Exploring The Most Dangerous Mine At Cerro Gordo (For The Last Time)

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In this video, I go exploring the most dangerous mine I've been in, and probably the most dangerous mine at Cerro Gordo. This was not just an exploration, we were searching to see if the 200 level opened to the outside, because there were theories that cold air was coming into the main shaft and freezing the water pipes. The mine itself was completely boarded up, so Johnny and I had to dig in from above through tight squeezes to get into the 200 level of the Union Mine. This shaft was deemed too dangerous years after the deadliest mining disaster in Cerro Gordo's history took the lives of between 8 and 35 miners in the 1870s.

“Cerro Gordo’s deadliest mine disaster struck in the early 1870s when a cave-in killed at least eight and as many as 35 Chinese miners. They were mining in limestone below the 200-foot level and failed to shore up the tunnel with timber, former Cerro Gordo mining foreman Fred Fisher told a Times reporter in 1950. Their bodies were never recovered.”

LA Times March 12, 1950

THANK YOU!!

I moved to Cerro Gordo in March 2020 because of the pandemic and to relieve our longtime caretaker so he could be back home. I've been here ever since. There have been ups and downs, but I feel I am learning a lot and becoming a better person.

Follow along on this channel for more from the town. I have no plans to leave and will continue making videos to update the progress on all the projects!

The town was originally established in 1865 and by 1869 they were pulling 340 tons of bullion out of the mountain for Los Angeles.

The silver from Cerro Gordo was responsible for building Los Angeles. The prosperity of Cerro Gordo demanded a larger port city and pushed LA to develop quickly.

The Los Angeles News once wrote:

“What Los Angeles is, is mainly due to it. It is the silver cord that binds our present existence. Should it be uncomfortably severed, we would inevitably collapse.”

In total, there has been over $17,000,000 of minerals pulled from Cerro Gordo. Adjusted for inflation, that number is close to $500,000,000.

It’s been a wild ride so far owning a ‘ghost town’ and we’re having a lot of fun figuring out what to do with it.

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The type of things that might lead you here are interests in ghost towns, abandoned mining towns, abandoned cities, California history, the zombie apocalypse, ghost stories, scary stories, nature, death valley, lone pine CA, mines, exploring, overnight challenges, exploration, urban exploration and yes theory.

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