BODIE, CA – OLD WEST GOLD RUSH SITE TURNED GHOST TOWN

The Frontierado Holiday falls on Friday, August 1st this year, so here’s another seasonal post.

BODIE, CALIFORNIA – Gold was discovered there in 1859 by William (or Waterman) S. Bodey, the man that the subsequent town would be named for despite the spelling error made by a sign painter. For nearly twenty years, Bodie produced less gold than similar sites out west.

In fact, two companies would go bust while trying to make gold mining in Bodie profitable. However, in 1876 the Standard Company hit a very rich gold ore deposit, transforming the place into a proper Boom Town by 1878.

Even more precious metal finds in that year resulted in even more people flocking to the area and in 1879 the population of Bodie was estimated at nearly 10,000, with over 2,000 buildings. September of 1879 found the notorious female gambler/ gunslinger Eleanore “Madame” Dumont in town. She killed herself after being wiped out by one last losing streak after years of ups and downs.

Gold and silver came out of the local mines through 1942, but the peak production period came in 1880 and 1881. Ranchers came along and settled around nearby Mono Lake and its basin.

During that same period, Reverend F.M. Warrington called Bodie “a sea of sin lashed by the tempests of lust and passion.” Killings occurred almost daily some months and robberies happened on a regular basis. Gunfights, fistfights and knife fights were frequent events, too.  

The usual Boom Town tableau of saloons, red-light districts, crime and violence kept rising over the years, as did telegraph connections to other locations in the west. Armed guards accompanied gold and silver shipments to the nearest railroads until Bodie founded its own in 1881 and soon Bodie boasted its own Chinatown and Taoist temple plus opium dens. 

During 1882 many Bodie prospectors and gold-adjacent grifters and gamblers left town for flashier gold and silver strikes in Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The town retained a core population of “company families” employed in the various industries related to precious metals.

The year 1890 saw the new cyanide process of ore extraction begin producing gold and silver even from previously worked soil. Eighteen ninety-two marked the Standard Company’s construction of its own hydroelectric plant at Dynamo Pond to power its facilities. That same year a fire tore through the business district, however.  

Unfortunately, Bodie’s decline continued, slowly but surely. By 1912 the last town newspaper, the Miner, went out of business and the population was down to less than 700.

Despite a brief rally in 1914 and 1915, the Bodie Railroad closed in 1917. The mines spurted out precious metals until 1942, when they were shut down due to World War Two needs. The Bodie post office closed that same year.

Like so many Old West locations, the place became a ghost town but was eventually designated a historic landmark. Nearly 110 structures still stand in the town. 

LORE: If you’re into this sort of thing, there is some ghost lore connected to Bodie.

*** The ghost of the above-mentioned Madame Dumont (a nickname I prefer to the insulting “Madame Moustache”) is said to haunt Bodie.

*** The J.S. Cain House in Bodie is also said to be haunted – in this case by the ghost of a Chinese maid.

*** If you like Italian food, Mrs. Mendocini and the aroma of her cooked meals supposedly haunt the Mendocini House.

*** Similar ghostly Tall Tales are told about the Bodie buildings called the Gregory House and the Dechambeau House.

FOR CANYON DIABLO, THE MOST LAWLESS TOWN OF THE OLD WEST CLICK HERE.

FOR LAS VEGAS, NM AND THE DODGE CITY GANG CLICK HERE.