Weather 
Brent Underwood has found a certain kind of gold in a ghost town.
Eight years ago, the Austin-based entrepreneur used his life’s savings to buy Cerro Gordo, an abandoned silver-mining town near Lone Pine, California.
“I’ve always had a love of history and hospitality,” Underwood told The Post, recalling a childhood spent watching Gunsmoke with his grandfather.
“There’s a romanticism to the West that’s pulled millions of people out here, and it had a hold on me early.”
That same romanticism has driven Underwood to breathe life into Cerro Gordo, restoring the town’s buildings, preserving its history and beckoning visitors back to its dusty streets.
Spanish for “fat mountain,” Cerro Gordo was founded in 1865, when silver, lead, and zinc were discovered in the high climes of the Inyo Range.
At its peak, over 4,000 miners lived and worked in Cerro Gordo, their toil helping to make it California’s most prosperous silver mine.
In a recent TikTok, Underwood, who moved to Cerro Gordo full time in 2020, treated viewers to a tour of the expansive 360-acre property, which was largely deserted by the 1940s.
“It came with over a dozen buildings, 30 miles of mineshafts, and all sorts of cool things,” he said.
He notes that nearly a billion dollars worth of minerals were once pulled from the mine, a glut of wealth that helped shape the West.
“Cerro Gordo silver went down the mountain on mule teams and into Los Angeles when Los Angeles was still a small dusty town,” he said, noting that while Los Angeles is now known around the world, the role of Cerro Gordo has been largely lost to history.
“I feel like part of my job is to fix that, and that story doesn’t survive if the place doesn’t survive.”
Underwood’s video, which has more than half a million views, documents the former dynamite storehouse that has been reimagined as a hidden library.
“All this wood I brought in from the mine and put in these shelves, and all the books related to mining,” he shared.
“This is a really fun place to get away from the world,” added Underwood.
From dynamite to iniquity, the next stop on the tour is a former brothel known as Lola’s Palace of Pleasure, owned by the eponymous Lola Travis.
Underwood assures that the brothel will one day be a museum and a testament to the inspiring grit of the women who worked there.
“Lola had a remarkable story; she ran a successful business in a mining camp full of drunk and armed men and made it work. The women are the part of the history of these camps that gets lost; I want to make sure it survives.”
Next door to the storied house of ill repute is the original assay offices where fortunes were measured by officials who determined the worth of a miner’s hard-won ore.
“Here is where you learned whether you’re rich or not,” explained Underwood, who is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley.
“They would come in here, bring their sample, the guy behind the counter would crush it up, melt it down, and tell you how much silver was in your claim.”
Underwood has converted the general store into a makeshift museum where he houses the growing collection of artifacts found in and around the mines.
“It’s just a time capsule of what helped build this town, from the different minerals to the different tools they used and everything else. It’s definitely one of my favorite places.”
The property also features a movie theatre that Underwood hopes to restore to its former cinematic glory.
“One day I’m gonna make this back into an old western theater, and we’ll host movie nights in here.”
Underwood’s home, the former residence of Cerro Gordo’s original owner, Mortimer Belshaw, stands in the center of town
“I can keep an eye on everything. Plus I get this great view down into the valley,” said Underwood, showcasing the vistas from his porch.
The future crown jewel, or silver star of Cerro Gordo, is the American Hotel. Originally built in 1871, the structure will soon house a bar, restaurant, outdoor patio, and eight guest rooms with soul-stirring valley views.
“Right now the shell of the building is complete, but we are waiting on permits to finish out the inside. That will be the heartbeat of the town, so I’m really excited to get it open,” said Underwood, who speculates the hotel will be done within the year, though the restoration of the property will be without end.
“I hope to be working on Cerro Gordo for the rest of my life,” he said.
“This town used to have hundreds of different buildings, so I could work every day and still not come close to fully restoring it.”
Underwood is also hopeful that visitors will be equally awed by the town’s stories and its raw beauty.
“I hope visitors use Cerro Gordo as an entry point into the history of this era. It’s one thing to read about it; it’s different to stand in it,” he said.
Cerro Gordo is open every day from 9-5; self-guided tours are free, and guided tours of the main mine building are available on the weekend for $20. Interested parties can also follow Underwood’s adventures on his YouTube channel, Ghost Town Living.
And what would ghost town living be without a haunting for company?
Underwood recalls a particularly unsettling experience concerning the former bunkhouse.
“I’d been away from town for a few days. I was walking up to watch the sunset and noticed the kitchen light was on inside. As I got closer, someone pulled back the lace curtain and looked out at me. I could see a figure.”
Underwood was startled but assumed that a friend of a friend had come to stay while he was away,
“The next morning I asked a friend who was in town who’d been staying in the bunkhouse. His eyes went sideways, and he said, ‘Nobody.”‘
Spooked but determined, Underwood headed to the bunkhouse where he cleared every room, turned off the light, and padlocked the door.
“That night I walked up for the sunset, and the kitchen light was on again,” he said.
“There are thirty miles of mine tunnels under this town, and I’ll go into any of them, but I don’t like going in the bunkhouse.”
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