Bodie, The Most Popular Ghost Town in America

Bodie is an authentic gold-mining Wild West ghost town.  It is located in Eastern California, USA, between Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe, Nevada.  Bodie is unique for its state of preservation, what is called “arrested decay”.  The Cain family bought most of the land and buildings in the early 1900’s, hoping for a resurgence in the gold mines.  That didn’t happen, but they protected the land and hired caretakers after the last residents moved out. Today over 200,000 people visit the ghost town of Bodie each year.

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Storm over Bodie

The state of arrested decay means that everything has stayed as it was left.  Shelves are stocked in the general store, wispy curtains hang in the windows, and pots sit on kitchen stoves.

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Bodie Saloon

Bodie was a small mining camp in the late 1860’s. It is located on a high windswept plain at 8,379 feet (2,554m).  Because of its elevation, the temperature dips below 32 degrees (0 centigrade) more than 300 days a year.  Gold discoveries in 1875 and 1878 attracted fortune-seekers from everywhere.  The town’s population in 1876 was 30 people. By 1880, Bodie was a true boom town with 10,000 residents and over 2,000 buildings.

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Bodie Main Street

Bodie’s mile-long main street once had 65 saloons.  Gunfights, barroom brawls and stagecoach robberies were common.  There was also a Chinatown section with several hundred residents, and many opium dens flourished there.

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Window in Bodie ghost town

At its height in 1881, Bodie’s mines produced $3.1 million dollars worth of gold.  The town had three daily
newspapers, two banks, a jail, a mortuary, and four volunteer fire companies. A railroad was built in that year to deliver lumber and mining timbers to the town.  

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Methodist church

In the mid 1880’s, though, rich gold and silver discoveries in other western towns such as Tombstone, Arizona,
and Butte, Montana began to lure Bodie’s residents away.  The town hung on through the early part of the 20th century, but by 1921, there were only 30 residents left.  In 1932, many of the buildings burned in a fire.
Bodie was named a National Historic site and a California State Historic Park in 1962.

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Looking out of town
 
Although it is a 3 mile drive on rough, dusty dirt roads to get to Bodie, the trip is worth it.  You won’t see another authentic gold-mining ghost town this well preserved by the dry desert air. Enjoy!  

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Bodie General store

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Bodie ghost town cemetery

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