I bought a California ghost town for $1.4 million. Living here gets lonely — but I've found my purpose.

In 2018, my friend sent me a listing for Cerro Gordo, an abandoned mining town in California. "This might be your next project," he joked.

The idea of a remote town in the American West was very alluring to me.

It reminded me of the old TV westerns my grandfather watched every day.

I was running a pretty popular bed and breakfast in Austin, but it felt like I was just searching for something to shake me up from the routine monotony.

Buying this ghost town has done that. It cost $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.

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.

(In the late 1800s, Cerro Gordo was a prosperous mining town. Brent Underwood)

It can be very lonely and isolating living in the middle of nowhere.

As I've become more comfortable with the town, either the ghosts have become more comfortable with me, or I've become more comfortable with the sounds I thought were ghosts.

But I did once see a shadowy figure in one of the bunkhouse windows and I've since avoided that building.

It takes perseverance to stay here though.

Since I arrived, Cerro Gordo has been hit with storms, fire, a flood, an earthquake, and a blizzard.

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.

I'm working to preserve the history of this town.

(Brent is restoring a hotel in the town so that visitors can stay overnight. Brent Underwood)

Life here is slow compared to living in a city. Your days don't just evaporate into 100 small tasks like running to get gas.

But there are a dozen meaningful projects going on at any one time, so in some ways, I'm busier.

I fund my life through my day job at a company called Brass Check.

Then there's the full-time job of trying to rebuild an abandoned town and creating content about that for my YouTube.

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.

Ref: I bought a California ghost town for $1.4 million. Living here gets lonely — but I've found my purpose (businessinsider)

Photo Credit: Brent Underwood