In July 2018, entrepreneur Brent Underwood, along with business partner Jon Bier, purchased the abandoned mining town of Cerro Gordo in California's Inyo Mountains for $1.4 million. The deal, which closed on Friday the 13th, included more than 300 acres of land and 22 surviving structures, among them a 19th-century hotel, a bunkhouse and a former superintendent's house. Cerro Gordo had first grown into a boomtown after silver was discovered there in 1865, at one point becoming one of California's largest producers of silver and lead, before falling prices and a fire pushed the town toward abandonment by the late 1870s. Underwood, who had previously run a hostel in Austin, Texas, saw an opportunity to turn the deserted property into a hospitality destination while preserving its history, a project that would go on to consume his life savings and, eventually, his full-time residence. Underwood's journey stands as a striking example of how ambitious historical restoration rarely unfolds according to plan, requiring years of unexpected setbacks, financial strain and stubborn persistence before a long-abandoned town can genuinely come back to life.
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