Why another silver mine on this Gold site? Well, honestly I could not help myself. I stumbled upon Cerro Gordo on a California travel website that had mistakenly classified it as a Gold mine/town. But a quick hop to Wikipedia and you soon learn that Cerro Gordo was producing high grade silver, lead and zinc ore.
A popular destination for Jeep and four wheeler’s Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill) is privately owned and shown only by reservation. The town is classified as a ghost town but is inhabited by the care taker restoring the town. The hotel and other buildings have been restored. The town can be accessed by car via Cerro Gordo Road. The 8 mile long road is maintained and leads you up over 1000′ directly to the town.
USGS topo maps show numerous tunnels in the hills behind the town. Silver mining began hear in 1866 and continued to 1957. In 1959 much of the operation was sold but plenty remains to make it a worthy destination.
We visited in August of 2017. We missed our chance to stay the night as hotel stays were terminated by the owner at the time. We still showed up unannounced but were welcomed by the towns caretaker and given a tour. A few month later we spotted the town for sale on a real estate site and thought it would never sell for the whopping $925,000 but apparently it did sell.
If you know anything about the new owners or their plans please comment below.
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started going there in early 70s. Met Jodie who owned it till she died, believe she inherited it from uncle. Her husband owned it and was a real friendly guy who loved to talk of the history there. He has also passed on and as mentioned above, there is a caretaker who accepts donations. the mine was founded by mexicans who shipped the ore down the mountain in large buckets to Keeler and it was smelted , placed on rear paddle wheel boats and taken across owens lake and from there to los angeles….at one time cerro gordo was larger than LA. there is much more history and one can find books on the area in the museum in Independance, just a short ride north of lone pine. And a small correction for access. one does not need 4wheel drive to get to the town from the owen lake side. a regular pick up or higher clearance vehicle can make it. it is very steep, but it is a maintained county dirt road…..
Did Mike Patterson’s son’s take over ownership of the mines? Or does the State of California own it by default?Michael was a very dear friend of mine for many years. I often think about him and all the history he shared about California with me. We both had much in common in our love for old California as friends. I often wondered if the property would become a site to be enjoyed by history buffs. Does anyone know who owns it?