Cerro Gordo - California Ghost Town

CERRO GORDO

NAME: Cerro Gordo
COUNTY: Inyo
ROADS: 2WD
GRID #(see map): 3
CLIMATE: Mild winter, hot summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Cerro Gordo is at an elevation of 9,000 and it snows deep up there. - David A. Wright

COMMENTS: Near Keeler. Great article on Cerro Gordo. Another great article on Cerro Gordo.

Cerro Gordo Road is a maintained gravel/dirt road, just short of 8 miles long and fairly steep in places. You gain a mile in elevation from bottom to top. 4WD is not required, but recommended. The website says Cerro Gordo is closed, but I drove up there with my dad and met the caretaker at the town; he has a rough outer appearance but was friendly and kind enough to show us through 5 buildings and give us the history of the town and mine. He is in the process of restoring the town. Josh Britten
REMAINS: Many intact structures.

A Spanish name, to be sure. First discovered by Mexican prospectors in 1865, nothing much happened until a Mexican miner showed some silver ore to some mining people in Virginia City. That was all that was needed. An engineer named Mortimer Belshaw took over a mine that was producing lead which Belshaw needed if smelting was to be done at the site of the silver mine. This he did to save the cost of hauling the ore to Los Angeles for smelting and thence to San Pedro. Operations continued until about 1959 when all machinery was removed and taken to Candelaria, Nevada. Enough remains at Cerro Gordo to warrant a visit including the hotel, livery stable and other original buildings. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth. The old mining of Cerro Gordo looks down on Owens Valley on the east side of the Sierra mountains from its site in the Inyo Range some 9,000 feet high. From this abandoned town, now reached by eight miles of steep and winding dirt road, once flowed as much as $13,000,000 in silver and lead bullion. Deserted today, it stands as the greatest silver and lead producer in California history. From the little village of Keeler on the east shore of Owens dry lake, a dirt road heads up into the Inyo Range and Cerro Gordo. Cerro Gordo Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography Cerro Gordo Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Hotel - 1871 Courtesy Dolores Steele Inside Hotel Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Bunkhouse Courtesy Dolores Steele Mine Courtesy Dolores Steele Courtesy David A. Wright View down the main street of Cerro Gordo. American Hotel dominates the scene. July 1996. Courtesy David A. Wright Below the Union Mine. July 1996. Courtesy David A. Wright Hoisting equipment inside the Union Mine. July 1996. Courtesy David A. Wright	Cerro Gordo Courtesy Cat Evans Cerro Gordo Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography Cerro Gordo Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography Cerro Gordo Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo General Store Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Courtesy Dolores Steele Was a Saloon -- 156 bullets in floor Courtesy Dolores Steele Cerro Gordo Mine Co. Courtesy Dolores Steele Inside mine office Courtesy Dolores Steele These charcoal kilns were built in 1876 to turn wood to charcoal for the smelters in camps such as Cerro Gordo, Darwin and other desert camps. Charcoal was freighted across Owens Lake by one of two small freighter ships, the Bessie Brady and the Mollie Stevens, both of which were around 80' long and powered by steam. Owens Lake is now dry, it being so since 1927 due to the incoming streams being diverted by Los Angeles and their aqueduct. These kilns were part of a lumbering complex consisting of a sawmill up in the headwaters of Cottonwood Creek in the Sierra Nevada Range, a flume running down Cottonwood Creek to the kilns, and a wharf on Owens Lake. The charcoal kilns at Wildrose Canyon near Death Valley were patterened after these kilns. Courtesy David A. Wright Courtesy David A. Wright Union Mine. July 1996. Courtesy David A. Wright

A Spanish name, to be sure. First discovered by Mexican prospectors in 1865, nothing much happened until a Mexican miner showed some silver ore to some mining people in Virginia City. That was all that was needed. An engineer named Mortimer Belshaw took over a mine that was producing lead which Belshaw needed if smelting was to be done at the site of the silver mine. This he did to save the cost of hauling the ore to Los Angeles for smelting and thence to San Pedro. Operations continued until about 1959 when all machinery was removed and taken to Candelaria, Nevada. Enough remains at Cerro Gordo to warrant a visit including the hotel, livery stable and other original buildings. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

The old mining of Cerro Gordo looks down on Owens Valley on the east side of the Sierra mountains from its site in the Inyo Range some 9,000 feet high. From this abandoned town, now reached by eight miles of steep and winding dirt road, once flowed as much as $13,000,000 in silver and lead bullion. Deserted today, it stands as the greatest silver and lead producer in California history. From the little village of Keeler on the east shore of Owens dry lake, a dirt road heads up into the Inyo Range and Cerro Gordo.

Cerro Gordo
Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography

Cerro Gordo
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Cerro Gordo Hotel - 1871
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Inside Hotel
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Cerro Gordo
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Bunkhouse
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Mine
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Courtesy David A. Wright

View down the main street of Cerro Gordo. American Hotel dominates the scene. July 1996.
Courtesy David A. Wright

Below the Union Mine. July 1996.
Courtesy David A. Wright

Hoisting equipment inside the Union Mine. July 1996.
Courtesy David A. Wright

Cerro Gordo
Courtesy Cat Evans

Cerro Gordo
Copyright: The Aurora Gallery/Wes Shrader Photography

Cerro Gordo
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Cerro Gordo General Store
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Cerro Gordo
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Was a Saloon -- 156 bullets in floor
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Cerro Gordo Mine Co.
Courtesy Dolores Steele

Inside mine office
Courtesy Dolores Steele

These charcoal kilns were built in 1876 to turn wood to charcoal for the
smelters in camps such as Cerro Gordo, Darwin and other desert camps.
Charcoal was freighted across Owens Lake by one of two small freighter
ships, the Bessie Brady and the Mollie Stevens, both of which were around
80' long and powered by steam. Owens Lake is now dry, it being so since
1927 due to the incoming streams being diverted by Los Angeles and their
aqueduct. These kilns were part of a lumbering complex consisting of a
sawmill up in the headwaters of Cottonwood Creek in the Sierra Nevada
Range, a flume running down Cottonwood Creek to the kilns, and a wharf on
Owens Lake. The charcoal kilns at Wildrose Canyon near Death Valley were
patterened after these kilns.
Courtesy David A. Wright

Courtesy David A. Wright

Union Mine. July 1996.
Courtesy David A. Wright

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