I Walked the Entire 1900s Tramway and Discovered 9 Lost Ore Buckets

Ghost Town Living • January 23, 2021

Ghost Town Living

About

Living in an abandoned ghost town, trying to bring it back to life. Cerro Gordo was established in 1865 and went on the be the most prosperous silver mine in California's history. At it's peak, over 4,500 miners called Cerro Gordo home. Nearly $500 million worth of minerals were pulled from the hills. Law enforcement wouldn't go to Cerro Gordo and miners were expected to solve their own problems. This led to over a murder per week in it's heyday. Once the silver and water ran out, most packed up and headed out. The town has sat mostly abandoned for over 100 years. My hope is to breathe life back into this town. My goal one day is to allow more people to come and stay overnight. Restoring an abandoned ghost town with no running water is a long process with many ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. This channel is dedicated to tracking that progress.

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Video Description

It took me 12 hours to walk all of Cerro Gordo's former tramway, but I'm glad I did! This aerial tramway was how ore was moved from Cerro Gordo to Keeler below. It stretched about 8 miles up and over peaks and valleys. Miners used to ride the tram back up the mountain from Keeler after a day at the bar. A lot of the tramway was far away from any road, leaving it relatively unexplored. My hope was to find artifacts to return to Cerro Gordo's museum. These days, mining tramways are a thing of the past. As mining changed to open pit mining and large trucks and more efficient road building became available, they became obsolete remnants of the past. The timbers will eventually decay away and the wire rope will rust into dust. And all the history and innovation that went into these beautiful structures will be lost on future generations. So hopefully this video will give you an idea of the magnitude of these systems, without you having to make the 12 hour hike yourself! Thank you all for the support for the channel and town so far! I hope if you're not already, that you'll subscribe to the channel to see all my future videos. If you're interested in more photos from around town, follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brentwunderwood/ Cerro Gordo T-Shirts and more: https://store.cerrogordomines.com/ Mailing address: PO Box 490, Lone Pine, CA 93545 Thank you!