Bodie began because of gold. In 1859, a group of prospectors, which included W.S. Bodey discovered gold in the location, at the same time that silver was discovered close by in Aurora and the Comstock Lode was found beneath Virginia City.
Bodie in the 1890s, colorized.
Bodey died the next November, never seeing the town that was named after him. The mine was originally named the Bunker Hill Mine. After two stamp mills failed, in 1875, a mine cave-in revealed a profitable gold deposit, and the new owners changed the name to the Standard Mine. Thus, the town went from a mining camp to a boom town practically overnight. Bodie’s population rose to between 7,000-10,000 and there was around 2,000 buildings. In 1877, the first newspaper, The Standard Pioneer Journal of Mono County was published. A telegraph line connecting Bodie to Bridgeport and Genoa, Nevada was built, and, since people believed that Bodie would be the next Comstock Lode, they arrived from Nevada and California in the hopes of becoming rich. The gold from the mines, which was valued at nearly $34 million was sent to Carson City, Nevada, and once there, it either went to the mint in Carson City, or it was sent to the mint in San Francisco.
It Became A Large Town
In its heyday, Bodie’s Main Street was a mile long. Among the 2,000 buildings, Bodie had a Wells Fargo Bank, four volunteer fire companies, and a Miners Union Hall to host dances, concerts, and plays as well as being a meeting place for the unions. It also had 65 saloons and, of course, a jail, as the town had its share of barroom brawls, shootouts, murders, and stagecoach holdups. Along with the jail, the town had a cemetery and a mortuary, which was built three courses thick to keep the air inside temperate. Just outside of the cemetery, was the town’s boot hill, the designated burial location for those who “died with their boots on;” i.e., violently or in a gunfight. Bodie also attracted Chinese immigrants seeking their fortunes, and the town had a Chinatown district, which had several hundred Chinese residents, a number of opium dens, and a Taoist temple. On the north end of town, Bodie had a clandestine red-light district. They had a brass band, and by 1881, had a narrow-gauge railroad built to bring wood from Mono Mills to Bodie.
People Went In Search Of Other Fortunes
Unfortunately for Bodie, other mining boom towns, including Butte, Montana, and Tombstone, Arizona, sprang up and men began to leave in search of their next fortune. Bodie started to transform once again, this time into a family-oriented community. They built the Methodist Church in 1882, and the Catholic Church.
A Brief Resurgence
The Bodie Jail, after the bust. Source: (Library of Congress).
The mines continued to flourish in the 1880s, and Bodie had a brief revival in the 1890s, as technological advances, such as the hydroelectric plant which was built about 13 away to provide electricity to power the company’s mill helped to keep the mill running. This hydroelectric plant, incidentally, was one of the first in the country to transmit electricity over a long distance. Despite this brief revival, by 1910, the population had declined to 698 people. The remaining people were mainly families who had decided to stay. In 1912, the last Bodie newspaper, The Bodie Miner, was printed, and in 1913, the Standard Consolidated Mine closed. In 1917, the Bodie Railway was abandoned, and the tracks were turned into scrap.
Becoming A Ghost Town
D. V. Cain House, Green & Fuller Streets, Bodie, Mono County. Source: (Library of Congress).
World War II brought the demise of the last mine, as the War Production Board shut down all non-essential gold mines. In 1932, the business district was devastated by a fire. The town still had a few residents remaining, and the post office remained in Bodie until 1942, even though it was described as a ghost town as early as 1915. In 1961, the town was designated a National Historic Landmark and a year later the California State Legislature authorized the creation of the Bodie State Historic Park. Of the original 2,000 buildings, 110 remain, in a state of arrested decay, with interiors as they were when they were abandoned.
