Ghost Towns: Bodie, California

Ten years after the California Gold Rush of 1849 W.S. Body and E.S. Taylor spent three days exploring the streams northeast of Monoville and came back with ore samples of outstanding quality. Neither man would live to reap the benefits of the discovery. Body died under unknown circumstance while traveling through a blizzard between camp and Monoville that very winter. Taylor was killed by Native Americans two years later.

Although word spread quickly about the gold find, Bodie never really became a boomtown until 1876. Maybe because of the more famous nearby gold towns of Aurora and Virginia City miners in Bodie kept selling themselves short, closing down their mines and selling the claims before the gold petered out. Then, in 1875, a cave-in at a mine known as the Bullion Lode revealed a large shelf of gold previously undiscovered. Within 6 months Bodie was on it's way to becoming the third largest city in California.
Bodie was a harsh place to live and work. At an elevation of over 8,300 feet in the high desert it is well above treeline and has temperatures that fall below freezing 300 days of the year. Add to that monster snowstorms that piled the snow up to a record depth of 28 feet in 1911 and you've got a less than ideal townsite. Pneumonia was the number one killer, and incredible amounts of wood had to be shipped in by wagon not only heat during the long winters but also building materials in the summer.

But that didn't stop people from coming. During it's heyday Bodie had reached a population of 10,000. There were 65 saloons among the 450 businesses in town. It had it's own Chinatown, Red Light district, and even 4 opium dens. It was a great place to raise children.

 Walls were thin and rooms were small, being heated with wood stoves.

Although the population plummeted by the beginning of the 20th century, the town lived on into the age of the automobile. There are a couple of old car husks by a few houses, and there is an old gas station. In 1962 the town was purchased by California and made into a state park. What buildings were left have been preserved in a state of decay. I love this idea, because it preserves the mystique and character of a ghost town while at the same time keeping out looters, and making sure the buildings don't succumb to the elements. I've been to many ghost towns where nothing is left at all.

One of Bodies 65 Saloons.

A solid wood globe decays in the classroom. Bodie had almost 10,000 residents. Of those 615 were children. There were four teachers.

Most of the buildings are locked up, so what you do is walk around looking in windows. You can't see into any of them unless you press your face up against the glass, so every building is a surprise. As you venture farther away from the main street the structures gradually become empty but occasionally come across some that are still inhabited. That's awkward, peering into someones window and seeing them walk by a door. They put put signs up on the inhabited houses.

The nicest house in Bodie still stands. Jessie McGath built it for his new wife in 1879. Today it is known as the Cain House, after James Stuart Cain, who bought and lived in it with his wife until the 1940's.

These are the largest buildings still standing, aside from the mill.

The Miners Union Hall has been turned into a small museum and is densely packed with artifacts. This is a glass funeral carriage.

The town runs well up the hillside and a cross-street downtown runs so far north that our legs got tired before we made it to the old chinatown. Along the way we saw the jail and the old bank vault. Past the car lot is the cemetery, which was disappointing relative to the rest of the townsite. Although it seemed spacious when we arrived, by the time we left Bodie there were hundreds of people walking around

The town is large and situated on two or three long streets. The mill still stands too, and a guided tour is available through that twice daily. We were there for several hours and didn't go on the mill tour.

All in all, Bodie is by far the best ghost town i've ever visited. It's well worth the time to visit if you are passing through the Mono area.

Historical information for this blog was taken from the book Bodie: 185901962, by Terri Lynn Geissinger. It's available at the Bodie Foundation website.