hundreds of feet below the desert beneath the vast mountains of california are the remains of what
was once one of the most fruitful silver mines in america sitting empty picked dry by years of
mining decaying above these tunnels are the fading memories of the origin of california's wealth
a genuine american ghost town buildings that once housed hundreds of people working to exploit
america's natural splendor now sit empty this is the long and strange history of sarah gordo
the father of modern los angeles and one of the few true ghost towns in america
i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
the boom and the bust is a tale as old as time in the american west communities towns even cities
were born from wherever settlers found something worth mining the mines contain the metals
metals attracted people and where there are people there is work opportunity for enterprise
and this is where something magical occurs imagine an abandoned scrap of borderline
on livable desert becomes a bustling community complete with commerce families and construction
but the boom never lasted there's nothing renewable about silver and gold and as veins were
depleted the associated businesses dried up in the grand perspective of history as soon as towns such
as serra gordo flourish they are often abandoned the prospect for cerro gordo's boom began in 1865
when the first miners began extracting silver and smelting it in crude furnaces while the quality of
the silver was phenomenal the area's native paiute people were in constant conflict with any new
settlers to the area and with pretty justifiable reason a spat of unseasonably cold weather and
flooding in the area meant that the paiute people lost a ton of the game they depended on for
survival additionally the new settlers brought cattle into the region which competed with the
native wildlife that the indigenous people hunted and so this is where relations really began to
intensify the natives faced with starvation saw no other option they began killing the settlers
cattle in turn the settlers attempted to protect their livestock and a period of warring began
this is when fort independence was established independence was an outpost for california and
nevada settlers to mount an offensive while conflict would continue the area around the
landscape cerro gordo included was much safer for the american settlers than before this safety at
the expense of native americans was very enticing to american businessmen businessmen such as
victor beaudry younger brother of the mayor of los angeles at the time with visions of great riches
he began constructing new modern smelters to allow for silver production to increase
and beaudry wasn't the only businessman attracted to serogordo a notable new york industrialist
named belshaw moved west for the opportunity as well he first landed in san francisco where he was
able to achieve success with the pacific refinery whose business and mining covered the whole state
cerro gordo was the next prize he laid his eyes upon in 1868 he arrived to the area belshaw saw
the potential of the mine but didn't have the funds himself so he brought a wagon load of pure
sarah gordo silver hundreds of miles from the mine to los angeles and once in l.a he began his search
for investors he found eager money men and quickly formed the union mining company with two partners
together they built the very first wagon route from los angeles to cerro gordo by sharing safe
passage through the rocky hills this enormous effort created what became known as the yellow
road despite multiple businesses operating mining claims in the region bellshaw's union
mining company was the sole owner and operator of the yellow road meaning that every piece of silver
gold or lead passed from sarah gordo to the big city was taxed by his tolls rather than compete
belshaw and beaudry joined forces and enjoyed complete control over sarah gordo production
increased to an average of seven tons of ore being mined per day topping out at a whopping nine tons
the ore literally couldn't be hauled down the mountain fast enough union mining's
control was rock solid and they maintained a tight hold over sarah gordo for many years
sarah gordo brought so much money to the city that the los angeles news wrote in 1872 to this city
cerro gordo trade is invaluable what los angeles now is is mainly due to it it is the silver cord
that binds our present existence should it be unfortunately severed we would inevitably collapse
this was the dream of the west which is to be won by the greatest american to show their grit
a land of opportunity for those willing to put up and move into the dangerous frontier and as the
mystique of the west gave way to the reality of greed bloodshed and decline los angeles the city
built by sarah gordo began to sell the myth of the wild west to the world while the mining of
silver and lead had peaked in the 1880s the needs of industry and business were changing at the same
time cyril gordo was able to adapt while silver and lead created the boom that birthed the town
zinc was also lurking in the hills demand for zinc increased heading into the 20th century and as
high grade zinc ore was discovered in the mines in 1907 industry flourished once again by 1912 sara
gordo was once again on top now as the largest producer of zinc carbonate in the united states
in 1916 the town's industrial equipment was replaced moving from the steam-powered
equipment to an electrical system this would be the last modernization
sierra gordo saw for a very very long time as the wild west died so did this town the zinc boom was
not nearly as profitable as the silver boom and did not have nearly as long of a life by 1920
there were just 10 miners left at cerro gordo and they were scrounging for what remained of the once
renowned veins while the final death of industry in the town wasn't until 1938 cerro gordo had
long since lost its luster while the boom can seem instantaneous the bust is anything but
what was left behind was just a skeleton of a community several buildings loosely organized
around several magnificent tunnel systems remarkably preserved by the stable and dry
climate of the desert pieces of cerro gordo that had stood since the beginning of industrialization
remained for decades and decades one of which i'd like to present you has only recently
been lost to fire but its memory remains a precious element of californian history
the prominent piece of local architecture i have in mind was the american hotel built in 1871
it stood tall into the turn of the millennia as the oldest standing hotel in california this
building was a pinnacle example of the american west complete with a bullet hole in the wall
there are nearly 22 other buildings and conditions ranging from dilapidated to historically preserved
some of them with blood-stained floors and others are claimed to be haunted but the fact that any of
these historic buildings are still usable can only really be accredited to the maintenance
of the town's recent succession of owners which brings us to probably the most unusual part of
cerro gordo's history ghost town enthusiasts for some the dream of striking it rich in sarah gordo
never really died so now let's meet the modern residents of sierra gordo for starters there was
a former high school teacher robert louis demarise who had spent years visiting the remote ghost
town during school holidays as a hobby he would descend hundreds of feet into the long abandoned
tunnels with nothing but a chisel and a hammer to crack the rocks and see what's behind them
eventually he retired from teaching and moved to the ghost town full time to live away from society
up in the mountain and under the stars desmarai's wife left him up there he says that she couldn't
stand the altitude he lived in a cabin that stood since the mining days at 8 200 feet and his wife
lived somewhere in nevada and after over 22 years of amateur mining he found nothing more than
by his own count about a wheelbarrow full of unrefined silver ore but he always held out hope
that one day he'd be the one to find the legacy that lost vein of silver and strike it rich
the stuff of legends bringing us to modern day when after years of decay cerro gordo has once
again captured the imagination of los angeles much in thanks to the storytelling of brent underwood
the idea of a genuine ghost town representing an almost mystical part of american culture
is alluring to everyone and brent underwood a businessman from texas understands that fact
he corralled investors to turn sarah gordo into a tourist destination in 2018
underwood paid 1.4 million dollars for 380 acres of land as well as all of the mining claims and
historic charm that comes with it underwood popularized this abandoned town by creating
authentic videos about what it's like to live in a ghost town including extremely dangerous tours
hundreds of feet below ground and in century-old unmaintained tunnels the adventures are almost
always fruitful as underwood recovers untouched artifacts such as newspaper clippings bottles and
tools although he's a man of many words one quote i came across online says it all i used to watch
gunsmoke as a kid underwood says my grandfather had dementia and would watch it on repeat it's
like living that childhood fantasy underwood's commitment to the town is almost bizarre and it's
been tested time and again for example on june 15 2020 underwood went to sleep in one of the cabins
he awoke at 2 45 am to an explosion a fire was burning within the american hotel once
the oldest hotel in the state the american was now ablaze fire trucks were hours away
and any attempt to save the building was in vain that night three buildings burnt to the ground
including the hotel which was meant to be the center attraction of cerro gordo
in a strange coincidence the hotel had opened on june the 15th 1871 and 149 years later to the day
it was reduced to ash and dust but this hasn't slowed underwood down he's vowed to rebuild and
construct an artificial approximant of the hotel that was lost and he'll probably succeed thanks
to his 2.8 million fans on tick tock and 25.3 million total views some people might feel that
as the wild west image of california an american western frontier fades another comes into focus
and it's really pretty ironic the consumerist image-based california pretty much the exact
opposite of the mining industry might be the very thing that saves this ghost town
however i'd probably take a more romantic approach to this topic considering the millions
upon millions of americans whose ancestors worked in minds very similar to the one in cerro gordo
not to mention the ancestors of their ancestors who worked in mines abroad discovering untouched
history even through youtube videos is a small way of keeping one in touch with their heritage
i once had an opportunity to visit a silver mine in the middle of europe nine time zones
away from cerro gordo and i must confess that the similarities were striking however
unlike the vast majority of historic minds around the world cerro gordo has found an unexpected new
purpose in the modern age and thanks to that it might survive a little bit longer
or at least as long as tick-tock stays in vogue that's it for today's episode be sure to subscribe
share this video for more its history check out our series tales of urban decay our video about
new york's lost penn station and tune in for our daily stories this is ryan socash signing off