Cerro Gordo 1

"Fat Hill"

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Bob Likes

Pictures and text excerpts are all from
"From this Mountain - Cerro Gordo"
by Robert C. Likes and Glenn R. Day (1975)
unless otherwise indicated.

A Voice From the Border
(A San Francisco Daily Examiner article - August 8th, 1871)
Article by DEMOCRAT

Mike & Jody owned and operated the American Hotel in Cerro Gordo as a bed and breakfast for quite a few years. Shawn, Jody, and Mike Patterson Mike Patterson - 1947 - 2009 Jodi Stewart - 1944 -2001	05/23 (Photo courtesy of Ben Jones)
L/R: Mike Patterson, Jody Stewart - Former owners and operators of The American Hotel in Cerro Gordo (Photo courtesy of "Friends of Cerro Gordo")

California Ghost Town with Blood Past Suffers New Calamity
Article by Louis Sahagun

California Ghost Town Sells for $1.4M;
Buyers Plan to Develop it as a Tourist Attraction
Article by Jack Flemming

Man Trapped for Six Months in Abandoned US Ghost Town
Article by 9News Staff

American Hotel bar. (Photo courtesy of Jay Coberly)	Inside of the American Hotel. (Photo courtesy of Jay Coberly)
Inside of the American Hotel. (Photo courtesy of Jay Coberly)	Painting over the bar in the American Hotel made by Sylvia Winslow featuring her daughter Susan. Sylvia originally painted her daughter in the nude and subsequently added the dress. Born in Ireland on June 8, 1910. Sylvia moved to southern California in 1928 and settled on a 640-acre ranch with her cowboy-husband, Slim Winslow. A self-taught artist, her forte was landscapes of the Mojave desert. After Slim's death in 1973 she ceased painting. In 1990 she wed Phillip Kirby and lived in Kern County until her demise on Feb. 15, 1996. Member: Artists of the Southwest. Exh: Gardena High School, 1945; Desert Magazine Bldg (Palm Desert), 1949; Chamber of Commerce (Santa Paula), 1953. (Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea) "Artist of the Mojave - Sylvia Winslow" by Harold O. Weight
Inside of the American Hotel. (Photo courtesy of Jay Coberly)
American Hotel. (Photo courtesy of Jay Coberly)

Portraits of the Men Who Made Cerro Gordo
The Mining Baron	The Mining Baron	The Freighting Baron
Mortimer Belshaw He transformed Cerro Gordo from an obscure Mexican mining camp into a roaring silver city.	Thomas Boland He kept Cerro Gordo alive through the "hard times" of the early 1900's up to the great depression.	Remi Nadeau He perfected his freighting system between Cerro Gordo and Los Angeles, and by 1874, his 16-20 mule teams were transporting 18 tons of bullion across the desert every day.

Mortimer Belshaw Biography
(Courtesy of "Friends of Cerro Gordo")

Early Cerro Gordo History

Situated near the summit of Buena Vista Peak at an elevation of 8,500 feet, the isolated mining outpost became known as Cerro Gordo, meaning "fat hill", the meaning, of course, that it was fat with silver. The principal mines at this time were the San Lucas, San Ygnacio, San Francisco, and San Felipe. Within four years, the number of mining claims would increase to more than seven hundred.

The Mexicans processed their ore in crude adobe and stone ovens called "vasos". These primitive furnaces directed the heat from the open-hearth across the ore and reflected it downward from the low roof, rather than heating from directly below. The ore was thus "roasted" until the silver was extracted.

Cerro Gordo's ore was of such high quality, that, even the Mexican vasos extracted a larger amount of silver than might have been expected. Although their success attracted a few Americans, little effort was directed toward underground development of the deposits. The miners on this mountain had no capital except their own labor with which to develop the mines. Other obstacles also restricted Cerro Gordo's growth, these being mainly the ruggedness of terrain, scarcity of water on the mountain top, and the location remote from any settlement with a large population.

Unlike most boom towns of its day, Cerro Gordo did not come into being overnight. To the contrary, the mining camp high in the Inyo's seemed almost reluctant to become California's greatest silver producer. The first real effort to develop any of the claims was made on the San Lucas mine in 1866 by Jose Ochoa, who was extracting about 1112 tons of ore every 12 hours. The silver ore was transported in sacks by pack animals to the Silver Sprout Mill a few miles west of Fort Independence. It was probably these shipments of silver ore, yielding $300 a ton, that first attracted the attention of Victor Beau dry, a successful merchant at Fort Independence.

"From this Mountain - Cerro Gordo" by Robert C. Likes and Glenn R. Day

"Into Southern Inyo County"
by Russ Leadabrand

The Timber Baron	The Town Baron	The Legal Baron
Colonel Sherman Stevens He founded the Inyo Lumber & Coal Company and fueled the furnaces of Cerro Gordo with charcoal produced from his sawmill at Cottonwood Canyon in the Sierra Nevada.	Julius Keeler Was the architect of the town of Keeler and reactivated the Union Consolidated Mines and Col. Stevens' lumber operation	John Hannah Inyo County's first judge, brought law and order to the lawless streets of Cerro Gordo where a murder a day was not uncommon.

The Bonanza Era

The Owens Valley trade brought instant prosperity to Los Angeles and, by the end of 1869, 340 tons of bullion had passed through the city. Cerro Gordo's silver ingots became a common sight in the city, and were proudly displayed at most hotels and banks, as well as many business establishments along Main and Spring Streets. Any citizen could describe, in detail, the affairs of the mines at Cerro Gordo. Many jackass prospectors found "easy pickins" for a grub stake with rumors of rich strikes and new bonanzas circulating from every street corner.

Local farmers and businessmen found an ever increasing market for their surplus produce in Nadeau's Cerro Gordo bound wagons. Sacks of flour, sugar, potatoes, and nuts, barrels of wine, crates of fruit, bales of hay-every staple item from picks and shovels to crated live chickens rolled north. The county's entire surplus barley crop was consumed by the mules of Remi Nadeau and other freighters. Within a year, Los Angeles' business life was dominated by the mines of Cerro Gordo.

With two daily stages from Owens Valley serving the camp, Cerro Gordo was well established as a mining town by 1871. The main street was being lined with buildings as fast as the lumber could be obtained. The two-story American Hotel was completed that year, as were several other permanent structures. High false fronted general stores, restaurants, and saloons soon replaced the canvas shacks scattered throughout town. just over the divide, at the head of San Lucas Canyon, small clusters of stone and canvas dwellings were strung down the canyon floor. The predominant structure was the large shafthouse covering the 300 foot vertical shaft of the Newtown mine. Either side of the canyon was covered with prospect holes and miners' shanties.

Cerro Gordo was also classified as a "wide-open town" with only a semblance of law and order. Although the law was available, it was not respected by most of the town's inhabitants. This lawless element found Cerro Gordo's remote desert location a comparative safe refuge, and was responsible for the bloody record of shootings compiled during the bonanza days.

The combination of whiskey and women made the dance halls, and the red-light houses of Lola Travis and Maggie Moore, the principal scenes of gunplay. Dr. Hugh McClelland, physician at Cerro Gordo, reflected upon one such incident the night he accompanied a young man wishing to visit one of the dance halls. A hot-tempered Mexican girl overheard McClelland explaining to his younger companion the reason for her odd nick-name, and came at the good doctor with a stiletto in her hand. An Irish girl caught her by the wrist and disarmed the screaming Mexican, but not before a Mexican man was shot dead by George Snow when he tried to plunge a knife into McClelland on behalf of his girlfriend. This ended in a general shooting until the lights were extinguished.

In another editorial, P. A. Chalfant described Cerro Gordo as being a shooting gallery, stating that "pistols continue to crack and good men go down before them." He went on to suggest that perhaps a little judicious hanging and a strong jail might be needed at Cerro Gordo to restrain its inhabitants from reaching too quickly for the weapons at their side. Despite Chalfant's efforts, the six-shooter and knife continued to be the authorities called upon when justice was to be administered.

"From this Mountain - Cerro Gordo" by Robert C. Likes and Glenn R. Day

"Sherman Stevens' Timber Empire"
by Oscar Lewis

11/23

1918 Flu Notice 1

1918 Flu Notice 2

1868 Mine Notices

Mine Matters

Abandoned Carson & Colorado rails on the eastern side of Owens Valley (Russ Leadabrand photo)	Carson & Colorado RR - Slim Princess engine. (Russ Leadabrand photo)
Water tank on the Carson & Colorado rail line (Russ Leadabrand photo)	Col. Stevens charcoal kilns located on the shores of Owens Lake (Russ Leadabrand photo)
Russ Leadabrand - explorer and author of numerous travel guides.	Cerro Gordo smelter ruins located at the town of Keeler. (Russ Leadabrand photo)

Cerro Gordo Photos Courtesy of Rich McCutchan

Cerro Gordo - circa 1915
Cerro Gordo	11/21 The Owens Lake Silver and Lead Company's reverberatory furnace at Cerro Gordo. The shale lined flue was built for convenience up the 30 degree slope of the hillside for 165' where it terminated in a 3' high chimney. The furnace design became obsolete and never was used. It stands as a monument to primitive methods of processing ore. [Text from Bob Likes book: Looking Back at Cerro Gordo
Cerro Gordo	The 4-Metal Pack Train at the News Bay Mine three miles from Cerro Gordo after delivering a load of ore.

Cerro Gordo Mining District

Cerro Gordo - 1869-1879

01/21
Cerro Gordo Mining in the 1900s
by Friends of Cerro Gordo

01/21
The First White Bride of Cerro Gordo
by Friends of Cerro Gordo

01/21
Growing Up on the Old "Fat Hill"
Friends of Cerro Gordo

01/21
Hauling It In & auling It Out: Anecdotes of the Old Time Packers
by Friends of Cerro Gordo

A Rendering of the young Lola Travis (Photo courtesy of Eastern California Museum)	Cerro Gordo's infamous Lola Travis was well known for her shrewd business sense, and her Dance Hall and Palace of Pleasure where the lonely miner's needs were taken care of. She made the headlines often and was noted as a beautiful woman, who wore the finest fashions of the day. There were no pictures of her, until Robin Flinchum started digging into her history. Robin found living relatives who had this picture of Lola as an elderly woman leading a respectable life in Bakersfield. This is the only known picture of her. She owned the "Palace of Pleasure" on the top of the hill and her competitor, Maggie Moore, owned the "Waterfall" at the bottom of town. Both women's establishbents were often the subject of the headlines of the day as is in evidence in this piece (below) by Remi Nadeau:	Lola Travis (Photo courtesy of Eastern California Museum)
Altogether, Cerro Gordo produced $2,000,000 for the bullion kings in 1874 alone. Though his opponents apparently held the high cards in the grim game they were playing, Belshaw was in fact reaching into the earth and making off with the stakes. Always sociable and hearty in spite of his callous business methods, Belshaw now found himself entertaining more often at his hillside house, making more frequent trips "below" to see his wife in San Francisco. In spite of the San Felipe lawsuit still hanging over their heads, lie and Beaudry felt confident enough to join the Los Angeles city-makers in projecting a railroad across the desert to haul Cerro Gordo's expanding output. As for the camp itself, the surge of production was bringing new buildings to her streets, new population to her hillsides. The Union Hotel was erected to compete with the two-story American House which John Simpson had erected in 1871, and the thousand persons who had previously remained on Buena Vista's slopes only during winter snows now found full employment the year round. But matching the heavier flow of silver down the Yellow Grade was a new stream of gold coins across Cerro Gordo's counters, a fact which inevitably brought a return of the lawless element. Shootings became so frequent that scarcely a month passed without another affray. Though the situation held little interest for Belshaw and Beaudry, their enterprise had in fact spawned a wild town which lived by the revolver. As the Inyo Independent commented, "A good calaboose or a little judicious hanging is much needed upon Cerro Gordo hill." One of the bloodiest outbursts occurred one night early in February 1873, when two Americans were desperately wounded in Maggie Moore's dance hall at the lower end of town. A few minutes later shots ran- out from the camp's upper end, and a Mexican was carried out of Lola Travis's house with a ball in his stomach. Guns barked again the next night, and two antagonists fell wounded in air exchange of shots. "Cerro Gordo is a prolific source of the 'mail for breakfast' order of items," observed the Independent. When the grand jury convened in March, County judge John A. Hannah, dean of the Inyo bench, reviewed the unpunished reign of crime in Cerro Gordo. He launched a bitter tirade against "these lawless ruffians who with murder in their hearts and the implements of death strapped upon their persons, congregate in public places, ever ready to discharge their death-dealing weapons upon the unoffending and unarmed citizens." Following this outburst a trucelike quiet settled over the front for a few months. But by mid-October the Independent was again laconically remarking: "Our local shooting item for the current week reaches us from Cerro Gordo," and then detailing another fatal affray. On November 6. at Maggie Moore's house, two men fell dead before another burst of gunfire. "This makes five men shot, four killed outright, in this county in as many weeks," observed the newspaper. When word came of another affray in Cerro Gordo in the middle of the month, editor P. A. Chalfant had to change the score to seven men in seven weeks. "Pistols continue to crack and good men go down before them," moaned.

Before setting up her house of ill repute in Cerro Gordo, Lola Travis had settled in Lone Pine with her three children and her brother. She bought property on the corner of Water and Main Street and built a saloon. This was in 1868. She kept half of the property for two years, then sold the other half to a French merchant named Charles Meysan. Meysan was a respectable family man whom she had met in the gold camp of Coumbia. He served as county and school supervisor. His general store stood next to Lola's saloon, and the two maintained a good business relationship dring Lola's time in Lone Pine. In the early 1880's , Lola sold the saloon, which operated as richards Saloon for several years before it was eventually torn down. Lola's saloon is long gone and a craft store. The Meysan store is occupied by La Florista's flower shop. This photograph shows the Meysan store at the right, and Lola's former saloon at the left ...taken in 1866. Dick Richards operated the saloon after Lola sold it, and stands in front of it. Charles Meysan is at the far right on the porch of his general store.
(Photo & text courtesy of "Friends of Cerro Gordo")

Incidents of Frontier Life - The Fenian of Cerro Gordo
by Samuel D. Woods

Cerro Gordo when there was an Owens Lake.
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

Cerro Gordo when there was an Owens Lake.
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

Silver ingots stacked up on the shores of Owens Lake waiting transport to Los Angeles.
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

One days run athe the Cerro Gordo F. M. Smelter.
(Photo courtesy of Inyo County Sesquencentennial)

Hauling wood at Cerro Gordo
(Photo courtesy of Inyo County Sesquencentennial)

01/21

L/R: ?, ?, W.A. "Bill" Chalfant
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

01/21

Louis D. Gordon pushes one of the Leschen tramway ore buckets.
(Photo courtesy of Richard Vargo)

Louis D. Gordon pushes one of the Leschen tramway ore buckets.
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

06/21

Cerro Gordo ore tram in operation
(Photo courtesy of Huntington Library)

06/21

Cerro Gordo ore tram in operation
(Photo courtesy of Huntington Library)

06/21

Riding the Cerro Gordo ore tram
(Photo courtesy of Huntington Library)

06/21

Cerro Gordo ore tram in operation
(Photo courtesy of Huntington Library)

11/23

Miner in the mine hoist
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

11/23

Ore car suspended on the Leschen tramway
(Photo courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

03/21
Will Change Smelter Base
(From the November 5, 1906 edition of the Tonopah Daily Bonanza)

Barbara Smith Painting of Cerro Gordo
(Photo and text courtesy of Friends of Cerro Gordo)

In 1948, a woman named Barbara got into her new Chevrolet, still heated from a fight with her assistant director husband. Barbara was a script girl for RKO movie studios but had roots in Owens Valley. She found herself headed from the Lone Pine area over to Lee Flat just over the saddle from the faded ghost of Cerro Gordo, on the Death Valley side of the Inyo Mountains.

It was a very dark and very remote, and she wasn't sure where she was. She waited until morning and found a ramshackle cow camp. Rough and tumble Wally Wilson opened the door when she knocked, and they fell in love immediately. Barbara divorced her Hollywood husband and moved to the cow camp with Wally. In 1949 he was approached by the last owners of the mining camp of Cerro Gordo. Wally and Barbara found themselves caretaker, then owners, when W.C. Riggs had to declare bankruptcy and ownership was granted for $10,500 in back wages.

Wally eventually died and Barbara went down to Lone Pine and met Fred Coman. She and Fred lived on the mountain for eight years, until he passed. On another trek to Lone Pine following Coman's death, she met Jack Smith. Jack Smith was Jody Stewart's uncle. Jody came up in 1973 and helped them through the financial difficulties of keeping up Cerro Gordo. She helped them through a few more times over the years until she eventually obtained full ownership of the ghost town in 1984.

Thanks to living relatives of Jody Stewart and Jack Smith, we have this wonderful painting of Barbara's.

Cerro Gordo Photos Courtesy of Rich McCutchan

Cerro Gordo

View west from the tram house at Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo - Tram terminus on the left

Cerro Gordo

Cerro Gordo - Tram terminus on the right

Estelle Mine at Cerro Gordo - circa 1920

View from Cerro Gordo towards the Yellow Grade Road and Owens Lake

09/21

General view of the property of the Estelle Mines Corporation Cerro Gordo mining district. Showing portion of the main tunnel camp, aerial tramway, Morning Star Gold Mine and outcrop of the San Felipe vein on the crest of the mountain. circa 1900
(Photo courtesy of USC Digital Library)

09/21

Looking between the tram towers

03/22

Cerro Gordo tram
(Photo courtesy of Pam Milligan Vaughn)

03/22

Cerro Gordo tram terminus on the SPNG in Keeler
(Photo courtesy of Pam Milligan Vaughn)

01/21

Photograph taken after a snow, with the Gordon House completed in the middle - circa after 1916
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

Tram terminal and its associated buildings.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

A barrel carrier glides along the wire rope tramway at Cerro Gordo.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

Wooden tram towers and steel cables appar to march in a single-file line downhill towards the old Four Metals smelter and beyond to Keeler. The total length of the tram was 5.5 miles. The Leschen tram was built at an estimated cost of $225,000 and the new tram was serviced by 1916.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

Three railcars full of ore await shipment on the Southern Pacific narrow gauge rail line out of Keeler. The tram was powered by electiricity and gravity. The zinc ore was shipped to Kansas for processing.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

The "hoist house" after its 1916 expansion. The original hoist and compressor equipment were steam powered. The operation was converted to electric power after 1916. The boiler was retained for standby purposes.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

L/R: Louis D. Gordon, ?, ?.
Underground in the Union Mine at the 900-foot level around 1915.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

Cerro Gord in the early 1870s. View is from the Union Mine. To the right is the the chimney of Victor Beaudry's smelter with a plume of smoke. The smelters ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The gray skies created from the smoke earned Cerro Gordo the nickname "Old Smokey."
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

Cerro Gordo circa 1870s. Saloons, dancehalls, hotels, and various businesses were there for the needs of miners. There were few women and children and never a school or a church. A circuit rider and teacher were available for preaching and teaching to those in need of such things.
(Photo and text courtesy of Roger Vargo)

	One Packer's High Sierra Experience
	Brochures of the Eastern High Sierra
	More, Cerro Gordo
	Early Big Pine
	Early Bishop Pioneers
	Mary Austin
	Carson and Colorado Railroad

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This page was last updated on 23 April 2024