Yesterday, Brent Underwood’s friends probably went to lunch together in Austin. However, Underwood chose a different life path. He is sitting 900 feet under a ghost town miles from them.
Why did he choose this path of isolation in a ghost town? The answer is simple for this 30-year-old. He claims he has found his purpose in life. Underwood was a regular man who was living in Austin some time ago.
He was running a pretty popular bed and breakfast in Austin. However, he felt like he had a routine monotony. Therefore, he was searching for something to shake up his life and give it meaning.
On a fateful day in 2018, a friend sent him a listing for Cerro Gordo, an abandoned ghost town in California. It was a mining town that had a lot of potential. “This might be your next project,” his friend joked.
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However, Underwood took this seriously. He researched with his friends and decided to buy the ghost town. It cost him $1.4 million. “More than half was a loan from a hard money lender. The rest was mostly split between my friend and me, but a few other friends also chipped in,” he said.
Ever since, Underwood has been living in the middle of nowhere, alone. This has raised several questions from people. How is he surviving in a ghost town? What is he really doing there? How is he able to keep funding this project?
“On the surface, you understand it’s going to be difficult when a place doesn’t have running water and is at the end of an eight-mile dirt road an hour from the nearest store,” he said.
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“But I don’t think you truly appreciate the logistical challenges until you’re actually in it — until all your pipes freeze, or you’re trudging through snow up to your waist to get to the outhouse.”
He is living in the 900ft bunker with nothing but shadows as his company. However, Underwood loves it just like this. It has given him a sense of purpose in life, and he couldn’t be happier.
“Since I arrived, Cerro Gordo has been hit with storms, fire, a flood, an earthquake, and a blizzard,” he said. “It would be very easy to just throw in the towel and say, ‘This is too much. I got my taste of it.’ I’ve had to develop a lot of skills — both practical and mental — to make it easier to exist every day.”
Underwood funds his life through his day job at Brass Check. He works remotely for them, so he has the luxury of staying in the town. “We have a platform called the Daily Stoic and make podcasts and newsletters,” he said.
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He also has a “full-time job” of trying to rebuild the abandoned town and creating content on his YouTube. However, he hopes to get the current ghost town running to get some money from there soon.
“I’ve never made any money from the town. But I’m hoping one day soon to reopen the hotel and, eventually, a campsite and cabins for visitors to stay in overnight. We’ll always welcome visitors for free to see the town,” he said.
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