In today's post, I'm going to focus on some of the interesting facts about the town and post some photos of the remaining traces of the mines.
One important thing to mention is that, like most Western pioneer/mining towns, Bodie has a beautiful and historic "Boot Hill". The term Boot Hill refers to the cemeteries and came from the fact that many men of this rough and tumble era died with their boots on, i.e., violently.
Now Mr. Bodey didn't die violently, but he did die with his boots on as he was caught in a blizzard while making a supply run during the very harsh winter of the high desert. Anyway, Bodie's Boot Hill is as harsh and beautiful today as the town must have been back when it was a mining camp in the 1860's.
This is a photo of that stunning high desert sky with the morgue up on Boot Hill. It's said that there are still caskets in the morgue, although I don't know if they are empty or not.
Here is the memorial for the town's founder, W.S. Bodey. Pretty fancy and obviously put there much later than his death. In fact, the cemetery is constantly being carefully restored by the Bodie Foundation.
Here is a fascinating article about using dogs to locate the currently unmarked graves.
A sad fact of the times is that children of the pioneers and prospectors were some of the most likely to fall victim to the harsh climate and lack of shelter and/or food.
But let's admire the spirit in which their parents sought for a better life for themselves and their children. Like all the non-native Americans, many who died in Bodie came from overseas.
Here we visit the final resting place of Peter Noonan, born in Ireland in 1948 and died in California in 1894 - 46 years and approximately 5,000 miles from his birth.
Okay, one last photo to illustrate the gorgeous high desert scenery of this remote, yet peaceful place of rest and then we'll move on.
To see more historical gravestones and beautiful sky of Boot Hill, click here.
When you visit Bodie, it is kind of disorienting because you will see things that span from the late 1800s through 1962 when the town officially became a California State Park.
What makes it so fascinating is that there are a LOT of things in the town that were abandoned as it dwindled away. There are a lot of artifacts that you can see when looking inside windows and even find just laying on the ground, such as the rusty saw in the last post.
The town did not really "boom" when gold was found there and in nearby Aurora, NV. It didn't even boom when the Comstock Lode of silver was found in Virginia City, which is relatively nearby. A couple stamp mills were established in Bodie by 1868 but both failed.
That changed in 1867 when the Standard Company found a profitable deposit of gold ore. The boom began in 1877 and by 1879 Bodie's population was estimated to be around 7,000. But the boom quickly faded and the minors began to move on to other strikes by the end of 1880. Wikipedia has an interesting chart showing the population decline as noted by Census reports:
The Standard Stamp Mill as seen through the window of the ruins of a house in the suburbs:
The Standard Mill as seen from the ruins of another house further out in the 'burbs:
This house and it's accompanying outhouse are on a hillside where you can see piles of mining debris. This hillside is actually not accessible to the public because it is unstable from the mining.
This is not specifically mining related, but all through town and in the burbs you will find crude nails.
The story is that anyone who takes a nail from Bodie is cursed by the ghosts who inhabit the town. So, to pay respect to the ghosts, people put the nails in various receptacles around town.
And, just a side note, because Bodie is a State Historic Park, it is actually illegal to remove ANYTHING from the site. So if you do, it might be more than just the ghosts who'll get ya!
I'm sure you recognize the Standard Stamp Mill by this point.
This is a replica of some mining equipment and is sitting on a table in the school house.
As the minors left, families came and settled in the harsh, remote location and, although the population definitely declines, the mines themselves were doing well through 1910. However, in 1913 The Standard mine closed and, despite a valiant effort by James Cain who bought up most of the town and mining ventures and reopened the mine, the decline continued.
The Cain family moved at some point, but hired caretakers for the town in the 1940s as the automobile era arrived and publicity by California newspapers of this fun "ghost town" started to bring tourists and vandalism to Bodie. By 1943 there were only 3 people left in town. Bodie was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and became a California State Park in 1962.
At that time, it became protected in a state of arrested decay. They do some restoration work but it is minimal and mainly to keep buildings standing and safe.
That's it for this post, but just FYI on a travel note, the closest town is Bridgeport which does have some lodging (it's a very small town) but there are campsites all up and down Highway 395, the closest I think are down Twin Lakes Road which is about an hour away.
And, if you visit the area, be sure to check out beautiful Mono Lake!
Another beautiful place nearby is Travertine Hot Springs - You're going to want to visit!
xoxo
Nikon D3000
