration venture evolved into a permanent residency and preservation effort after the COVID-19 pandemic altered his plans, according to archival coverage from Business Insider and Moneycontrol.
Purchasing and Settling Cerro Gordo
According to Moneycontrol, Underwood was 30 years old when a friend sent him a late-night message in 2018 asking if he wanted to buy a ghost town. Initially thinking the proposal was a joke, Underwood researched the property’s history and potential. He completed the purchase in July 2018 using a combination of his own life savings, a hard-money loan, and financial contributions from several investors, as reported by Business Insider. The 360-acre property, located near Lone Pine in California’s Inyo Range, features a hotel, a church, a general store, and old mine workings dating back to the 19th-century mining boom.
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Living conditions at the site present severe daily hurdles. According to Business Insider, the property sits at the end of an eight-mile dirt road roughly an hour away from the nearest store. Underwood experiences extreme isolation without running water, facing frozen pipes, deep winter snows, and multiple severe weather events including storms, fires, a flood, an earthquake, and a blizzard. While he did not originally intend to live permanently at the site, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted him to move in after the town’s longtime caretaker, Robert, left to be with his wife before stricter lockdown restrictions took hold, according to Moneycontrol.
Industrial Tragedies and Mine Hazards Underground
Established in 1865, Cerro Gordo grew into one of California’s most prosperous silver-mining communities, ultimately pulling nearly $500 million worth of silver, lead, and zinc from the surrounding hills. At its peak, the settlement housed more than 4,500 miners, and the wealth generated from its mines contributed to the growth of nearby Los Angeles, according to Moneycontrol. However, the industrial operations carried immense dangers.
Detailing the town’s grim history on his TikTok page (@brentwunderwood), Underwood described an infamous incident from the 1870s when Chinese miners were working about 200 feet underground and the mine roof suddenly collapsed. According to Underwood, an unknown number of miners were buried where they worked, and their bodies were never recovered at the time. Articles from a few years later noted that one of the bodies was finally located and found almost perfectly preserved. Underwood also cited newspaper accounts of a man climbing a ladder from 900 feet below who was pulled into a cage and fell to the bottom of the mine, becoming what historical reports described as a shapeless mass. Countless other accidents filled the local newspapers, creating a hazardous underground environment.
Lawlessness, Recorded Murders, and Local Lore
Above ground, Cerro Gordo developed a reputation for extreme violence. According to Underwood, law enforcement generally refused to venture into the settlement, leaving miners to settle disputes themselves. The town’s violent history includes shootings, deaths, and a cemetery containing hundreds of graves, according to Moneycontrol.
Among the documented historical events, Underwood highlighted the site’s last recorded murder, which occurred on December 29, 1892. On that date, Henry Bolin was shot dead following an encounter with William Crapo. Despite a major manhunt and a $500 reward offered for his capture, Crapo allegedly fled into the surrounding mines and disappeared.
Underwood has also reported unexplained personal experiences on the property. While walking past the town’s bunkhouse one evening, he stated that he saw curtains open, a face peer through a window, and then disappear. After searching the building and finding nobody inside, he padlocked the doors. The following evening, he reported that the light inside was mysteriously back on. According to Business Insider, Underwood initially heard mysterious sounds and spotted a shadowy figure in a bunkhouse window, and he has since avoided entering the building.
Preservation Goals and Future Outlook
Rather than treating the acquisition as a short-term investment flip, Underwood views Cerro Gordo as a decades-long commitment aimed at preserving the historical integrity of the American West mining settlement, according to Business Insider. He splits his time between managing ongoing restoration projects on the historic hotel and working his day job for Brass Check, which produces content such as the Daily Stoic platform, podcasts, and newsletters.
Looking ahead, Underwood’s restoration efforts could expand visitor access. His ultimate goal is to allow more visitors to stay overnight in cabins and campsites, experiencing the historic ghost town firsthand as the preservation project continues to develop beyond its original business proposition.
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