Getting on the property ladder is an important part of growing up for some, but forget buying a fixer-upper for a knock-down rate. What about spending your hard-earned savings on a literal ghost town and trying to turn its fortunes around?
This was the brainwave of Brent Underwood and Jon Bier, who clubbed together to buy California's Cerro Gordo. Meaning 'Fat Hill' in Spanish, Cerro Gordo was founded following the discovery of silver ore there in 1865.
Mining operations grew until Cerro Gordo was the United States' largest producer of zinc carbonates in 1912, and at its peak, the town housed 4,700 people. By the time it got to 2019, just one miner remained, with the then-70-year-old selling small amounts of silver he could find to tourists since 1997.
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Over on his YouTube channel, Underwood has explained his story and why on Earth he'd buy a ghost town.
While Underwood says he was a firm non-believer in ghosts, he's since had his mind changed by some spooky encounters in the town. As for what he's doing in Cerro Gordo, the LA Times reported that Underwood and Bier bought it for $1.4 million in 2018, with plans to turn it into a tourist attraction.
Over $17,000,000 worth of minerals has been pulled from Cerro Gordo, and with that working out at $500 million in modern money, people got rich from the treasures lying beneath. Sadly, it seems unlikely that Underwood is suddenly going to find a new vein and strike it lucky at his ghost town. Despite a fire burning down an icehouse, cabin, and the iconic American Hotel in 2020, Underwood remains committed to bringing Cerro Gordo back to some of its former glory.
The bio on Underwood's channel reads: "My hope is to breathe life back into this town. My goal one day is to allow more people to come and stay overnight.”
Underwood and Bier fought off around a dozen offers, with others pitching the likes of a theme park and a care facility for the site. In the end, the owners apparently turned down a $2 million offer in favor of Underwood and Bier's due to their promises to bring visitors back to Cerro Gordo.
In one of his more recent videos, Underwood has explained what it's like having lived in the town for nearly five years. As well as trying to rebuild the American Hotel, he's spoken about some of the rare artifacts he's found.
While it's clear there's still a long way to go, Cerro Gordo is back on the up following its mines being closed in 1957. Alongside regularly churning out content on his YouTube channel, Underwood has charted the difficulties of living in such an isolated place in his 2024 book called Ghost Town Living. Even if Cerro Gordo might never return to being a bustling hub that nearly 5,000 people call home, Underwood looks determined to shoo the ghosts out of this ghost town.