The Cerro Gordo Mines are a collection of abandoned mines located in Cerro Gordo in the

Inyo Mountains The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States. The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately south-southeast f ...

, Inyo County, near Lone Pine, California.

Mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

operations spanned 1866 to 1957, producing high grade

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

, and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

ore; and, more rarely, gold ore and copper ore. Some ore was smelted on site, but larger capacity smelters were eventually constructed along the shore of nearby

Owens Lake Owens Lake is a dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about south of Lone Pine. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, ...

. These smelting operations were the beginnings of the towns of

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

and Keeler. Most of the metal

ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is Casting, cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedu ...

s produced here were transported to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, but transportation difficulties hindered the success of the mines. Mining of silver and lead peaked in the early 1880s, with a second mining boom producing zinc in the 1910s. During its peak, Cerro Gordo was home to some 4,700 people and the site is known as a California ghost town today.

History

Discovery of the silver ore is credited to Pablo Flores, who began mining and smelting operations near the summit of Buena Vista Peak in 1865. Increasing migration to the area was met with resistance from the Native Americans, which limited early mining efforts. The establishment of Fort Independence allowed for the expulsion of native populations, facilitating the expansion of the mining town. These early miners employed relatively primitive techniques of open pits and trenches and used

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

ovens to smelt the ore. Businessman Victor Beaudry (younger brother of Los Angeles Mayor and developer Prudent Beaudry) of nearby Independence, California, became impressed by the quality of silver mined at Cerro Gordo and opened a store nearby. He soon acquired several mining claims to settle unpaid debts and proceeded to have two modern smelters built. Beaudry continued acquiring mining rights from debtors until he soon owned a majority of the richest and most productive mines in the area, including partial interest in the Union Mine. In 1868, Mortimer Belshaw arrived in Cerro Gordo (lit. "Fat Hill" in Spanish), attracted by the rich deposits of

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

ore. After establishing a partnership with another stakeholder in the Union Mine, he brought the first wagon load of silver from Cerro Gordo to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles he was able to secure financing to build his own smelter that was superior to all other smelters at Cerro Gordo, as well as to build the first wagon road up the mountain. This road became known as the Yellow Road from the color of the rock that it had been cut through. By operating the Yellow Road as a toll road, Belshaw was able to earn income and control the shipments of silver from the mountain. Between 1879 and 1880 in Cerro Gordo district, of ore was raised and treated, $3,307 ($88,088 in 2021) gold bullion produced and $140,517 ($3,742,932 in 2021) worth of silver bullion produced. During its entire operating history from 1865 to 1949, mines produced over of lead, of silver and of zinc, with an estimated worth of over $17 million. By 1907, high-grade zinc ore was found in Cerro Gordo and ore shipments begun, and by 1912, Cerro Gordo became the largest producer of zinc carbonates in the U.S. In 1916, the town became electrified, replacing the steam power that operated the machinery. In 1920, about ten miners still worked, mostly mining silver-lead ore. Mining had largely ceased by 1938. , a former high school teacher was the only miner; the then-70-year-old had been collecting small amounts of silver underground since 1997, selling the silver to tourists, while searching for a productive vein. The Cerro Gordo mines were the most extensive with more than of underground tunnels in the Cerro Gordo Mining District.

21 Century

The

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

of Cerro Gordo was purchased in June 2018 with the intent to turn it into a tourist attraction, accessed by special permission. At that time, it had several vintage buildings, including the general store and . The buyers, Brent Underwood and Jon Bier, purchased the property with additional Los Angeles-based investors. The American Hotel, an icehouse, and a residence were destroyed in a fire on June 15, 2020. Despite these challenges, Underwood says he is still committed to the project. In 2021, it was revealed the previous owners had sold the mining claims of the nearby area to K2 Gold Corp. There are plans to start a cyanide opencast mine using

cyanide In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This a ...

in the adjacent Conglomerate Mesa Formation area. As of March 17, 2022, K2 Gold Corp announced it is suspending a proposal to expand gold mining exploration and road building on California's Conglomerate Mesa Formation after the U.S.

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

required an

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

for the project.

Buildings

The American Hotel was built in 1871 by John Simpson, and was the oldest standing hotel in California on the east side of the Sierra. On the morning of June 15, 2020, a fire destroyed the hotel and neighboring buildings. The owners plan to build a replica. The Belshaw House was built around 1868 by Mortimer Belshaw, developer of the Belshaw

Blast Furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

. The Gordon House was built in 1909 by Louis D. Gordon, who began the "zinc era" of Cerro Gordo.

In popular culture

Remi Nadeau, a descendant of the family involved with the transport of ingots from Cerro Gordo across Owens Lake and by

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

train to Los Angeles, has written books and articles on the period. * In 2013, an episode in the series Artbound entitled "Agh20: Silver and Water" featured Cerro Gordo's role as a source of silver for the nascent film industry in California. Cerro Gordo, the Belshaw House, and the Inyo Mine are featured in the season 19 episode of ''

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal television, paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally ai ...

'' titled "Cerro Gordo Ghost Town", which aired in 2019 on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

. In 2020, one of the town's owners, Brent Underwood, started a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel chronicling his intended development of the town into a functioning tourist destination and his exploration of mine tunnels. In 2024, he released his book "Ghost Town Living," about the challenges and isolation of residing in the ghost town for four years.

References

External links