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Comment by slillibri | Hacker News Reader

There is an entire YouTube channel about someone who bought a ghost town in California (Cerro Gordo) - https://www.youtube.com/@GhostTownLiving. Pretty interesting stuff.

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I stayed in Cerro Gordo before it was sold. There was a caretaker who let us crash in the bunkhouse for a small donation. This was in early spring, with snow on the ground and temps of -15C/5F. We eventually ran out of firewood at 1am, but it was a memorable experience.

A friend went back to CG after the sale and told me that everything there is now off limits. In a video from the YT channel I saw a sign that said 'private property - trespassers will be prosecuted' [0]. It's sad and lame, and I'm getting douchy vibes when I watch the guys videos. But hey, good luck to him.

EDIT: I just watched the hilarious and insightful Maggie Mae Fish video[1] linked by Spellmann. I retract what I said before. The guy is a full on douche and fuck him.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVLrNNJCTS8&t=15s

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIcnCaVsYFI

What you’re saying isn’t true, I was up there a few weeks ago and they were super friendly, and let me explore the whole town on my own, except for the building with the main mine shaft and the ones that were active living quarters for people working there.

I also think the video you linked is nonsense and totally unfair. If you look at the history of CG and how big the town used to be, it would have been losing several buildings a year on average consistently for the last century! Losing only one in the last 3 years is incredible luck, and this frames it as fraud with zero evidence.

Also, the “why didn’t he have fire insurance” is silly. There is no way anyone will insure a dilapidated ghost town with no running water, and only 4x4 trails straight up a mountain for access. It’s hard to even get fire insurance on a regular house in California if you’re on a hill or far from a fire hydrant. He also probably has no mortgage on this place. That’s why he had to get his wealthy friends to loan him money as “investors.” The whole place cost less than a regular 2 bedroom house in the Bay Area.

I watched a few of these a long time ago. Looking at the list of videos, it's funny that nearly half of them are basically, "I've lived here X months now!" I guess not much happens in ghost towns.

I haven't kept up with it recently, but my understanding is this project has been a big loss leader for him. He needs "volunteers" and donations to support the project and he hasn't been able to find a sustainable business model.

He even gets featured in this video as basically always asking for more money. Turns out it's really hard to get construction supplies out to the middle of nowhere and he's progressively selling off more and more of the resources.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIcnCaVsYFI

I came here to post the same video! Very entertaining, but also depressing about how so many things are just a shallow grift these days.

I know this guy. He's kind of a dirtbag. I'm friends with someone who worked at his hostel in Austin; he was in charge of various events and hanging out with the visitors, along with all the other hostel duties. After a few years of working for less than minimum wage (there was lots of unpaid overtime), he was denied a raise. This was in spite of the hostel turning a very healthy profit every year. He wised up and ended up getting a much better paying gig elsewhere.

He could probably get away with this at the hostel (which is in a popular city), but hiring people for minimum wage in the middle of nowhere is a different story.

Fellow YouTuber HeavyDSparks has a ton of videos detailing the logistics of that as well: https://youtu.be/A8AnEtbd2YA

Some of those were a bit devalued when I saw how easily they got a box truck up the road hehehe

Living next to "the largest human-caused source of dangerous PM10 emissions" in the US with who knows how much heavy metals in the air. Good luck

At the beginning of the pandemic I obsessed over large land listings on Redfin/Zillow. I thought I’d finally found the bargain when I saw something near a Clearlake here in CA. It was something like 80 acres for less than $400k…

Well it turns out Clearlake was heavily contaminated with mercury when there was an active mine right on the lake…

Buyer beware!

Ya the mercury contributes to the cheapness but it's also a very mountainous region with no nearby industry, tourism, or university. Both of those cheapen it to a point where you get more crime and worse education, all leading to the price you see today.

Many mountain towns have insane valuations and are not near a university, and many have high radon levels. I think it really comes down to it isn't valuable because no one else thinks it is.

That's why I said it doesn't have tourism. Clearlake area is lower elevation mountains that get no snow for winter tourism like skiing. That makes it a very different atmosphere than Lake Tahoe for good reason. One drive around each lake will very much tell you it's not about "no one else thinks it is." But there is truth in small starting differences being catalysts for positive feedback loop. What starts out a small difference can lead to wealthier people inhabiting the area, becomes even nicer, becomes even wealthier, and vice versa.

Heavy metal poisoning is only going to drive up the crime too.

And 80 acres for $400k doesn’t even sound cheap

But yeah lots of gotchas when buying land. Floods, fires etc.

This is highly worth a watch if you're interested or ever thought about it, because he's also the definition of Murphy's law, heheheh.

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