A man in the US spent more than $1.4 million buying a ghost town where he’s lived for four years.
Brent Underwood spent his life savings acquiring the abandoned mountain mining town of Cerro Gordo in California.
With 1.69 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, Underwood documents the sometimes ‘terrifying’ but also ‘beautiful’ experience.
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Underwood’s not the only one at it.
A woman spent a night inside a $100 billion ‘Forest City’ ghost town to see what it was actually like.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s huge $19 billion bridge became known as a ‘ghost bridge’.
Underwood decided to make the irregular move in a bid to breathe new life into the ghost town.
At the edge of Death Valley, the desolate town comprises several vacant houses, shacks, and cabins in various conditions.
Once the largest silver mine in California, one murder a week was reported during its busiest period in the 1800s, the blurb from Underwood’s new book reveals.
“I have been living up in this town for the past four years straight, trying to just bring it to life,” Underwood said in a YouTube video announcing his new book.
“I captured a lot of that in videos like this, I showed the good times, the heartbreak, the history I have uncovered, the people I have met, the projects we have done, the adventures I have gone on, and hopefully a little bit about all of that has changed me.”
In one of his videos, set to haunting footage of the ghost town, Underwood explains how the purchase transpired.
He explains that along with a friend named Jon, the pair ‘sunk’ their savings into Cerro Gordo during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019.
From his former base in Austin Texas, Underwood relocated to the desolate town, around three hours from Los Angeles, in order to revive the area.
Although steeped in history, the town was largely forgotten – that was until Underwood made his move and built a following.
“Sometimes it’s beautiful and amazing, sometimes it’s terrifying and the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I grew up in the flatlands of Florida, so this is all new territory for me,” Underwood says.
Underwood has undertaken several projects during his time in the town, including renovating a deck, turning a shack into a writers’ retreat or studio, and updating an eerie bunkhouse, where he says he encountered his one and only ‘ghost story’.
“Admittedly, prior to buying Cerro Gordo, I was a firm non-believer in ghosts,” he says in one of his videos, revealing how in the bunkhouse, he saw a curtain opening and closing and a ‘little face looked out’, while a light was on in the kitchen.
According to Underwood, some contractors had been staying in the house, however, when he spoke to the caretaker the next morning, he found out the contractors left a fortnight prior.
That led Underwood to put a padlock on the bunkhouse front door but when he returned later, the light was back on in the kitchen, although the door was still locked.
“So, ghosts? I don’t know,” he says.
Already a New York Times bestseller, the blurb for his book sheds light on the landmark the town once was, long before this new burst of fame.
