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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How a $1.4 million bid won the race for California's ghost town
Underwood and Bier were not the only ones interested in Cerro Gordo when it went up for sale. According to real estate agent Jake Rasmuson, who handled the listing, the property drew about a dozen offers after going on the market at an asking price of $ 925,000, with some competing bids reportedly higher than the $1.4 million Underwood and Bier ultimately paid. The sellers, a trust made up of brothers who had inherited the property after it stayed in family hands for decades, chose the pair's offer specifically because their plan prioritised preserving the town's history and keeping it accessible to the public, rather than simply developing the land for private use. Underwood has said the purchase used every penny of his personal savings, supplemented by a loan and a handful of small contributions from friends who wanted to be part of the project.
What Underwood found on 300 acres of remote, largely untouched 19th-century mining infrastructure
Cerro Gordo sits in a remote stretch of the Inyo Mountains, reachable only by a mix of paved and dirt roads roughly 25 miles from Lone Pine, the nearest town with a grocery store. At its peak in the 1870s, the town supported a population of around 4,000 residents drawn by its silver and lead mining operations, but by the time Underwood took ownership, only a single caretaker remained on site. The 22 surviving structures had been protected from looting and the elements for decades under the previous family's stewardship, leaving Underwood with a largely intact, if deteriorating, collection of 19th-century buildings to work with, including mine shafts extending hundreds of feet underground that once anchored the town's entire economy.
Why a fire in June 2020 destroyed the town's centrepiece hotel less than two years after Underwood bought the property
Underwood's restoration plans suffered a severe setback less than two years into the project. In the early hours of June 15, 2020, a fire broke out at the American Hotel, a building that had first opened its doors on that same date back in 1871. The blaze destroyed the hotel completely, along with an adjoining icehouse and a nearby residence once known as the home of a notorious 19th-century killer. No injuries were reported, and investigators later pointed to the building's old electrical wiring, combined with decades-old newspapers stuffed into the walls as insulation, as the likely cause. Underwood has described the fire as one of the most devastating moments of his life, since the hotel had stood as both the literal and symbolic centre of his plans to revive the town.
