Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Man, there are a lot of ghost towns out here.  Yesterday, we went to one of the best preserved towns I’ve ever seen.  It’s a town called Bodie, north of Mono Lake near the Nevada border.  The town is a National Historic Landmark and a State Park, so there are serious conservation efforts and even park staff that lives in town (there are 12 residents today!).  It must be a lonely place to live – it’s really in the middle of nowhere.

Back in the day (1880s – 1920s), it was a large town (10,000 residents) and had quite the reputation, complete with frequent murders, gambling, prostitution, opium dens, stagecoach hold-ups, and the “misappropriation” of gold by legitimate mining concerns.  We spent a morning looking at old houses, hotels, shops, mills, a hydro-electric power plant, and mines, all in surprisingly good condition.  Here are some pictures Dave took:

A view of the Standard Mine operations from a distance. Visitors aren’t allowed to go here because it’s unsafe.

This is an old sawmill used to cut firewood. Apparently the winters are what I would call unbearable with 20 feet of snow. It’s a miracle this building is still standing. There are no right angles!

A residence in Bodie

A gas station/general store

One of two churches (not including the Taoist Temple in Chinatown). Based on the town’s reputation, I’m not sure anyone ever paid attention to the sermons.

For more information on Bodie, visit www.bodie.com (but I disavow myself of the egregious misuse of punctuation and spelling errors on this site).

– Meredith