Visiting A Ghost Town

The last time we were at Mammoth, the one thing I wished we had seen (but didn't) was Bodie, the ghost town. So this time we made the trek. Oh, my gosh! This is one of those places that the more you learn about it, the more interesting it gets! Located northeast of Mammoth, Bodie is out in the middle of NOWHERE, and used to be a gold mining settlement.








Bodie's glory years were 1877-82, when it had a population of 10,000! and a bawdy downtown crowded with saloons, stores and brothels.

In 1869, a miner named Waterman S. Bodie found gold there, 2 years later opened a mine with 20 miners, and less than 10 years later, there were 10,000 people living there!
Bodie, himself, unfortunately had died in a blizzard after building the mine, so he never saw how the town grew.

There were over 2000 buildings, Main Street was a mile long, there were 2 newspapers, 3 volunteer fire departments and 65 saloons!! There was also quite a few "houses of ill-repute". Bodie even had it's own Chinatown, having a large Chinese population.

The town produced $34 million worth of gold! The combination of money, gold and alcohol though, was often a fatal one and it was said that a man was killed everyday in Bodie.

Today, it is a state historic park so authentic that rusty mining gear and buckboard wagon parts are left scattered in the streets. It's as if the people of the town just all left one day. You can peer in the windows of the schoolhouse and see dusty primers sitting on desks, a pen in an inkwell and a teacher's final instructions written on a blackboard, as if the children had merely stepped out for recess.

The rangers and crews who work there mend roofs and prop up sagging buildings, but do little more to change the way the town was left.
Bodie has no snack bar, no campsites, and no modern amenities (except a bathroom), giving the town a bit of an eerie feeling. The drive is down a deserted 13 mile road. How this guy ever found gold way out here is beyond me. Bodie is scheduled to be closed and placed under "caretaker" status to preserve the remainder of the ghost town.



Colton checking out the buildings, and a small outhouse.




Brian and Kate.
The valley was actually quite pretty when you sat and looked at it.
Kate giving me a thumbs up. The walls, roofs and doors of the homes were so thin, I do not know how the people did not freeze to death. (Actually, I bet a lot of them did!) The day we were there was quite chilly, and it was August! Kate has on 2 light jackets, and Ryan has confiscated Colton's new 'Mammoth' sweatshirt.

Looking into the corner "goods" store....really interesting to peer in here. (sorry about the reflection on the glass)



Ryan and cousin Theodore giggling together.
Sitting on the steps of someone's home. Inside, a lot of the homes had the same wallpaper. Shannon and I found it interesting that no matter what period of time it was in, women tried to make their house a home, and make it pretty. Some of the houses still had lace curtains up, and one had a baby crib in a small room off of the kitchen...probably for the warmth.