I Bought An Abandoned Ghost Town

A hurricane hit Cerro Gordo! - a town update
brent@cerrogordomines.com
To: obiwannosi@yahoo.com
Fri, Aug 25 at 5:07 AM

Hello there!

My name is Brent and THIS is the first of what will be a weekly newsletter related to my home, Cerro Gordo.

I’m really excited to start writing more as it provides a different medium to discuss my time up here. I'm still making videos as often as I can, but writing comes a bit quicker and I can provide updates on events and ideas faster than I could shooting a full video.

It’s been just over three and a half years that I’ve been living up here now and no two weeks are the same. They all demand their own set of skills and an abundance of patience.

Like this past week, when the town was hit by the remnants of Hurricane Hilary, an “unprecedented” storm that decimated a lot of California’s desert.

We’ve been getting a lot of weather with historic descriptions attached the past few years. Last August we got TWO “thousand year floods” which completely wiped out our road and plans.

This past winter was “historically bad” with twelve “atmospheric rivers” which brought the most snow in history to our neighbors in Mammoth Lakes. So much snow that they were still skiing earlier this month up there. It was really bad.

And now, we got a hurricane, or maybe a tropical storm. Neither of which has happened in 84 years in California.

The good news is none of the buildings were damaged. We had a few leaks to address, but there was no significant damage to the existing structures.

The bad news is that we have no more road. Completely wiped out. No way to get on or off the mountain.


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The rain only fell for two days but that was enough to wipe away all the fill dirt that we call a road leading up to town. What is left is the rocky wash that originally existed in these canyons, impassable to vehicles.


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As it stands today, there is no way to get vehicles up or down our Yellow Grade Road. We had a volunteer, Paul, attempt to come up yesterday and was not able to make it past the narrows, a section of road less than 1/4 of the way in.

This puts into jeopardy a few things.

First, the film festival which we have planned for September 15th. This was something we had planned for last summer, until the “thousand year floods” wiped it out.

Next, is our hotel. We need to finish it by winter or else it could get damaged inside by the snow. We also can't continue working on the inside if the outside isn't finished. If our framers cannot get to the town, if we cannot get supplies to the town, we cannot continue working on the town.

These days, I tend to think of the road as a kind of time bomb, albeit a semi sentient one, that maliciously waits until the most in-opportune time to detonate itself, so it can inflict the maximum amount of damage.

And when that happens, you have to accept reality, for better or worse. You can resent it or you can embrace it. And once you embrace it, you can see it as an opportunity to see what you’re really made of.

Because the reality is, the road to Cerro Gordo has never been good. That is part of the game here. It’s been washed away and rebuilt countless times since Belshaw first built it in the 1800s.

So in times like these, it doesn’t do any good to curse nature or Belshaw. Sometimes in big projects there are not finish lines but processes. You can get angry, you can let it drive you nuts. Or you can learn to love it. See it all as the process. An opportunity to prove you can keep going.

So that is what we are doing.

I’ve been talking a lot to Dave Sparks over the past few days and we are starting to round up some machinery. It’s going to take a small army to get this road back in order, but it’s just what needs to be done.

It’s going to be a few very long days to get this road back in shape. If you have any machinery that you may be able to lend from the “to rent” list above, please reply to this email and let me know!

ONE MORE THING - I’ve kept this very close to my chest for a while, but I am too excited to keep it just to myself - I wrote a BOOK about my time so far at Cerro Gordo. It’s a much deeper dive into my thoughts and personal growth over the past few years living in town.

I honestly cannot believe that I’m writing this and that I recently held an early copy of the book. It feels like a dream coming true.



Click here to check out the book! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593578449

I recently went to NYC to meet with my publisher and it finally feels real enough that I can start talking about it a little bit. I wrote it mostly this past winter when there wasn’t too much to do in town. I’m very proud of it and excited to have so much more space to develop thoughts that I’m not fully able to in videos.

There is A LOT more coming about the book, but right now I have a small ask.

If you’ve ever enjoyed my videos or gotten something out of them, I really hope you’ll pre order a copy of the book. The support for the book means a lot to me and

If you are kind enough to order a copy within the next week, forward me the receipt from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and I’ll send you a small piece of galena out of the main mine here that I brought up recently! A special ‘thank you’ for supporting the biggest creative effort I’ve taken in my life so far!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! And I’ll be back next week with the next update!

Cerro Gordo After The Storm - An Update
Brent Underwood
September 8, 2023


Standing in part of the road. The usual grade is where my hand is resting

Hello there!

Greetings from Cerro Gordo. A place inaccessible a week or so ago, but now (somewhat) accessible with 4WD. (The road is still closed to the public, but we are working to open it up.)

It’s been busy last week using a backhoe to get the road passable. We were working hard to get a few folks that were stuck on the hill when the storm hit OFF the hill, as they hadn’t left in over a week. Luckily, Daniel, Hans, and Christy came out to help with the process.


Starting work on 'the narrows'

Together, we slowly went up the road, filling in all the holes created in the storm. Some places needed an entire road built again. It took a solid 3 days to get to the top, but we eventually got there.

The worst was in ‘the narrows’ - a section of road about 2 miles off the main highway where the canyon funnels all water into a narrow fall. When the bad storms hit, the ground reverts back to a wash and the 3-4 feet of dirt that make it a road take a ride lower down.

This bit took the longest to get fixed, but after a half day, a backhoe, and a dump truck, we made it passable.

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​All this road damage impacts a few of our plans for the rest of the year: our first annual film festival, (which was slated for September 15th), and construction on our hotel.

The film festival will be rescheduled once we get the road more under control. The hotel is currently waiting until we can get the next shipment of wood up the road. We had just finished framing the first floor and were beginning on the second when all this hit. Now, we must wait.

I’m hoping by the end of this weekend the road is in good enough shape where we can take the 5-ton military truck to the bottom of the hill and keep going.

It’s a challenge, but we’ve fixed the road before. We’ll do it again. When I was repairing the road, I thought of something Ryan Holiday wrote a while ago: I Don’t Have Faith In Myself, I Have Evidence. The main point is that just believing you can do something only goes so far. It’s better to pull from evidence of your capabilities.

And in this case, I’ve rebuilt this road before. I’ve seen it be washed out. I’ve seen it rebuilt. I know it’s possible. I’m confident it will be rebuilt and life will go on because I have this evidence.

And that is probably the biggest thing Cerro Gordo has given me over the past 3.5 years. Evidence. Evidence that I can get past hard times. Past freak storms. I have a whole evidence locker to pull from to keep me going when times get hard. And that just leads to more evidence.

We still have a lot of work to do on the road, but we’ll get there. There’s no other choice.

My book! - One Week Left To Get A Special Gift!


A review copy of my book and Radio the cat!

Thank you all so so much for pre-ordering my book! Pre-orders mean a lot in the book world and let the publisher know to put more support behind a book. They can make or break a book and your support means the world to me!

If you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering my book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or IndieBound. It’s the best lessons, the best thoughts, the best adventures, the best thinking from Cerro Gordo over the past 3.5 years. I was able to dive so much deeper into ideas that I didn’t touch on in videos. To tell history lessons from the town that I’ve only recently uncovered.

I’m very proud of it and would be honored if you pre-order it. If you do! I’m going to send out a small surprise from Cerro Gordo as a thank you! Something you can’t buy anywhere else. I’m only doing that for one more week (until September 15th) so I hope you’ll take a moment and order. Just reply to this email with your receipt and address and I'll send it out!

If you’ve already ordered, I’m working on sending out this small gifts this month! Just a bit busy around here recently with all this weather!
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In more news, we restocked all our most popular items in the Cerro Gordo store!

We’ve struggled to maintain inventory for a while, but we are BACK with everyone’s favorite hoodies, t-shirts, hats & beanies, pins, flasks, flags, and a lot more.

I hope you’ll check them out and grab some merch for yourself or another Cerro Gordo enthusiast out there.

The sales of those help the rebuilding efforts go ‘round, so I really appreciate everyone who has supported the town for the past few years!

That is it for now. There is a video coming out this Sunday (September 10th at 1pm PT). I hope to see you all there! If you’re looking for more videos in the meantime, I have a second channel that I’ve been putting up one shorter video on per week.

Thank you all!

Cerro Gordo Road is OPEN! A Hotel Update, And More...
Brent Underwood
Fri, Sep 29 at 11:52 AM

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The second floor is starting to come to life.

Hello there from a beautiful Cerro Gordo!

I’m looking out my window at the first two walls of the second floor of the American Hotel. Beyond that, Owens Lake is mostly full. It’s a beautiful sight. One that is especially appreciated given all the hurdles recently.

Since the last time I emailed, we have managed to get the road in good enough condition to continue transporting building materials from Keeler to Cerro Gordo. A big part of this has been assistance from the FAA. They have a tower far above town that is still without power. Because of that, they’ve been running off generators for the past month or so. The generator is now very low on propane and they need to get a big truck up ASAP. SO, given they are the FAA and can do things like this, they hired a firm to come and fix the road. And they did a great job continuing on what we were able to do.

That’s allowed us to make 4 or 5 runs up the mountain with the 5-ton truck to bring wood for the hotel. Kyle, our framer, is back on site and really getting after it trying to get this thing enclosed by the winter.

The road being repaired also means - we are officially open again for visits! Every day from 9am-5pm you’re welcome to come up and check out the town. There is no fee to look around and take our self guided tour. We also have a ton of new merchandise in stock, both on-site and online, that I hope you all will check out!


We salvaged these logs from the forest

Since the road and the hotel were back on track, I was able to take a quick trip up to Washington to visit my friend Jason at Mt. Baker Mining.

You may remember Jason from when we refined a bunch of silver a few years ago to make into a ring and some pendants.  

I went to Washington to get...even more wood. But this was very special wood. Wood that will be used for the recording studio project we are getting started on.  Jason owns some land up there with a bunch of trees that fell down years ago in a storm. He offered to have me up and show me how to recover these logs, bring them to a mill, and make some rough cut lumber.  

And that’s how I found myself up there, retrieving and milling wood for 4 days last week.  There is something beautiful about seeing something dead, discarded, forgotten, coming back to life. To get a second shot. A tree that would have rot otherwise is now getting a second use as boards.  

It reminds me of Cerro Gordo a lot. I love seeing spaces come back to life. To see a town come back to life. And to see a space within a town come back to life with the result of a tree that is getting a second shot is about as cool as it comes to me.  I met an amazing couple named Fred and Geraldine who owned the sawmill we took the logs to.

Between them and Jason, I have a newfound appreciation for everything that goes into the lumber I see all around me.  



A small portion of the wood we milled.

In the end, we milled 2,500 board feet of salvage wood. It was a mix of western red cedar and douglas fir. All this will be used in the renovation of the Hunter Cabin into a recording studio.  


Beaudry's Brass Band

A fun fact - there was a 13 piece brass band up at Cerro Gordo during it’s heyday, it used to march down main street to entertain the miners and other residents. I have a video about the whole trip coming out tomorrow, Saturday, September 30th, which I hope you all will check out!  

Volunteer Conference   ​



This weekend we are also hosting what is being called the “Meeting of the Minds” conference.

It is a weekend fully set up by volunteers here at Cerro Gordo to discuss the future projects, ideas, and community involvement.  

We expect about 15-20 core volunteers to come up and participate. Many are already here and it’s truly amazing the community that has formed around this town. I’ve seen so many long term friendships form through the volunteers here and it really warms my soul. It gives me such hope for the future of Cerro Gordo.  

We would love anyone reading who is interested to come up and help out. There’s no specific skills needed. We usually work on some tasks a few hours a day, have a large communal dinner at night, and some nights end with stories and music around the campfire. It’s a really beautiful thing we’d love to have more people participate in.  If you’re interested, please email our town manager at: steven@cerrogordomines.com  

Book   ​

Finally! Thank you all so so much who has pre-ordered my upcoming book. The response has been amazing and the publisher of the book is blown away by the support of the community. That means they will help support the book even more, which hopefully means it landing in some more hands!  

I’ve been actively packing up all the pieces of galena I’m sending everyone who pre-ordered. It’s a lot, but I am so happy people will be able to have a piece of Cerro Gordo in their own homes.  

If you haven’t yet, please consider pre-ordering the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or BAM.  It means so much to me! And since I bought too many packing slips, anyone who pre-orders and forwards me your receipt will get a small piece of galena that I mined out of the Union Mine myself.

There isn’t an unlimited supply of the in existence, so I hope you take up the offer!  And with that, I am off to meet up with everyone here for the volunteer weekend.

Thank you all so much for caring about this old town and it’s progress. I hope you all check out my new video this weekend and have a great week!" />

Cerro Gordo’s Lost History, A HUGE Hotel Update, And More!
Brent Underwood
Sat, Oct 21 at 9:33 AM

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Tofu The Goat

Hello from a beautiful Cerro Gordo!

It’s 75 degrees, there’s a slight breeze, and all projects are moving forward. A buzz has been in the air the past few weeks. Progress. Outside my window, I hear the saws and hammers from 3 different projects all going on at once. All music to my ears.

There was a lot that’s happened since the last email, so I’ll waste no time getting right into it! I also am including a new section at the end about Cerro Gordo’s history and why it’s so hard to track down. I hope you enjoy it. If there are other things you’d like to know in these mailings, reply to this and I’ll do my best!

Hotel


Getting there...

Our race against winter continues at the hotel site. We really need to get a roof on the building before any snow hits, so it has been all hands on deck. Luckily nature has been accommodating for once and we’ve made serious progress over the past week or so.

The second floor walls are standing, rafters are going up, and it’s almost time to sheet the roof! It’s really special to see the complete building. I can now very easily envision what it will look like when done. There is still a very long way to go, but we are getting there. A lot more details in this week’s video, which will go live tomorrow! Sunday, Oct. 22 at 1pm.

Movie Theater Deck


We'll be ready next year!

For the second year straight our film festival was washed out by a big flood. This year, we had the event planned for September 15th. Teams were selected, sponsors secured, even staff for the weekend. I was getting really excited to finally see this happen.

Then, two weeks before we were supposed to go live, tropical storm Hilary knocked out the road, and our plans along with it.

It was hard, but the delay will give us another 6 months or so to make the theater look even better. The first part of that was finishing the deck out back and continuing to work on the rock retaining wall. A huge shout out to Avery who has been slowly assembling that wall. It looks awesome.

Studio

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Time to shine

We wasted no time getting to work on the music studio since coming back from Washington with the milled lumber. The first steps were getting the roof fixed so it didn’t leak all over the new lumber, and stripping down the inside to the studs so we can properly insulate, reinforce and put back on our beautiful wood.

It’s all moving along very quickly, which is super exciting. I’m used to projects that take years like the hotel, so to see noticeable difference in the cabin within a few weeks is a nice surprise as we close out this season.

BOOK


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Thank you so so much to everyone who pre-ordered my book! I’m at the stage of the process where some ‘blurbs’ start to come in, which I wanted to share below:

“[Underwood’s story] continues to be of endless fascination.”—The New York Times

“Inspiring and meditative—the story of man vs nature and man vs himself . . . and what we’re capable of when we throw ourselves into something that we believe in.”—Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way

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Final days to get this offer.

To anyone that already pre-ordered the book, you’re going to get a small piece of galena that I hand chipped out of the Union Mine. I’ve been furiously packing up those pieces over the past few weeks and just started shipping! If yours hasn’t come yet, please hold off on following up on the status of it for now. Mining is hard work! They’re coming!

For anyone reading this who hasn’t pre-ordered the book, I really hope you consider it. I put my heart and soul into this thing and really dug deep on making sense of these past 3+ years living up here. The book has all sorts of new stories, insights, and history of the town. I think it’s the best content I’ve ever made. A pre-order is a huge sign of support that I appreciate so so much.

I am going to publicly announce the book tomorrow in a video, at which time the offer for the galena will go away.

But everyone reading this is a long time supporter, so I want to extend the offer to those who have supported me. If you order it in the next 2 days, forward me a copy of your receipt and I’ll get one of these pieces of galena out to you!

There is also a small number of signed copies available through Barnes & Noble. They currently have those listed at the same price as unsigned, so if you’re interested in those copies it’s a great time to order them!

Other places to get the book include:
​Amazon​

​Barnes & Noble​

​Books A Million​

​Bookshop.org​

The Disappearing History of Cerro Gordo


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Cerro Gordo had an active mine life from the 1860s into the 1930s. Back then, record keeping wasn’t the best and to make matters worse, the main place for records related to Cerro Gordo was the Inyo County Courthouse, originally constructed in 1869, four years after Cerro Gordo was established as a mining town.

That courthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in 1872 and almost all records were lost. A new courthouse was constructed and finished by 1873. THAT courthouse was lost to a fire in 1886 which destroyed remaining records. By 1887 they had built another courthouse. In 1919 they decided they needed a fireproof courthouse to keep their records safe, so they constructed a fourth courthouse and finished in 1922.

So during Cerro Gordo’s active mine life, Inyo County had three courthouses destroyed. The fact that any records at all exist from Cerro Gordo is a bit of a miracle.

To go even further, Cerro Gordo itself has suffered a number of major fires in its past. There was the fire of 1877 that started in the hoist house. It ended up burning four hundred cords of fuel wood, five or six nearby cabins, and all the machinery in the hoist house itself with the exception of the boiler. Then, the fire of 1880 that burned down half the main town including hotels, saloons, and blackship shops and more. Those records didn’t even make it to the courthouse before they were lost...

Add it all up, and there’s very little in terms of records from Cerro Gordo’s heyday.

So piecing together Cerro Gordo’s history is mainly done through newspaper articles, first hand stories, and books from the timeframe. Which paints a picture, but a blurry one.

But recently, I was able to secure an original record book of every mining claim in Inyo County from 1874, from the Inyo County Courthouse. The only reason this book exists is because someone working at the courthouse had it at their home for recordkeeping and it did not get destroyed by the fire or the earthquake.

This is an extraordinary piece of history that I believe will unlock all sorts of new adventures and information.

I’m still scanning through it myself, but I wanted to make it available to anyone that is interested. I took photos of every page in the book that is available to view here.

PHOTO LINK - VERY LARGE FILE!!!

Making and keeping the history of Cerro Gordo accessible to the public is something I feel very strongly about and something I’ll continue pushing for in the years to come.

I’ve been working with some others behind the scenes to create the largest database of knowledge related to Cerro Gordo. I hope that is available publicly soon, so we can all participate in piecing together the lost history of this amazing town.

Anyway, that is it! Long winded, but once I start talking about history, that tends to happen!

​I really hope you all will consider pre-ordering my book! It really really means a lot.

I’ll see some of you tomorrow at 1pm PT for the premiere of the new video!

I hope you all have an amazing week and I’ll be back with more history and updates soon!

A Christmas Shooting At Cerro Gordo, The American Hotel, Gold And More!
Brent Underwood
Fri, Dec 8 at 4:03 AM

Hello there!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas up at Cerro Gordo, but luckily the looks (snow) aren’t here yet! So we’re doing what we can in the meantime. Stacking wood, tightening the enclosures, filling all our supplies and getting ready.

In between all this, we’ve had some fun visitors the past month, made some more historical discoveries, learned about a lot of GOLD in the hills, and more. This email also has some fun new announcements at the end that I’ll hope you check out.

I also included a story from Christmas Day 1870 about the infamous gunfighter Ned Reddy.

So let’s get into everything going on around here.

As a quick note, if you’re looking for holiday gifts (hard to believe it’s already time again!) We have restocked almost all of our merch on our website. We have hoodies, t-shirts, hats, pins, patches, and more!

The American Hotel


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The big question right now is this - will the American Hotel have a roof before the first snow?

It’s a question that keeps me up most nights and unfortunately, I still do not know the answer right now. The entire roof is not on, yet we have not had snow.

The crew working on it is small and there have been a few hiccups recently with transportation and other issues, but we’re back on track and pushing as much as we can to get this thing on.

The hotel has been the extreme exercise in patience over the past few years and continues to be, as there is only so much I can personally do with things like the sheeting. We’re down to the wire, but I have a lot of faith we will get it figured out!

For anyone wondering what the hotel will look like when complete, here is an exterior shot from our architectural plans:

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Visitors!

This month had a variety of different visitors, some that have been here before, some that have not.



Rob Thompson (Water Dowser)
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Rob Thompson, a professional water dowser, came to visit the town and help look for water. Now, before I get too much backlash, be sure to check out the video this weekend that has Rob in it. I tried to go into the experience with an open mind to learn something. I’m not vouching one way or the other.

Rob did hit on a few spots in the hillside, but what to do with that information is up for debate!



Dan Hurd and Jason Gaber (Mt. Baker Mining)

Dan Hurd and Jason from Mt. Baker Mining also made a visit this month. Dan and Jason have fun YouTube channels where they primarily refine gold and silver.

Our search was to try to find gold on the property.

We were searching based on these two articles about serious gold at Cerro Gordo. Given Dan and Jason’s backgrounds, they felt like the best shot of locating any gold we might have around the property. It was a very informative few days learning more about geology and mineralogy with those two.

What do you make of these two articles?


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Jean Ray

A few months back, we had a visit from Jean Ray Kendrick (previously Adams) who’s father, Ralph Adams, ran Cerro Gordo in the late 1940s to the early 1950s.

It was an amazing glimpse into a period of time that isn’t often covered in Cerro Gordo’s history books.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, please check it out here. Jean shares some amazing stories and new insights to the mine that I never knew. For instance, an exit to the outside at the 700 ft level, and more.

Tragically Jean passed away since filming this video, but I feel very grateful we were able to capture her history for others to hear and enjoy before she passed.

New Hiking Trail

We also spent a while this month developing a new hiking trail from the North side of town all the way up to Cerro Gordo peak. This particular trail takes you along a beautiful ridge with unmatched views of Death Valley National Park, the Sierra Nevada, as well as the town itself.

I’m biased, but it’s my favorite hike for many miles in any direction.

We just have the trail marked out at this point, so there will be a lot of cutting in to do, but if you’re interested in helping out with that projects, or have experience with trails or trail maintenance, I’d love to hear from you!

Book



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One of my largest continued sources of pride over the past few months is seeing the book I wrote come to life. This month, I received the first official “copies” of the book to flip through. These are ‘Uncorrected Advanced Proofs’ - but are basically done. And going to the final printer this month.

After staring at the book for so long, it feels wonderful to hold it in my hands and flip through it. It has my best thoughts, adventures, history, and more from the past few years. I worked so hard on it and am happy it’s finally getting out there.

If you’ve already ordered the book, thank you so so much. I am still sending out a lot of packages to everyone with their small ‘thank you’ in them. It’s taken me much longer than anticipated but that’s a good thing! Please know they are coming and you don’t need to email again to check in on status of bonus gift. They’ll come sometime in next month or so! Emailing again throws off my system for making sure I get them all out!

If you haven’t preordered the book, I really hope you’ll consider it! I poured everything into it with stories, thoughts about the events that have happened, and all sorts of new history lessons!

If you don’t believe me, here are a few other ‘blurbs’ that others have provided!

“A sublimely told story that blends little-known history with life lessons for us all.”

—Robert Greene, New York Times bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power

“From the very first page, Ghost Town Living captured my imagination. Underwood’s odyssey is a stark departure from the familiar shores of achievement and modern comforts, plunging into a realm brimming with risk, raw adventure, and at times, sheer turmoil. This is a clarion call to delve into the depths of one’s aspirations, to court the unknown, and to relentlessly chase the thrill of exploration.”

—Molly Bloom, author of Molly’s Game

If you order it before Christmas, I'll add in the special gift mentioned above. All you have to do is reply to this email with your receipt and the bonus gift will be shipped out before the end of the month.

Order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Signed Copies), Books-A-Million (Signed Copies), Bookshop.org, and everywhere else you can get books!

Board Game

Another idea that is in the works for early next year is a Cerro Gordo board game! This is still in the early stages but imagine a family strategy board game to revive your own ghost town and get points for doing it right. Or pushing your luck to get further into the Union Tunnel in search of riches.

This has been something that’s been suggested a number of times, but finally starting to take the first steps towards it.

This is still coming together, and it needs your help, so I’m putting together a special list of early supporters. By clicking here you’ll be added to the group and hear more about it as it develops!

Early supporters will help carve the direction of the game, get to play it first and get some behind scenes.

Right now we are looking for: - Illustrators who could help us with the artwork - Board game experts of all types to give us tips as we go - Game testers to try early versions - AND anyone who wants to stay in the know and claim special first additions

If you have any friends not on this list that you think would be interested, you can share with them this link. https://cerrogordo.ck.page/08f68f3d09

Holidays


​The holidays are just around the corner and this may be the last week that you can order from our store and be confident it will get there in time for the big days!

As I mentioned at the top, we have hoodies, t-shirts, hats, pins, patches, and more!

Your support of the merchandise is support of the town and allows us to continue doing these projects, preserving the history, and making sure it sticks around for generations to come.

So thank you for your support!

A Christmas Shooting at Cerro Gordo

Finally, a grim Christmas tale, passed to me by Cecile Vargo. Compared to this, everything on the hill is beautiful and calm this holiday season!

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It was in Cerro Gordo, on Christmas Day, 1870, that Ned Reddy sealed his reputation as a gunfighter.

According to an article that appeared in the January 14, 1871 Inyo Independent, Ned Reddy stepped in to keep the peace between James Cock and Mart Sullivan at the saloon owned by John Hughes.

The two men fought, with the crowd taking sides both encouraging and discouraging the fracas. Ned got into a clinch with Tom Dunn and knocked him to the ground near the billiard table. As Ned turned his back and went towards the water barrel, Dunn pulled a gun and shouted “Clear the road! Fair play!”

A shout, “Look out Reddy!” and Ned quickly turned to shoot Dunn through the right breast. Ned surrendered himself to the Deputy Sheriff Joseph Duignan, later to be acquitted by Justice Moore at the inquest.

How Did Cerro Gordo Do In The Blizzards? & More...
brent@cerrogordomines.com
To:
obiwannosi@yahoo.com
Thu, Feb 22 at 4:03 AM

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Winter Wonderland

Hello there!

My last email started with “It’s been a pleasantly mild winter so far”...that was a mistake.

It is no longer a pleasantly mild winter up here, but we’re still getting a lot done either way. We once again experienced some ‘historic’ weather, lost power for about a week, but made progress on the hotel, building out a suite down at the 900 level of the mine, and more!

First, I wanted to tell you all about a few fun events that I will be attending that I’d love for anyone who can to come to:

March 14-16th I’ll be in Hurricane, Utah to participate in the Off-Road Games put on by Matt’s Offroad Recovery. It looks like it will be a blast, so I hope to see some of you there!

March 21st at 7pm I’ll be in Los Angeles at Booksoup discussing my upcoming book! There’s limited spots, so if you’re interested, act quick!

Now, let’s get into Cerro Gordo.

Atmospheric Rivers / Blizzards



California was once again hit by an ‘‘atmospheric river” (this time referred to as Pineapple Express) which dumped about 3-4 feet of snow across the town in a few days.

This caused a few issues - first, a power line dropped between Cerro Gordo and Keeler resulting in the power being knocked out for 5 days. The power being out also knocked out our Internet, and some days even the cell service. We have a generator, but that can only power one building, so progress stalled.

Next, the drifts in the road made it impossible to get up or down. This also prevented the power company from getting their large trucks up.

We spent our time clearing what we could with a snowblower and shovels, but even a week or so later, there’s still a good amount of work to be done.

The good news, is there is no major damage to any of the buildings. We will see how we do on leaks when the snow starts to melt, but currently all is well.

I am currently waiting on the delivery of a plow for the front of my truck and we have 2 additional generators in Keeler we will bring up soon. Trying to get a bit more prepared each years, depending on finances.

Instead of seeing it as all negative, I’ve tried to use this winter to research more into snow melt collection and a way to take advantage of all this frozen water laying across town. Which has led me to:

Water

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The main goal in 2024 is WATER and that search continued this month!

I put up some gutters as an experiment to see how much water we may be able to collect off a small portion of the roof. If successful, I hope to expand the gutter system in the next few months.

Right now, we truck all our water up with the 5-ton military truck, which can haul about 1,000 gallons of water at a time. We’re lucky that a neighbor in Keeler has a private well that he allows us to have some water from, but we’re still spending $100 in diesel coming and going each time. Plus the 3-4 hours each run takes.

So the idea of capturing water on site, from rain, snow, air, is very appealing.

I’ve read that one acre of land with one foot of wind packed snow will produce at least 100,000 gallons of water. Considering we have about 380 acres and there’s at least 3 feet of snow across it, we potentially have over 100 million gallons of water, just waiting to wash out the road.

The goal this year is to figure out how to keep more of that water up here. If that happens, the history of Cerro Gordo will change forever.

If you have any ideas in this realm, please reply and let me know! It’s top of the priority list currently.

Living At The 900 Level


Would you stay here?

Since there wasn’t much happening above ground, I decided to go below. 900 feet below, to the very bottom of the Union Mine.

That’s where I’ve been working on setting up a ‘base camp’ of sorts over the past few months. We got power down there, we got Internet down there, and now, we’ve got the start to a full living quarters.

I went down there to set up the room for further exploration, but also to record the audiobook version of my book. I brought down a mic, built a desk, and settled in.


Recorded my audiobook here

It took 3 days living down in the mine to get the whole book recorded, but it’s done! Recording in that setting allowed me to settle into the stories so much more. Many of them took place down there, both from my time here and the historic stories from the past. It was a beautiful experience to relive some of the experiences and remember all the things that have happened before. I was also able to take some liberties and include commentary in the audiobook that I couldn't in the print version. (All versions available here)

If you’re interested in the audiobook, I recorded a short bonus segment while at the 900 level. It talks more about the process of writing the book, my mentality going into it, my hopes for it, and more. Just send a screenshot of your receipt to audiobook@cerrogordomines.com and I’ll send that back!

**If you ordered the book previously and are waiting on a piece of galena, those are still being shipped and will arrive before publication date! It’s a lot of rocks to send through the mail, but I’m chipping away!

Sneak Peek​

One thing I’ve been working a lot on over the past month or so is mining and refining enough silver to make something cool. Something that required sourcing some new (to me) machinery.

Well this week I’ll officially begin the process, and here is a hint:



Any guesses on what I'm making??

That's all for now!! Thank you all so much for caring about this old town. I hope to see many of you up here this year!

A Tour of Cerro Gordo Hosted By Brent and More...
Brent Underwood
Tue, Mar 5 at 8:06 AM

Hello there!

We’ve had some beautiful weather up here at Cerro Gordo recently, which has me VERY ready for Spring and good times.

And with that, I want to let you know of a few fun things coming up this Spring!

First! I am throwing the Spring Party of all Spring Partys up here at Cerro Gordo to celebrate my book coming out.


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This will be the first time I’m having a large amount of people up for a tour, lunch, rock hounding, dinner, and more. All provided by me.

I’m capping the number of people coming to 100 in order to keep the experience manageable and personable for those who are able to attend. And the first place I’m announcing this is here, in the newsletter.

The event is open to anyone who pre-orders 10 copies of my book before March 22nd. This will help so much with the book launch and help cover a bit of the cost of putting on the event.

There are other bonuses available for those who order 1 or 5 copies, which I’ll discuss more further down in this email. If you’ve already ordered some copies and want to attend, order the difference and send me the receipt!

But don’t worry, there are other ways to visit Cerro Gordo with no purchase too, more on that below.

There are two dates to choose from if you’d like to attend this Spring Bash!

Saturday, April 13th and Saturday, April 20th!

**Plus ones are allowed either of the dates as well as kids 12 and under if coming with an adult.

I really am looking forward to celebrating after a long winter and book writing process! I hope as many of you can come as possible.
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Here is a breakdown of the days:


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10am - Tour of Cerro Gordo by Brent. This is the exclusive tour. ALL the buildings. Even the ones usually closed off to visitors. We’ll do a walk-through of the hotel as well!

We’ll walk all around the property and even into buildings typically off-limits to visitors!


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12pm - BBQ Lunch! I’m going to be manning the large smoker here BBQing up some lunch for everyone to enjoy on our new deck behind the movie theater. If you have dietary restrictions, let me know ahead of time and we’ll find something that works!

2pm - SilverSmithing and Rock Hounding! I’ll do a brief demonstration of how to refine galena to pure silver and we’ll go to the best spot to find some galena, smithsonite, and other minerals to take home as a souvenir.

5pm - Short Sunset Hike. We’ll take a short stroll around the bed to get a prime location to see the sunset over Mt. Whitney and the Sierra Nevada.

7pm - Dinner Around Campfire. Dinnertime! I’ll once again be cooking up and we’ll enjoy around the campfire and break out the smores for desert!

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In order to attend, I would highly recommend a 4WD vehicle to get to town. The final 8 miles to get here is a dirt road that increases a mile in elevation. When it comes time to sleep, you are welcome to camp if you bring a tent, or I would recommend the Dow Villa or Best Western in Lone Pine. Olancha also has some overnight options too. And Boulder Creek RV Resort is great too.

If you decide to attend, please forward your receipt to: book@cerrogordomines.com. In the subject line put SPRING EVENT [insert date] with the date you would like to attend!

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Next! If you are looking for other times to visit, we are generally open 9am - 5pm every day. There is no charge to visit and look around the museum and some of the other buildings. No guided tours are currently offered, but there is plenty to see as you stroll around! If you do come, please wait on the deck outside the museum for someone to come and greet you before starting to wander around!

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If you have already ordered a book, thank you so much! If you haven’t yet, I currently have a few bonuses for anyone who orders before March 22nd.

Order 1 Book: Get unreleased sections of the book PLUS an unreleased mine exploration video of one of the most exiting days I’ve had

Order 5 Books: Get an autographed page from the original review manuscript. I’ll pull out a page from the early draft, sign it, and send it your way!

Order 10 Books: Attend the exclusive Spring Party mentioned above!

* The unreleased sections of the book and video will be sent the week of March 18th. The autographed pages will be sent sometime in March (by the 31st). Send all receipts to book@cerrogordomines.com

If you previously ordered a book and are waiting on galena: it is coming! You will get a shipping notification before March 19th. Please do not email checking on status as that throws off my flow of delivery. I got the email, it is coming! If you haven’t sent me your address or receipt, then I can’t send it out!

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I put everything into this book. It’s about a life of adventure. About appreciating history. Living boldly. Finding purpose. A push to go after that challenge or big project in front of you.

It has some amazing pieces of history from Cerro Gordo I dug up and my best stories and thoughts from my time here.

It means a lot to me and it means a lot if you’d check it out.

It’s available most everywhere books are sold, including:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Living-Purpose-Chasing/dp/0593578449/​

Barnes & Noble (Autographed Copies): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghost-town-living-brent-underwood/1143678741​

Books-A-Million (Autographed Copies): https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780593798140​

BookShop.Org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/ghost-town-living-mining-for-purpose-and-chasing-dreams-at-the-edge-of-death-valley-brent-underwood/20198332​

Painted Porch (Autographed Copies): https://www.thepaintedporch.com/products/ghost-town-living-mining-for-purpose-and-chasing-dreams-at-the-edge-of-death-valley​

Audiobook is available

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/ghost-town-living-mining-for-purpose-and-chasing/id1695283870​

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Ghost-Town-Living-Audiobook/B0CB9CTGPK​

GooglePlay Store: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Ghost_Town_Living_Mining_for_Purpose_and_Chasing_D?id=AQAAAEBiuGf4FM&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1​

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ghost-town-living​

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Finally, I am doing a Q&A outside Austin, TX on March 19th at 6:30pm. It’s FREE to attend. I am doing the conversation with bestselling author Ryan Holiday - author of The Daily Stoic, Stillness Is The Key, The Obstacle Is The Way, and more.

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I know there has been a lot of book talk over the past few months and I apologize. It’s an important project for me and I want to give it the best chance it could have for it to succeed. I appreciate you all supporting it so far and patience as I’ve talked about it!

Back to normal programming soon!

Thank you all so, so much for all the support!!