In 1872 the steamboat Molly Stevens was put into service to transport goods from Swansea on the northern end of Owens Lake, to Cartago on the southern end, removing over 40 miles of difficult road from the wagon route to Los Angeles. trailer 2182 0 obj The financiers were impressed, and Belshaw left San Francisco as a third owner of the newly formed Union Mining Company, with enough capital to begin construction of a smelter to process the Cerro Gordo ores. The Owens Lake treasure hunt, Enderle said, was intended to be a business from the start.In the mid-1950s, after graduating from the Naval Academy and doing a two-year stint with the Air Force, Enderle farmed in Orange County. :uut]q&=SaKqd.3\*xm1J[PEk)IcX-]~? The limbs and crest of the asymmetric anticline are further . All rights reserved. However, after Fort Independence was established and the Indian activity subsided, the Mexicans came back about 1862. They could tell him whether the boat really did capsize on the lake in 1878, killing 14 and leaving a booty of never-recovered silver bullion at the bottom. Underwood has spent a considerable amount of time learning about his more-earthly surroundings as well. Long before the area was developed, Mexicans had been crawling the mountain they called Cerro Gordo, meaning "Fat Hill," looking for silver. The Los Angeles News editorialized: What Los Angeles is, is mainly due to it. Universities follow the money, How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Jodie Sweetin, How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Travis Bennett, It was over 100 degrees in Las Vegas as Delta airline passengers were stuck in the stifling cabin for hours, Tioga Road reopening in Yosemites high country after extra-long snow closure. If you use our link to buy something, MBMM gets a small percentage of the money you spend. 0000004193 00000 n By then, nothing could keep fortune seekers from Cerro Gordo -- not fierce winters, knee-deep spring mud, gunfights or swindlers. I could do anything I wanted, and I wasnt particularly happy.. But in 1867, San Francisco miner Mortimer Belshaw tested a sample and found that it was rich in lead, essential in smelting silver ore. Beaudry and Belshaw became partners, transforming the mining camp into a boomtown. 1, out here, rumors run rampant, said Jim Macey, 39. is old hat.. <>stream California California ghost town with a bloody past suffers a new calamity Brent Underwood stands amid the ashes of the American Hotel on Wednesday, two days after a fire in the Inyo Mountains. Watch as we risk it all to uncover the secrets of the Cerro Gordo silver mine. Geocaching Photo Gallery The Cerro Gordo Ghost Town is one of the best-preserved ghost towns I ever visited. endobj 0000009268 00000 n 2178 0 obj Cerro Gordo, California, on the western slope of the Inyo Mountains about seven miles east of Keeler and thirty miles south of Independence, was the first major silver strike in Owens Valley. Mining operations spanned 1866 to 1957, producing high grade silver, lead, zinc ore, and more rarely gold ore and copper ore.[1] Some ore was smelted on site, but larger capacity smelters were eventually constructed along the shore of nearby Owens Lake. endstream endobj 0000028227 00000 n Back above ground, Underwood discovered in the towns general store a briefcase filled with more personal artifacts from the miners lives, which he said included their their highs, their lows, their bank statements, their divorce settlements, lawsuits, mining claims, love letters, hate letters., It's crazy to find something like that, and it just takes you back into an era, he explained. xref >";qGj:e(^T&ttY$0+]T` When state mineralogist W. A. Goodyear visited Cerro Gordo in July of that year, he reported At the present time, there is altogether perhaps thirty or forty men around the site of the old town, getting their living the best they can.. He found artifacts ranging from boxes of dynamite and blasting caps to tobacco tins and a newspaper dated May 5, 1913. The editor of a local newspaper described Cerro Gordo as a shooting gallery where pistols continue to crack and good men go down before them., No one cared about that in Los Angeles, virtually drooling over the lucrative silver trade. He supervised the construction of the first wagon road to the town in July of 1868. 2171 0 obj You would think something like that would make the local newspapers, he said. A Look at California in 1851, Two Years Into the Gold Rush, Where To Find Gold: The Top Ten US Counties, Home Sweet Home Miners Cabins of the Frontier West. [18] The American Hotel, an icehouse, and a residence were destroyed in a fire on June 15, 2020. To the east, the Inyo Mountains--the home of the Cerro Gordo mine--form another natural cordon. Keeler languished until 1883 when the Carson and Colorado Railroad built a line into town in July of 1883. Since 2008, the Ghost Adventures team has investigated some truly terrifying claims. National Dive Bar Day is July 7, and a small Memphis joint may be pulling double duty as a dive bar and a portal for dark energy. He bores another hole. endobj And a Hovercraft, which takes the crew out to the presumed vicinity of the sunken boat, wouldnt start because the starter was too heavily damaged by salt. Don't miss Travel Channel in your favorite social media feeds. Stream full episodes of Ghost Adventures now on discovery+. Cerro Gordos deadliest mine disaster struck in the early 1870s when a cave-in killed at least eight and as many as 35 Chinese miners. They recognize that youve got to have the right equipment and that its a lot of hard work. He opened a general store in town and began staking claims to mining property, according to the 1948 book City-Makers by Remi Nadeau, a descendant of a town pioneer. In 1877 the Union Mine buildings burned to the ground. Part of the towns history also includes unexplained incidents, Underwood said, such as lights that switch on in unoccupied buildings. The mining town of Cerro Gordo, in the Inyo Mountains above Death Valley, was formed in the 1860s after silver was discovered there. endstream $120,418 raised of $500,000 goal 3K donations Donate now Friends of Cerro Gordo is organizing this fundraiser to benefit Friends of Cerro Gordo. The tunnel almost collapsed on us, and we had to work quickly to avoid being buried alive. A few years later, in 1924, silver-lead ore on the old dumps was worked by concentration and flotation after five concentrators were installed in the Keeler mill. HD b Its mostly the rust and dust that people appreciate about the museum, Patterson said. Cerro Gordo, the Belshaw House, and the Inyo Mine are featured in the season 19 episode of Ghost Adventures titled "Cerro Gordo Ghost Town", which aired in 2019 on the Travel Channel. 0000008257 00000 n It just puts what you're going through into perspective., As for how long he plans to continue working on restoring and exploring the ghost town? In 1875, Cerro Gordo suffered a series of setbacks, necessitating the shutdown of its furnaces. WhatLos Angelesnow is, is mainly due to it. Im OK with that.. People are bored, they watch TV and everything they see just gets exploded into an incredible scenario. The establishment of Fort Independence allowed for the expulsion of native populations, facilitating the expansion of the mining town. Good-natured and hospitable to a fault, Enderle has no pretensions about being a full-time treasure hunter. And the owner intends to restore it in honor of his late wife, whose family owned the 100-acre-plus town. Im going to enjoy probing this hole and seeing what happens. When he does, the pole goes down 10 feet but hits nothing. By December of 1868, silver shipments from Cerro Gordo began reaching Los Angeles. Were 90% to 95% sure that it is there. A fire that raged through some of the mine buildings and the Union shaft was the final straw and the furnaces were closed the following February. Thus rimmed by the dueling ranges, Owens Lake, even in its dry state, is a stunning testimonial to . The hotel burned to the ground in June of 2020. In 1906 there was again interest in reviving the Cerro Gordo mines. Peggy Streeter, who lives in nearby Lone Pine, said Enderle and his crew are decades too late. endobj This road became known as the Yellow Road from the color of the rock that it had been cut through. Then, with hand-held poles that can probe deeper, he hopes to hit what he believes should be the hard bank of a channel. In early 1880, a new attempt at working the Cerro Gordo mines was underway. A man living in an abandoned ghost town in California has opened up a sealed mine shaft, which he reckons hasn't been explored since 1878. By operating the Yellow Road as a toll road, Belshaw was able to earn income and control the shipments of silver from the mountain. The steamship Molly Stevens was dismantled in 1882 and its engines were installed in the Bessie Brady. startxref A newspaper article from 1874 described the town: "It is a cheerless, rocky, disagreeable burg, but full of stout, warm-hearted go-ahead men, who are tearing fortunes out of the bowels of the earth. Keeler Keeler - Things to Do Cerro Gordo Mines Cerro Gordo Mines 26 Reviews #1 of 1 things to do in Keeler Sights & Landmarks, Historic Sites, More 1 Cerro Gordo Road, Keeler, CA 93530 Save dinahJ2825FV 62 24 Disappointed Review of Cerro Gordo Mines Reviewed April 28, 2021 via mobile We were looking forward to our visit. Thomas survived his injuries, Boland was shot dead on the street. endobj A material ropeway, ropeway conveyor (or aerial tramway in the US): 659 is a subtype of gondola lift, from which containers for goods rather than passenger cars are suspended. The miners found them just as alluring as the silver. . Long before the area was developed, Mexicans had been crawling the mountain they called Cerro Gordo, meaning Fat Hill, looking for silver. Nadeau sold his mule teams and built a Los Angeles hotel at 1st and Spring streets -- where The Times now stands. July 1996. Bradshaw had experience with silver mining in Mexico, and he recognized that a smelter would transform the district into a major producer. Some of Californias most colorful history was written in the Owens Valley. B&B; guests brave an 8-mile steep and narrow gravel incline in four-wheel-drive vehicles to stay in Belshaws 1876 home, complete with 156 bullet holes, or in the 1904 bunkhouse. If the silver is found, the salvage operation will increase the projects cost dramatically. Michael is skeptical because, although the local newspapers and the mining and scientific press gave extensive coverage in the 1870s to the booming Cerro Gordo mines, there are no accounts of a sunken ship with numerous fatalities. Another zero on his treasure hunters score card. 2170 0 obj Underwood's spent 16 months in Cerro Gordo as of this past July, and he now lives by choice in the ghost town thats 30 miles from the nearest grocery store. [20], The American Hotel was built in 1871 by John Simpson,[21] and was the oldest standing hotel in California on the east side of the Sierra. Hes found his wallet in places he didnt put it and books spontaneously have fallen from shelves. In an interview with VICE magazine, Underwood made it clear that Cerro Gordo will never be done. Cerro Gordo, circa 1909, from the L.D. 2172 0 obj By 1873 breakdowns in the Los Angeles freighting routes caused a huge pile of silver bullion being stuck at Owens Valley shipping centers, resulting in temporary shutdown of the local smelters. Cerro Gordo is a settlement of bloodstained brothels, skeletons and busted up pianos on the wind-battered southern slope of the Inyo Mountains, overlooking Death Valley. The drilling and subsequent probing is a tedious process--about as exciting as posthole digging and the treasure-hunting equivalent of archeologists turning over and over teaspoons of dirt in the hopes of finding an artifact. A man who recently spent $1.4 million to purchase Cerro Gordo, a ghost town in Californias Inyo Mountains, recently got stranded on the remote 360-acre property. Cunningham and Leavitt, also mixing the fun of the hunt with a getaway from the press of business in Orange County, can claim special skills: Leavitt has an aptitude with cranky machinery and Cunningham has a Navy-acquired skill with satellite tracking for possible help in getting a better fix on a sunken boat. ZVq8_Y+9>q:>g_i-. Read more at Where to Find Gold in California. endobj Cerro Gordo Historical Society: Employer Identification Number (EIN) 770478662: Name of Organization: Cerro Gordo Historical Society: Address: PO BOX 221, Keeler, CA 93530-0221: Activities: Described in section 509(a)(2) of the Code, Historical site, records or reenactment: Subsection: Charitable Organization: Cerro Gordo, located at a remote location east of Owens Lake in the Inyo Mountains of Southern California, was California's largest producer of silver. Cerro Gordo's last shootout occurred in December of 1892 when miner Billy Crapo walked out of his cabin (seen here) one morning and gunned down Cerro Gordo postmaster H. B. Boland, then shot John Thomas in cold blood near the post office. It tells us the silver ingots are there, and thats what were interested in.. Sue organizers for pollution, Wolverine mystery: Researchers scour California high country, but rare creature remains elusive. Around 2am on June 15th, 2020 the American Hotel burned down at Cerro Gordo. ". [via Discovery Inc.]. Hundreds of miners, prospectors, and businessmen were making their way to the town. Cerro Gordo was a major producer of silver and high-grade zinc during its boom years. These early miners employed relatively primitive techniques of open pits and trenches and used adobe ovens to smelt the ore. While not every haunted house turns out to be haunted, there have been moments of paranormal activity recorded by the crew that could convince the staunchest non-believer. Yet rumors persist that the Molly Stevens capsized on the lake in 1878, killing 14 and depositing a booty of silver at the bottom. Read this article from the New York Times. Cerro Gordo silver became the most common silver in Los Angeles, proudly displayed at the best hotels and banks, as well as many of the businesses along Main and Spring Streets. By 1871 the town of Cerro Gordo was booming. Through a mutual friend, Enderle met a pilot who claimed that infrared photography could help him determine mineral content beneath the surface. It ended with his murder, $600,000 in stolen wine: Inside one of Californias biggest high-end alcohol heists, Nolan Arenado to the Dodgers? In this video, we attempt to dig out and excavate a collapsed mine tunnel at the Cerro Gordo ghost town and silver mine. Although he believes he is in the general area of the Molly Stevens, there is a certain needle-in-a-haystack element. Thats interesting. The particular details of the discovery are obscure, but it is thought that the first discoveries of silver ore were made by Mexican miners in 1865. And for someone who, by his own description, was goal-less, his life took on a deeper spiritual meaning. He then built two modern smelters and continued acquiring mining rights from debtors until he soon owned a majority of the richest and most productive mines in the area, which eventually included a partial interest in the Union Mine. After the Civil War, it became fat city for silver miners, who shipped their diggings to Los Angeles. Unless if youre lucky like I was, you wise up and realize you really cant buy happiness, that happiness is more of a relationship with life, not so much possession of things.. Privately owned today, the site includes a number of buildings, the remains of the Union Mine, equipment, and kilns. CBS News Underwood isn't just Cerro Gordo's sole. When it hits the air, theres a good chance it will turn to powder in about half an hour, Enderle said. Belshaws first challenge was linking Cerro Gordo, situated high on Buena Vista Peak at an elevation of 8,500 feet, with Owens Valley far below. <>stream 0000031733 00000 n This was Californias Comstock Lode, producing 4.5 million ounces of silver in the 1860s, 70s and 80s. 0000003908 00000 n The Omega Tunnel at Cerro Gordo remains caved and inaccessible, but we won't give up. [19] Despite these challenges, Underwood says he is still committed to the project. 0000006498 00000 n Ghost Towns & Mining Camps Across America, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, John C. McCoy Founder of Westport, Missouri, Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Railroad. Underwood broke ground and commenced to rebuilding The American Hotel in 2022. The pilots wife happened to be a researcher of buried treasure and told Enderle of the Molly Stevens legend. If the ghosts of Cerro Gordo could talk--if they could rise up from the dance hall floors where men were gunned down or float up from the silver mines where others died--they could tell Al Enderle if he is wasting his time looking for buried treasure under the floor of Owens Lake. Unlike other California ghost towns that are parks -- such as Bodie and Calico -- Cerro Gordo is privately owned. I believe it to be there. National Dive Bar Day: Is There a Portal To Hell In Memphis? They were mining in limestone below the 200-foot level and failed to shore up the tunnel with timber, former Cerro Gordo mining foreman Fred Fisher told a Times reporter in 1950. Shipping 1,000 tons of ore daily, Cerro Gordo became the largest producer of zinc carbonates in the United States. Either well find its there or it isnt there, and it will make some difference. [9], In 1916 the town became electrified replacing the steam power that operated the machinery. Photo courtesy Cerro Gordo Mines. Once he finds that, hell simply follow it, for somewhere along that bank, Enderle believes, the Molly Stevens was swamped. ?PuzE! [31], In 2020, one of the town's owners, Brent Underwood, started a YouTube channel chronicling his intended development of the town into a functioning tourist destination and his exploration of mine tunnels. Supposedly its Alphonse Benoit, who was killed in a nearby woodcutters camp in the 1870s, Patterson says. "Cerro Gordo's deadliest mine disaster struck in the early 1870s when a cave-in killed at least eight and as many as 35 Chinese miners. Claim jumpers tunneled into the base of the mountain from all sides, prompting more gunfights. The great California Gold Rush kicked off the entire saga of western mining. Originally a small-scale operation worked by Mexicans between 1862 and 1866, the mine was included in the Lone Pine Mining District organized in April 1866. The original discovery of rich veins of silver was made by a man named Pablo Flores who began mining and smelting operations near the summit of Buena Vista Peak in 1865. They were mining in limestone at the 200-foot level and failed to shore up the tunnel with timber. The restorations are being done using the original wood from around town and from the collapsed mines. Cerro Gordo, California. 0000000016 00000 n endobj $D gJyrHA3%!DLnwjCqF31I}o7Y{ By modern methods, the ore could be worked profitably. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The state would get half. At its height, hundreds of dwellings dotted the landscape, while miners sought their fortunes. <>stream Cerro Gordo in 1980. It was the first major silver strike in Owens Valley. Increasing migration to the area was met with resistance from the Native Americans, which limited early mining efforts. endobj The 1871 American Hotel in Cerro Gordo. In 1916 electricity reached the town and the mines of the district. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay up-to-date with our latest mining adventures!Patreon Account: https://www.patreon.com/MBMMLLCHats, Shirts, \u0026 Merch: https://my-store-c2b497.creator-spring.com/AFFILIATE LINKSWhat's an affiliate link? Theres no documentation that theres anything there, any lost treasure, said Bill Michael, 31, the administrator of the Eastern California Museum in Independence.

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