Bodie – A Step Back in History

There were two things that struck me about the ghost town of Bodie.  First, it was absolutely in the middle of nowhere!  How did people not only survive, but thrive here?  The second thing that surprised me was how large the town was originally, and how much of it still remained standing!

Bodie is located along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  It was established after the 1849 Gold Rush on the western slopes tapered off.  W.S. Bodey, from Poughkeepsie, NY, discovered gold here in 1859.  However, he died months later, in a blizzard, and never saw the town that honors him.  His remains were lost, rediscovered in 1879, and then lost again.  It is believed that he now lies on the hill above the cemetery.  The town’s name eventually came to be spelled “Bodie”.

The first house we came to as we entered the town is the McDonnel/Dolan House.  Donald and Frank McDonnell, father and son, lived in this home and were miners, based on the 1920 census.  Donald’s wife, Mary, was one of Bodie’s postmistresses.  Alice Dolan, the schoolteacher and daughter of the sheriff, lived here briefly from 1935 – 1937.  Her father was killed in a shootout near Mono Lake, about 10 miles away, in 1915.

This church, the Methodist Church, was built in 1882, and is the only church still standing.  There was a Catholic church in Bodie, also built in 1882, but it burned in 1928.  E.J. Clinton, head of a mining company in town, used to preach sermons in this church.  Although we couldn’t go into the church, I was able to look inside and capture an image of the benches and the organ, still looking as if they are ready for Sunday services.

Across the street from the McDonnel/Dolan House, is the D.V. Cain House, built in 1873.  David Victor Cain was the son of James S. Cain, the last landowner of Bodie.  The Cains sold Bodie to the State of California in 1962.  In 1904, D.V. Cain married Ella M. Cody, a schoolteacher who later founded the Bodie Museum.

This barn is typical of the large barns that were once used throughout Bodie.  The original red color can still be seen, although faded and worn.

This house belonged to Tom Miller, his wife, Jessie and their 2 children.  Tom worked for the Bodie Railway and Lumber Company at Mono Mills, near Mono Lake.

These 2 images are of the front (top) and side/back (bottom) of the house owned by J.S. Cain, the last landowner of Bodie.  He was 25 when he arrived in Bodie in 1879.  At that time, he had just married Martha Delilah Wells of Geneva, Nevada.  He worked in the lumber business, and then as a banker.  In 1915, he acquired the Standard Company mining properties, and that was how he became the principal land owner in Bodie.

This small building, known as the Saddle Building, was part of a large, stable complex in the field to the south of town, owned by a Bodie merchant, Harvey Boone.

This is the Boone Store and Warehouse, built in 1879.  It was one of several general stores in town.  Its owner, Harvey Boone, was a distant cousin of Daniel Boone.

It was really interesting to look into the windows and see a mannequin in the window, along with shelves and display cases, many with various items still intact.  I would really have loved to walk through the store, but most of the doors to the buildings are closed and locked.

This storage room/building was next to the Boone Store and seemed to hold some of the larger items that may have been for sale, such as wagons to cart supplies and people who lived in the outer areas of town into town.  Perhaps the people who lived in the small cabin we saw and highlighted in the previous post about our travels to town, used a wagon like these to get to and from town.

Every town needs at least one morgue, and this is one of the morgues in Bodie.  The other is closer to the cemetery, and wasn’t one that we visited.  Originally, the Bodie House Hotel stood where the morgue is today, but it burned down in 1888, and this morgue was then established here.

It was a bit creepy looking into the morgue windows.  At first, I just saw a desk where paperwork on the deceased individuals was apparently completed (top photo), but then, I noticed the coffin just sort of propped up against a wall in the lower photo, and that felt really odd, to say the least.

More to come – stay tuned for the next post!

Enjoy!