The story
Cerro Gordo — 'fat hill' — was the silver-lead strike that jump-started Los Angeles. From 1868 into the 1870s, Remi Nadeau's freight teams hauled Cerro Gordo bullion down the Yellow Grade to LA's harbor, and the little pueblo's merchants grew rich supplying the mountain; Angelenos called the mine 'the silver cord' that kept their town alive. Perhaps 4,000 people worked the hill at its peak, high above Owens Lake.
The bonanza ore failed in the late 1870s; a zinc revival kept the tramway humming into the 1920s, and the site never fully died so much as wound down to caretakers by the late 1930s.
In 2018 the entire town sold for $1.4 million to hospitality entrepreneur Brent Underwood, whose move-in coincided with a pandemic, a burned-and-rebuilt American Hotel, and a YouTube following of millions watching the restoration. Cerro Gordo is now that rarest thing: a ghost town with a full-time future.
What remains today
The American Hotel (rebuilt after the 2020 fire), Belshaw house, bunkhouse, hoist works, and tramway relics — privately owned and under active restoration.
Questions from the field
- Can you visit Cerro Gordo?
- Only by arrangement — the town is private property under restoration, with tours, volunteer days, and overnight stays offered periodically by the owners. Don't drive up unannounced.
- How did Cerro Gordo build Los Angeles?
- In the 1870s its silver-lead bullion was LA's biggest commercial engine — freighted down by mule team to San Pedro — and the trade financed much of the young city's growth.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Cerro Gordo — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Cerro Gordo's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — Inyo County records — Cerro Gordo mining district
- — Los Angeles Herald / Nadeau freighting accounts (1870s)
- — Current ownership: Cerro Gordo LLC (Underwood)