After spending more than $1 million to buy an abandoned California mining town, Brent Underwood is sharing how the unlikely purchase came together—and why he hopes to transform the site into a vacation destination.
Underwood purchased Cerro Gordo, a former silver-mining community near Lone Pine, California, for $1.4 million in 2018. He financed the deal with his “life savings” and a high-interest loan.
“I’ve always had a love of history and hospitality,” Underwood told The Post, connecting that interest to his childhood, when he watched 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,” he said.
In a more recent interview with the Daily Mail, Underwood described what it has been like to live in the isolated town while working to restore it.
“I’ve always been a bit of an introvert, so the solitude doesn’t bother me much,” he said.
“I don’t have neighbors for dozens of miles in any direction, which means any way that I look there is an adventure to be had. I love that. There’s something very beautiful about living so far away from [other people]. There isn’t the ambient noise that you have in cities but don’t really realize until you’ve left,” he added.
For Underwood, the town’s isolation is particularly striking after dark.
“The stars here are as bright as stars can be, because there is no light pollution to interfere. I feel much more in touch with nature and my thoughts since being here,” he told the Daily Mail. “I never run out of things to do and even after six years, feel like I’m just scratching the surface.”
His path to Cerro Gordo began in 2018, after a friend sent him a late-night message about the property.
“I was sent the listing for Cerro Gordo from my friend. He sent it in a text in the middle of the night, mostly as a joke,” Underwood said. “[He sent] the listing with a [text that said], ‘Haha, this might be your next thing.’ I woke up in the morning, researched everything I could about the town, and booked a flight out to see it.”
According to Underwood, online photographs fail to capture the full impact of arriving at the remote settlement.
“You drive and drive and finally come around the last corner and the town reveals itself, a beautiful collection of buildings that looks like it’s frozen in time from the 1800s,” he said.
During the 1880s, Cerro Gordo was home to several thousand people and more than 100 buildings. Fires and severe weather eventually destroyed most of the structures.
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“When I first bought the town there was about 20 buildings left, all in different states of repair,” Underwood said.
The property also included roughly five cabins from the 1800s, though strong winds later brought them down.
Despite those losses, several historic buildings remain at Cerro Gordo.
“There is an old general store that I’ve turned into a museum. There is an old brothel, a church, a movie theater, a bunkhouse and the ‘hoist house’ – which inside contains the main Union Mine – a mineshaft that goes 900 feet straight down,” he explained.
Underwood acknowledged that he had little understanding of the work involved in reviving an abandoned town when he first bought Cerro Gordo.
His long-term plans include opening a hotel with eight rentable cabins, as well as a restaurant and bar for visitors.
“The plan has always been to preserve the history here and introduce some accommodation so people can stay overnight,” he explained. “I want people to be able to experience the [nature] here. It’s stunningly beautiful.”
Underwood explained that he has made progress, including stabilizing buildings that were falling apart, but he has also faced some serious challenges along the way.
One of those obstacles was an electrical fire that burned down a hotel that was nearly fully remodeled, forcing him to start over.
“I feel that since moving up here I’ve had to learn dozens of new skills out of necessity,” he told the Daily Mail. “[Mostly, I’ve learned to] plan better. If you forget a part, the closest real hardware store is two hours away, you can’t just run down the road to get something. So you have to plan a lot better up here.”
Underwood expects his dream hotel to be completed next year, but for now, the town is open to day visitors.
It’s 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.
Those interested in the town can follow Underwood’s adventures on his YouTube channel, Ghost Town Living.
