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Endless Thread

Ghost Town

Endless Thread

WBUR

Technology, Reddit

4.12.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the summer of 2018, Brent Underwood got a text in the middle of the night from a friend saying, "Look at this ghost town for sale!" Within a month, Brent had purchased Cerro Gordo, California, an abandoned silver mining town, with the help of friends and investors. He wants to revive the town for visitors while preserving its history. He's already faced some major setbacks -- from the lack of running water, to getting snowed in there during a global pandemic. But he calls Cerro Gordo his "life's work."

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Produced by the ILAB at WBUR Boston.

0:07.0

In many ways, Brent Underwood is like all of us right now.

0:13.0

Just a person, stuck at home, in a pandemic.

0:16.0

Trying to get his home internet to work.

0:19.0

God dammit.

0:22.0

And yet, at the same time, Brent's situation is also pretty unique.

0:28.0

Even his internet situation.

0:30.0

Hello, can you hear me?

0:31.0

Yes.

0:32.0

My internet overheated ghost town problems, I guess.

0:35.0

Yeah.

0:36.0

Said battery overheated on my little router.

0:39.0

So I think the router is meeting its test right now.

0:43.0

Why is his internet router running off of battery?

0:46.0

Good question.

0:47.0

Also, did he say ghost town?

0:50.0

Great question.

0:53.0

Brent Underwood is probably in one of the safest places you could possibly be.

0:57.0

During a pandemic.

0:59.0

He's on a huge piece of land all by himself in California.

1:03.0

There is nobody for miles.

1:06.0

I'm at 8500 feet in elevation, so it stays pretty temperate luckily.

...

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