The Historic Town of Cerro Gordo Needs Our Help!

Back in 2018, a former silver mining ghost town called Cerro Gordo in California sold for $1.4 million. The town was bought by Brent Underwood, a former banker turned hostel manager, his partner and a series of investors.

Cerro Gordo is located in the beautiful Inyo Mountains in the Owens Valley, on the edge of Death Valley National Park. Mining operations began at Cerro Gordo in 1865, when a man named Pablo Flores began mining near Buena Vista Peak, and by 1867, the town began to grow. Mining operations continued on and off until around the 1950s, when the town was pretty much abandoned.

In 2018, Cerro Gordo was put up for sale by its owners, who inherited the town from their parents, a couple had cared for and preserved the town for a number of years.

Brent and his business partners purchased the town with the vision to restore and re-build it as authentic as possible and then open it up to the public, in the form of an Airbnb like operation.

Over the past three years, Brent has slowly being restoring, preserving, exploring and renovating the town. This has not gone without problems, though. A tragic event came in 2020, when the American Hotel burnt down due to faulty wiring. This did not stop Brent though, he rallied friends and volunteers to clear the debris and is currently re-building the hotel from the original plans, just as it was. If you would like to make a donation towards the re-building of the hotel, you can do so here.

Just over one year later, Brent and Cerro Gordo faced another devastating blow. Whilst Brent and his investors own the town, when they purchased it from the previous owners, the town did not come with the surrounding mining claims. However, the sellers ensured Brent that these claims would eventually be passed to him.

These claims were purchased in the first place, by the previous owners to protect the town, so that no private company could come in and mine the land. Now, here is the part that does not make much sense. Back in 2018, the New York Times published a story about the sale, stating that the owners wanted to sell to someone that wanted to preserve the town's long history, and whilst Brent was not the highest bidder, his vision for the town was why they sold the town to him.

Fast forwards to 2021, and the sellers gave back word, not happy with just the $1.4 million that Brent paid for the town, the surrounding mining claims were put up for auction, where they were purchased by K2 Gold.

K2 Gold (also known as Mojave Precious Metals), an international mining company that operates out of Canada. The company intend to carry out open pit cyanide mining. This will involve cyanide, which is highly toxic, being poured onto the land where it attaches to gold and can then be syphoned off when it will be sold. All to make already wealthy men even wealthier.

As well as the historic importance of Cerro Gordo, the area is a conservation area, it is an area of outstanding natural beauty, which is meant to be protected. Thousands of acres of natural wilderness would be dug up, including habitats for wildlife, and the formation of the landscape would be dramatically changed. Not only that, but this land is the ancestral home of the Paiute, Timbisha and Shoshone.

When the CEO of K2 Gold, Steve Swatton, heard that Brent was going to publish a video to his YouTube channel, that has over 1.2 million subscribers, he offered Brent a ‘donation’. Obviously, this was declined.

So how can this be allowed on public lands and in a conservation area? Because of the Mining Act of 1872. This law was put in to place to help westward settlement and families stake mining claims. Back when this act was made, mining was completely different, there were no diggers and excavators, people mines with pickaxes by hand. However, things have since changed.

The act, despite being made 150 years ago, allows people and private companies to stake claims on public lands and mine minerals, if they can prove that minerals exist in the area. The public gets no return on revenue, despite the lands being public, paid for by the taxpayer.

One of the mines that would be demolished would be the Morning Star Mine, a mine that plays a very important part of the identity of Cerro Gordo and the town's history. Not only the Morning Star mine, but hundreds of other historic mines, structures and artefacts relating to the history of Cerro Gordo would all be gone.

This is devastating not just to Brent, but to the hundreds of volunteers, thousands of donors, locals, indigenous peoples and descendants of the minors, who toiled and died working down the mines at Cerro Gordo. If you would like to help stop K2 Gold from mining in the area, below are ways in which you can help.

How to Help (taken from Brent’s video):

More Information is available by clicking here.

1) Leave a comment with the Bureau of Land Management before August 30th by emailing here: [email protected]. Or use this form (click the green ‘Participate Now’ button to leave a comment).

2) Contact K2 Gold: Stephen Swatton, CEO: [email protected]. K2 Investor Relations: US: (760) 614–5605 . Canada: 604–653–9464.

3) Share the video and spread the word.

COMMENTS TO THE BLM MUST BE SUBMITTED BY AUGUST 30, 2021