Qualla: Cerro Gordo Mines

Cerro Gordo Mines: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LCGS Russ, CC BY 3.0. "That's the craziest idea I have ever heard." Robert McCulloch's reaction to buying London Bridge for Arizona was measured compared to what Pablo Flores must have thought in 1865 when he discovered silver ore glinting near the summit of Buena Vista Peak. Flores began primitive mining operations in one of the most hostile environments in California, where summer temperatures soar and winter storms bury the mountain roads for months. The name Cerro Gordo, Spanish for "Fat Hill," proved prophetic. This remote peak in the Inyo Mountains would yield one of the richest silver deposits in the American West, spawn a boomtown of 4,700 residents, and fuel the growth of a small pueblo called Los Angeles.

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: LCGS Russ | CC BY 3.0

Cerro Gordo Mines: Silver in the Sky

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LCGS Russ, CC BY 3.0. The Inyo Mountains rise like a wall east of Owens Valley, and Cerro Gordo sits near their crest at nearly 9,000 feet. Getting the silver out proved almost as difficult as finding it. Early miners used adobe ovens and open trenches, extracting ore through backbreaking labor. Victo...

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: LCGS Russ | CC BY 3.0

Cerro Gordo Mines: Building Los Angeles, One Ingot at a Time

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Lofink from Orange, United States, CC BY 2.0. The connection between this remote ghost town and California's largest city runs deeper than most realize. Smelters along Owens Lake at Swansea and Keeler processed Cerro Gordo ore, producing ingots that traveled by mule train across the Mojave to Los Angeles. Between 1879 and 18...

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: David Lofink from Orange, United States | CC BY 2.0

Cerro Gordo Mines: Three Eras of Extraction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ScottFerreira, CC0. Cerro Gordo's story unfolds in three acts. The silver and lead boom peaked in the early 1880s, when the population swelled and violence became common enough to fill a cemetery on the hillside. Then came decline and near-abandonment. But in the 1910s, Louis D. Gordon discovered zi...

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: ScottFerreira | CC0

Cerro Gordo Mines: Ghost Town Living

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LCGS Russ, CC BY 3.0. The American Hotel stood since 1871, the oldest hotel in California east of the Sierra Nevada, until fire destroyed it on June 15, 2020, along with the neighboring icehouse and a residence. The loss came just two years after Brent Underwood and Jon Bier purchased the entire ghost...

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: LCGS Russ | CC BY 3.0

Cerro Gordo Mines: The Mountain Today

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LCGS Russ, CC BY 3.0. Controversy arrived in 2021 when it emerged that previous owners had sold mining claims in the adjacent Conglomerate Mesa Formation to K2 Gold Corp, raising fears of a cyanide open-pit mining operation near Death Valley. Environmental groups and Native tribes opposed the expansio...

Read more: Cerro Gordo Mines on Qualla

Image: LCGS Russ | CC BY 3.0