Would you ever spend your savings to buy a ghost town?
Honestly, not many people would be willing to make such an investment, but Brent Underwood isn’t. That’s exactly why he decided to spend $1.4 million to buy the abandoned mining town of Cerro Gordo, California, and make it his mission to preserve the town’s history for the world.
After discovering Brent’s YouTube channel, Ghost town livingwe immediately became obsessed with its unconventional lifestyle and the city’s fascinating history. We wanted to experience Cerro Gordo for ourselves and find out what it’s like to live in a place where during its heyday there was an average of one murder per week. Can we handle the eerie silence of a town where miners once lined their cages with sandbags to stop stray bullets? How would it feel if we knew that thirty miners were trapped right under our feet and could never escape?
With these questions in mind, we took a trip to the middle of nowhere, California, to discover just how haunted this historic ghost town really is. Join us as we take you on a tour of Cerro Gordo’s best sights and most interesting stories.
This also feels like a good time to mention that Cerro Gordo is private property and not open to the public. You must obtain permission before entering the property.
The Bunkhouse
When we first saw the bunkhouse—complete with lace curtains, an antique cast-iron stove, and a shelf of creepy dolls—we came to believe Brent’s claim that the bunkhouse was “possibly haunted.” This is the only building where Brent met a ghost, and luckily for us it was also the building where we would spend the night.
The bunkhouse was built in 1900 as a shelter for miners and features a kitchen and six bedrooms. It was from the back left bedroom where Brent saw something or someone pulling aside a curtain to look at him. The bunkhouse has no bathroom, so instead we used the same tin outhouse as the miners. It was scary enough staying in a potentially ghost-filled house, let alone having to make the dark walk to the outhouse at 2am…
The American hotel
When Brent first visited Cerro Gordo, he immediately knew that The American Hotel was the heart and soul of the city and he hoped to keep it that way, but unfortunately the hotel mysteriously burned down on June 15, 2020. Get chills down your spine when you find out the date listed in city records as the hotel’s opening day: June 15, 1871. Was this just a coincidence? Maybe, but in a 159-year-old ghost town you can never be sure.
Brent hopes to finish rebuilding the hotel so he can open it up to brave overnight guests.
The butcher shop
Before Brent knew it was a butcher shop, all he saw was a large building filled with an unknown type of bones (pretty creepy). Nowadays the building does not function as a butcher’s shop, but as a storage space for all kinds of historical objects left behind by the city’s residents. We had a blast (no pun intended) searching through shelves of silver ore, old miner’s equipment, and a box full of original dynamite instructions.
The mechanic’s garage/church/theatre
Before it was a theater, this next building was once a church and also a mechanic’s garage. Then, in 1966, it became a movie set when the Old Western movie was made Nevada Smith starring Steve McQueen was filmed here. After the movie finished filming, the studio left a gift of the stained glass they installed for the movie. The glass may not be a relic of the miners themselves, but it is certainly a unique piece of history.
The lifting house and the mines
If The American Hotel was the heart of Cerro Gordo, then the Hoist House was its lifeblood. The Union Mine, located in the Hoist House, fueled the city’s success with more than $500 million worth of silver extracted from the deep.
After miners finished collecting silver, they took it to the assay office to test its quality and see how much money it was worth. When they got rich, they would take it to the next shop of the brothel (we were able to see remains of both buildings on the property and even spend some time treasure hunting around the brothel).
Union Mine goes straight down for 300 meters, with a different level every thirty meters. The elevator that lowered the miners into the shaft still works, although Brent says it takes about 45 arduous minutes to reach the 700 level. He has yet to reach the 900 level (but he hopes to do so soon).
The city has over 50 kilometers of mines with entrances throughout the city. Brent has spent a lot of time digging the mines and looking for treasure. For him it is very important to preserve the history of the city and have fun at the same time. This philosophy probably inspired him to drag a Christmas tree into one of the mine shafts to have a little Christmas party there, complete with his own mini golf course.
Your turn
Cerro Gordo is more than just a ghost town; it’s a fascinating look at California’s mining history, which Brent preserves incredibly well. Despite some fears, watching the sunrise over Death Valley from the ruins of a city steeped in history was an experience we won’t soon forget
Don’t forget to check out Brent’s Ghost town living YouTube channel to keep track of his adventures. If you’re curious about what we discovered during our visit, watch the video below.
Who knows, you might be inspired to plan your own hair-raising adventure to a ghost town!
Hi! We are Kara and Nate. High school sweethearts from Nashville, TN whose shared love of travel led us on the adventure of a lifetime. In 2016 we quit our jobs to travel the world for a year. Seven years later we still haven’t stopped! We quickly fell in love with life on the road and captured our travels on video. We’ve visited over 100 countries and have been fortunate to build an amazing community of subscribers to our YouTube channel and Daily Drop newsletter. We’re so grateful to be able to do what we love every day and we hope our story and content can inspire you to travel somewhere new!
