14 Months Straight In An Abandoned Town

hello my name is brent and behind me is the mining town of cerro gordo and back in the 1800s this town was the largest producer of silver for the state of california these days it's my home where i spend my days restoring some of the old buildings exploring the mines for different treasures going on beautiful nature hikes riding my dirt bike and a lot more and in this video i'm going to show you everything i've been up to in my 14th month living at cerro gordo [Music] you know being up here for 14 months now quite a bit has changed especially when i think about my typical days you know if i had my way if i had the ideal day at cerro gordo it would go something like this i wake up i go out and i visit the animals take care of them feed them visit the goats visit the alpacas come back in take care of the cats sit down make a quick breakfast you know get my head in the game for the day answer any emails or internet stuff that i have to do you know that might take a little bit and then by noon i try to get out there and work on projects at the property you know this month that was cutting a new road to the backhoe rebuilding a new miner's cabin cleaning up the hoist house and stuff like that so i'll get out there use my hands and do physical labor for a number of hours come back in check my emails see if there's anything new that i have to take care of that's come in over the past few hours and hopefully as it becomes evening time i get into adventure mode and that might mean exploring a new mine riding my dirt bike to a place i've never been before or even just hiking to a peak that i've always wanted to see the view from and during that time i try to be unreachable you know disconnected leave the phone at home nobody can get a hold of me and if i think of the biggest difference over the past 14 months it's that it's this time alone in austin i would go to the grocery store every single day because i would make up some reason i need to go and these days i go every two weeks i'm still alive i'm still here you know i just have a lot more time to do other things but in my ideal world after i get this alone time to adventure and explore a little bit i try to find a peak to watch the sunset at you know that's one of my big daily routines these days is just watching the sunset from a beautiful place up here and then if i really have my ideal day i'll try to read something about sarah gordo you know learn a little bit more about the history here so that way i have better context of everything around me which makes those evening adventures that much more important to me you know they mean that much more when i understand the context under which i'm doing it so that's it you know my perfect day involves building restorations it involves adventure it involves stillness sunsets and maybe a little history lesson and luckily this month i did all of those things so it was a pretty good month probably the most useful update of this month was getting a backhoe back up here you know with a property like this i could work on projects every single day for the rest of my life with a backhoe and still have a list this long of projects to go you know there's no shortage of dirt to move around or new pads to build or roads to cut in or mines to explore and everything else so this month luckily a company called dozer rented me a backhoe for a month and i got immediately to work you know they delivered it down in keeler and i remember the day it was delivered there's a freak snow storm up here at cerro gordo and so my first task with this new backhoe was just getting it here you know the road up is a seven mile road that's pretty steep and let me tell you backhoes do not go terribly fast as you're going up steep hill as you can see a backhoe is back now the only thing is to get it from here at my place in keeler up to cerro gordo which unfortunately if you see up there got some snow so all right up to the hill we go cerro gordo here i come [Music] i think it took me about three hours kind of trudging along you know on my way up but i got here i pretty much immediately went to work you know the first project that i wanted to do was get going on a new cabin restoration this is the former and future site of a miner's cabin here at cerro gordo and back in the day there used to be these small cabins kind of littering the hillsides everywhere but these days there's only about three left by the main town core and a couple months ago i chose the middle cabin to restore that turned out great so now i'm moving to this upper cabin so this is kind of the next project then i love that cribbing maybe something there and this one i want to keep even more rustic than the last one i think the last one turned out amazing it's going to last forever but i want this one to be a little more rustic beautiful perspective up here of that and of the town as you can see i'm gonna have to cut in a new road here to even get over to this cabin there's the cabin over there that rock is my pool post let's see what we can do i love starting new restoration projects each one feels like a pump to cerrogordo's chest you know an effort to bring a heartbeat back to this town creation after a century of destruction when i look at a photo of the town at its peak i realized how many lives i was able to touch each and every day and i also realized just how many buildings were lost over time and i wonder how that it affects the experience up here because i think it's that sharing of space that creates different perspectives and interesting interpretations and conversations you know a dozen eyes looking at the same hill noticing different things each and sharing that experience with each other creates like a more full experience in a town so every scoop of dirt and a new road or plank of wood saved or stoned stacked is a step in that direction and that's always exciting for me [Music] so what you do when you're cutting on a road you can see over time it's slanted like this right and so i'm taking dirt from over here bringing it over here so that's like it's lower this side gets higher and hopefully you have a flat road so that's why there's piles here and then i'll use this bucket i'll put it flat and i'll just push the dirt over push the dirt over and that way it's a flat road all the way to that cabin i'm basically there don't ask me how rough the road is behind me it's very rough but a little bit evening out and it's get materials to a bowl which is the main thing i can start on this tomorrow even which is amazing and so this project will be underway very shortly [Music] all right just getting going on this as you can see i want to clear out this for eventual you know lounge spot for this this cribbing's definitely got to stay i think at one point it was two buildings this might have been for like a animal or something and this ceiling obviously is not gonna work and it's been filled in a lot so really what's gonna have to happen here is an image of this and then all this wood put up and stored before we go much further on this cabin rebuild this pocket over here seems to have a lot of fabric in it you can see like fabric there different color there and if you look it's all buried right in here so i'm wondering this is a wall guys through all these old clothes against the wall [Music] and that's what i'm finding then these walls too i imagine like i'm trying to put myself in the mentality of a minor if i had this i want to hide something i push it in the walls oh mice thought the same thing so there's some mice back there like any time there's corners the last time i rebuilt the cabin cabin down there this back left corner there's tons of bottles and tobacco tins like that was like his vice corner where he hit all this stuff now hold up just one second here what have we here a little like [Music] secret compartment thing you see there's some sheet metal above it or something oh it goes back deep that looks like a hiding spot doesn't it i'm just terrified to reach in there because maybe it's an animal that has made this but given the fact that there's metal above it and it's like perfectly circular going back i'm wondering if that's a little hiding spot up this way far back um i mean if i was gonna hide some coins that seems like a good place do i just reach back there i dug down the site a little bit brought in a lot of rock from the tailings piles as drainage underneath it which you see here and then luckily this weekend i had a number of volunteers up here to help me crib up this back wall so now you kind of see the structure as it'll be this rock will help drainage underneath it so i'm going to bring in some more fill this is coming from the tailings pile and that will fill it up and make it level and then the construction will start and the plan for now is there needs to be some floor joist and the cabin's going to go back up this is a project that kind of i work on when i can't be working on the hotel project but i'm excited you know already since starting on these cabins six months ago there's one down there that i'm very happy with hopefully there'll be two here in a month or so and then i'll just continue because when people ask me about what my vision for cerro guru is overall you know i would love for more people to be able to come up here and stay overnight you know it's one thing to come here for an hour to take a tour look around but it's different to see the sunrise and the sunset you know to experience the wind when it changes directions or the way the light hits the mountains across the way at different times of the day and i want more people to experience that and i want more people to be able to experience that no matter their comfort level or their income level and so the first big hospitality offering that i'll have is the hotel the hotel will have six rooms then over the coming years i hope to have about 10 or 15 cabins maybe a little bit bigger than this one scattering the hillside around the town much like they used to so if people want their own space they can run one of those and finally over the saddle towards death valley there's quite a bit of acreage back there and i have to have campsites you know pretty basic campsites just with that stunning view of death valley national park and all these people each night coming to the hotel congregating hanging out on the porch enjoying a drink or some food and just getting to experience cerro gordo together that's my goal and so that's what i push for every day including working on these little projects like this so while this might just look like kind of a small cabin that i'm rebuilding it's part of the bigger picture and i hope that this cabin allows many people to stay in it over the coming 100 years and all of them have their own memories of sarah gordo you know to me that would be really exciting the biggest mine exploration this month happened right here at this 300 foot vertical shaft right in front of me this is called the newtown mine and i've been eyeing this mine for a very long time this was active during cerego's heyday so in the 1800s and to my understanding and from my knowledge nobody has been into this mine since it was closed because it's very difficult to get into to get into this thing this is the hole it's a 300 foot straight vertical shaft there's no ladder after about 50 feet and it's just a straight drop so for me i was never super comfortable with that but this month i decided i was gonna go down a little bit it's game time rope is tied off to the razor ropes are going down and it begins we're headed down maybe 60 feet down so i was repelling down and at the bottom i hit my carabiner that i talked to the bottom knowing it's the end of the rope shine my flashlight around realize that there's no entrances there so that means that the first entrance to the first level of the mine must be below 120 feet so i went out i purchased 300 foot of straight rope and i plan to go back down there soon in the meantime i'm just mentally preparing myself for that feeling of just dangling on a rope in the middle of a void knowing that there's a 30-story building worth of fall below you but hopefully this coming month they go down there i get to show you guys what's in there and i'm excited because again nobody's been down there since the 1800s [Music] you know when i'm done with my main tasks for the day i always want to do something you know it's not a place where i sit back and i watch netflix at night or i just kind of relax i'm always thinking and curious about what else is out there and on the top of my curiosity list is mines and most specifically there is a mine called the omega mine which collapsed a number of years ago that's just over the hill that has been on the top of my mental curiosity list for six or eight months now you know this is a mine that back in the day connected right into the main union mine now if you know me and you know this channel you know i am looking for another entrance into the union mine why because right now if i want to explore the union mine which is the biggest mine here at cerro gordo i have to take the original hoist and to use the hoist it requires a crew so i gotta convince four or six guys to take time out of their day to send me down to explore around the mine and that just isn't practical for me what i want to be able to do is to enter this mine from one of the old entry points that isn't the hoist and the best lead in those mines is the omega tunnel and the omega tunnel is just over the hill here but it's collapsed for a number of years and so to get into it i need to dig it out and to dig it out i need a backhoe so this month you know as i had free time from cutting in the cabin road i went back there i started digging into the omega i got the backhoe back up here and i think i got some unfinished business on this side of the mountain so here's a little lay of the land of the omega as it stands currently and what's interesting is even since i've been here after the snow and stuff all of this is kind of new collapse from up there all that stuff i mean it's falling down even looking at it there so i'm basically going to fill this in so i can keep bringing this back to get further in because the shaft i mean you can see one of the timberings here so it's kind of going at this angle so i need to kind of start over there there's no ground here and the bucket won't reach over there i'm confident i think once i get past all this i'm gonna get into this thing so less talking more digging i'm not gonna go down there but tons of new timbering there but also tons of dirt collapsing so it seems like i'm still going straight on it i'm back maybe 20 feet so i'm gonna have to knock down those there's gonna be a lot but i'll just keep building my own road and keep going back that way what i'm excited about is i keep singing timbering so i know i'm on the right track it's because he keeps seeing timbering and each time i dig away the entrance that i see is a little bit bigger so it's like one more scoop and i'm finally gonna reveal perfect pathway all the way back into the union mine ladies and gentlemen this might be it i might have finally found my way into the omega look at that opening this appeared out of nowhere you're telling me that's not a portal i'm gonna take out a little bit more dirt and go down there and investigate could be the day i'm nervous to even get out of the backhoe because this has been months of digging in and this actually looks like an entrance of to a portal we call it timbering everywhere that's it that's oh man jesus has some big rock that's the mine that's it that's it that's it baby yes we're into the omega baby timbering oh man i mean who knows how far back it goes it couldn't it could not go into the 200 level but it could you know i'm there now unfortunately that exploration's gonna be have to be a different day so coming next time to ghost town living the omega tunnel at cerro gordo oh yes the omega has been entered since moving up here 14 months ago i've developed a lot of hobbies you know nowadays i love to go dirt bike riding i love to explore mines use heavy equipment and i love hikes the hikes aren't the new thing for me it's the walking of the wash that is what i like and when i say that i mean the part of the mountain where if the snow were to melt it would wash down a certain valley and after you are out here for a while and you see all these mining camps you realize that the wash is the best place to find treasure because let's say that the treasure is over here in a camp over the years the snow will melt it into the wash and it all will accumulate right there and today i'm going to walk a very serious wash you may recognize this as the site of the silver spear mine exploration that i went on i just about got stuck in this hole over here oh no so as you can see there used to be a very big mining operation up here called the silver sphere and down below there's more of the mining operation and that building is right on top of a cliff and beyond it is a wash all the way down towards another mine so that's all i'm gonna do today it's a beautiful day out here pack my bag and do a little wash walking walking the wash has become one of my favorite adventures to take you know it's as close to a guaranteed win as anything i know not a win in terms of just finding treasure but a win where at the end of it i always feel better than when i went it's this perfect combination of adventure anticipation and adrenaline you know there's always that chance that hiding somewhere in the wash is a relic from the past you know some piece of history that was washed from its campsite into that gully and has remained there ever since and even if there's no man-made items in sight the wash never seems to disappoint you're walking in the shadows of these awe-inspiring mountains sliding down loose shale and following the natural flow of water in the area it's peaceful and it allows me to forget about whatever anxieties that day may have held and just be in awe of the scenery around me because where water goes so does life you know when i walk down the wash this month i came upon a bristlecone pine right here at cerro gordo i think that's a bristlecone pine [Music] oh look at that tree holy timoli the way the light's hitting it right now too i didn't ever know you could fall in love with the tree or maybe that's just what happens after you know 13 months on a ghost town look at these this is just magical up here love that part dang what is this that's a heavy guy [Music] well the equipment continues i don't know what this is but more sheet metal there there's some beautiful trees back here yeah that's the one thing that cerrogordo proper is missing these are opinion pines this tree might be a couple hundred years old and so the miners as you see here would chop down the trees the firewood and you know this might be 50 60 years old so those haven't grown up around saragorro again because the climate out here is so difficult and it's so dry [Music] all right well you know got back down to where i originally went to the mine and i crashed the drone in the cliffs there wasn't nearly as much stuff as i hoped for in the wash and there's some big old items up there some of those pipes and such but you know what now i know and more than anything else that's what i'm always trying to do is just check things off the list i think to me whenever i think of something or i see something that might have clues in it or treasure or something i just can't get out of my mind until i go and explore and check it off the list and that wash was one of those things it was on my brain ever since i crashed that drone up there i was like well what's above it and so it would have driving me crazy if i were an uh oh uh oh see now we got another wash we got another wash with sheet metal we got see now this washer's gonna drive me crazy what i was saying was as soon as i see something on the property or surrounding property or even google earth that looks like something i should explore i just can't get it out of my brain until i explore it but you know what after a decade of scratching all those exploration itches i feel like i have a pretty good understanding of uh all the land out here i hope to anyways or maybe i'll realize after 10 years that it's going to take me another 10 years and after that 10 years always realize you'll never know you know one of my favorite things over this past year has just been learning the new skill of taking video you know 15 months ago i had never made a video in my life when i first started making these i only had the camera that i'm looking at right now and it was just a way to show other people what my life was like up here but as i started making more of them i fell very much in love with the process you know of setting up the shots of trying new angles of just having this creative outlet that i never had at any other part of my life you know and as part of that i started incorporating new equipment you know i got a gopro and then finally i got a drone because i just wanted to be able to show the magnitude of this environment up here you know the awe that happens in these mountains and these deserts and try to give a little bit of scale to the property of cerro gordo and i love it you know i i have this drone i think it's done an amazing job of just showing what life is like up here and i think a lot of times i get the question of who's flying the drone for you and the answer is the drone is flying itself these drones these days have an autonomous follow mode where basically they'll lock into a person a vehicle or other things and just follow it wherever it goes if you ever see me on a dirt bike going around turns or going on a hike or doing any of these things it's the drone locking enemy and following me itself and if you've been watching this channel for a while you will know i've had no shortage of drone crashes unfortunately as you're experimenting with anything you're gonna break some things and for me that means breaking a lot of drones luckily the company does have an amazing insurance policy so i'm able to get these drones replaced over some timeline but this month the company reached out and they said hey we have this new technology and this new drone that should be able to follow you much better than the drone you're currently using all right we'll send it over so he sent me one to try out and i gotta say i am very happy with the results this drone last night was following me at 30 miles an hour down the salt tram road zooming behind me in front of me doing shots i could have never envisioned taking myself and so i'm excited you know my hope every week is to make better videos you know i hope that my creative process gets better over time i think it has you know if i look at my first video and look at the video now i think they're better you know i hope that you guys think they're a little bit better and i'm excited over this coming year to get even better at this new skill you know it's exciting for me to try new things and so my hope is that i'm sitting here a year from now and i'm like oh yeah those videos a year ago are pretty good but you know they're not where they are now and i think part of that is going to be continuing experimenting with this equipment and so this month getting this new drone has been exciting for me you know i'm like a kid with a new toy to test out and i hope you guys like it too [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so that's it that's 14 months up here at sarah gordo 14 months going in minds like this and i gotta say i think above and beyond all else i'm more comfortable these days with being in uncomfortable situations that's not to say an abstract that these minds are any more comfortable to me in theory than they were before but i think i'm more comfortable with myself or more at ease with myself within these uncomfortable situations you know not just mind exploration but camping outside underneath the stars or using machinery that i never knew how to use before you know the stimulus still feels the same but i think my response to these uncomfortable situations is a little bit different you know earlier this month when i was in the new town mine and i was dangling on a rope with a 300 foot drop below me i thought to the time that i was camping and then i was uncomfortable and then i made it through that just fine and suddenly i felt a little bit more at ease you know i just relished in the moment thinking hey this is very terrifying now but i'll be able to pull from this in the future to get me through a different uncomfortable situation and i think once you realize that about these situations it becomes a feedback loop you know once you realize the value of being in uncomfortable situations you put yourself in uncomfortable situations more often and then you realize the value and it repeats itself you know it's kind of like going to the gym when you first go to the gym it's difficult but then once you see the benefits going to the gym you want to go to the gym more so you see more benefits so you want to go to the gym more and so on and so forth so that's what i hope for you guys this week i hope you purposely put yourself out there in some of these uncomfortable situations you know they go against every fiber of being a human being you know we like the familiar and the comfortable but if you do go out there and seek out this discomfort i think you build more confidence and more data points to draw from from in the future when you're in similar situations so that's what i hope for you guys i hope you have an amazing week uncomfortable situations or not i hope you all come back next week to see what's going on at cerro gordo and until then i am going to sit here in an abandoned silver mine and maybe turn out the light you know i think that would make it about as uncomfortable as it could be so you guys want to see what that looks like let's see just about like that [Music] you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 702,132

Keywords: abandoned ghost town, abandoned town, alone in my ghost town, brent underwood, brent underwood ghost town, cerro gordo, cerro gordo ghost town, ghost town, ghost town living, i bought a ghost town, living, living in a ghost town, living in ghost town

Id: eBsTCjxbOWk

Length: 31min 35sec (1895 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021