subject: Good-Bye God, I'm Going to Bodie [print this page] Good-Bye God, I'm Going to Bodie Good-Bye God, I'm Going to Bodie
The California ghost town of Bodie is surrounded by vast beautiful undeveloped landscape and marked by a scattering of old wooden wind battered buildings standing in a state of "arrested decay."
Today we had walked the streets, peering into windows that included a school house complete with books on desks and a former dress shop's front pane which was dusty and streaked where high desert storms have hammered at the plate glass. The shop's interior remains mostly striped; the headless manikin on a metal angled slightly street wards is bare of clothing.
Discovered by Waterman S. Bodie in 1859, Bodie is a former mining camp that thrived in the 1800's, when more than 32 million dollars in gold and more than six million dollars in silver was mined from here. In the course of one month, during its glory days, $600,000.00 in gold and silver bullion was processed.
It was during California's gold fever the rush to Bodie became a stampede, the call half in jest had been, "Good-bye God, I'm going to Bodie."
Near Mammoth Lakes, Bodie is considered by many, one of the largest and best preserved ghost towns in the West and a fascinating place to visit if you are interested in a real ghost town experience. Reminiscent of Bodie's countless booms and bust, rusting mining paraphernalia and wagon parts linger, strewn and abandoned throughout the town.
For a time, during its heyday between 1879 and 1881, Bodie boosted a population of 10,000 residents, and then by 1882 the big strikes had vanished as did most of the residents. During the town's peak of success, there were more than sixty saloons and dance halls. A room could be rented for $1.00 a night. Bodie was known as the "most lawless, wildest and toughest mining camp the far west has ever known."
A killing is said to have occurred virtually every day, often taking place in the early hours between midnight and breakfast. Depending on your point of view, Bodie was a Godless place of sin or a nonjudgmental place of opportunity and prosperity.
A destructive fire whipped through the town in 1892, destroying many first homes and buildings and then, nearly 75-years ago, in 1932 when fewer than 100 people lived in Bodie, a little boy nicknamed "Bodie Bill" gained historical recognition when he started a fire while playing with matches.
"Bodie Bill's" fire spread quickly, destroying 90-percent of the town, the 10-percent that remains today consists of more than 170 buildings on 1,000 acres, protected by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
If You Visit
Bodie - The Official Ghost Town of California is 350-miles from Las Vegas and designated as a National Historic Site. It became a State Historic Park in 1962; the ruins of Bodie are officially being preserved in a state of "arrested decay." Though there are no overnight facilities in or near Bodie, 130,000 tourists visit annually.
You will find Bodie along the Eastern Sierra, 13-miles off Interstate 395 on Highway 270, 6-miles south of Bridgeport, California. The final 3-miles into Bodie are unpaved grated road. Because of its seclusion, Bodie is a photographer's heaven, the buildings and scattered implements are totally original, not restored.
Kathy Manney looks for the out of the way places for travel experiences
