New Photos Added: Cerro Gordo in Infrared

New infrared photos have been added to the site from the Cerro Gordo Mine site. Click here or on the image to view the photos.

Cerro Gordo, Spanish for "Fat Hill," was a silver mining city high in the Inyo Mountains of Owens Valley. First discovered by Mexican prospectors in 1865, nothing much happened until a Mexican miner showed some silver ore to some mining people in Virginia City. That was all that was needed. An engineer named Mortimer Belshaw took over a mine that was producing lead which Belshaw needed if smelting was to be done at the site of the silver mine. This he did to save the cost of hauling the ore to Los Angeles for smelting and thence to San Pedro. Operations continued until about 1959 when all machinery was removed and taken to Candelaria, Nevada. Enough remains at Cerro Gordo to warrant a visit including the hotel, livery stable and other original buildings.

Cerro Gordo is located on the east side of the Sierra mountains in the Inyo Range some 9,000 feet high. From this abandoned town, now reached by eight miles of steep and winding dirt road, once flowed as much as $13,000,000 in silver and lead bullion. Deserted today, it stands as the greatest silver and lead producer in California history. From the little village of Keeler on the east shore of Owens dry lake, a dirt road heads up into the Inyo Range and Cerro Gordo.