Robert Louis Desmarais is the only inhabitant of a Californian ghost town, Cerro Gordo, where he has been searching for a lost vein of silver for 22 years.
A 70-year-old former high school teacher, Desmarais used to visit the remote spot in the school holidays to search for ore. But he eventually moved there full-time, to live away from the crowds “up in the mountains, under the stars”.
Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill in Spanish) was once the most fruitful silver mine in California.
Source: ‘I’ve spent 22 years searching for silver in a ghost town’ | BBC