Boomtown Bodie
Initially, I was a little skeptical about going to a ghost town. I'd never heard of Bodie before, it was a long drive away, I didn't think it would be that interesting (I'm not a gold rush history buff), and I thought that it might be too touristy. Well, once we arrived and got past the initial sticker shock of the entrance fee (our Golden Poppy annual pass didn't cover this Bodie Historic State Park), I quickly changed my mind about Bodie.
Bodie, or "Boomtown Bodie," is a gold-mining ghost town in California that was named after William Bodey, who had discovered gold in 1859 (along with three other prospectors) in some hills north of Mono Lake. Unfortunately, he froze to death in November of that year, before the town was named in his memory. Mining started off slowly due to richer finds in other areas of the U.S. However, the collapse of Bunker Hill Mine exposed a rich vein of silver and gold ore in 1875, which kicked off the boomtown. Bodie's population reached 2,000 by 1879 and swelled to over 7,000 during the following couple of years.
From 1860 to 1941, total silver and gold production approached $34 million. The year 1881 saw the highest annual pay of over $3 million. Just a few years later, in 1884, annual combined production fell 50%, though production remained fairly steady. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Bodie saw two years of no production. A fire in 1932 caused another four years of no production. From 1936-1941, Bodie had low, but steady production. By 1942 the U.S. was involved in World War II and, due to copper shortages, gold-mining operations ceased.
Now only a small part of a once-burgeoning town survives in a state of "arrested decay." Though buildings are maintained to prevent continuous decay, everything that remains is more or less "suspended" in time. Items in the convenience store stand tiredly on their shelves, collecting dust and fading under the tireless California sun. Bar stools sit empty, accompanied by now-antique beer cans and bottles. Kitchens and bedrooms sit in silent disarray, boarded up behind cloudy windows. Even the town church remains standing for silent reflection, while the old mining factory at the base of the hill sits ever omnipresently over old Boomtown Bodie.
It was incredible to see a 150-year old town still very much standing. Though what remains isn't nearly large enough to house 7,000 individuals today, walking through history was fascinating, down to the little details of what a perfume bottle or beer can looked like. Boomtown Bodie is certainly something to explore if you're looking for something different to do in California that isn't wine-, beer-, Route 1-, or Tahoe-related.
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