Bodie, California
Birthplace of Ben Rosenthal, Residence of Davis Rosenthal Family 1870’s - 1881
Bodie is located in the eastern slopes of the Sierra, close to the Nevada border. It can be righteously hot by midsummer and buried in snow in wintertime. In 1880 the town had nearly 8000 residents.
The 1849 discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in the western Sierra foothills lured men and women to California from across the United States and indeed the world. Prospectors equipped with picks, shovels, and the ubiquitous gold pans searched for placer deposits-loose flakes and nuggets that have eroded and washed into streams.
These deposits were searched for by “panning” in which the lighter dirt is deftly washed out, leaving behind the flakes of “color” that are collectively called “gold dust.” The discovery of sufficient placer deposits sparked quests for the “mother lode,” involving hardrock mines laboriously dug, blasted, and shored up with timber (Williams 1992, 5; Smith 1925).
William S. Body found gold here in 1859. The mining camp grew slowly from 1860 to the mid-1870s, while its neighbor Aurora, Nevada, was booming.
Waterman S. Bodey (1814-1859)
Bodey was a prospector from Poughkeepsie, New York who discovered gold in Eastern California.Bodey's exact first name is uncertain. His name could be William, Waterman or Wakeman. In Poughkeepsie he owned his own business and was listed in the 1843 Poughkeepsie village directory. In the 1845 edition, he is listed as a tin manufacturer with his shop address of 345 Main Street. He is also listed in this same directory as having a home on the corner of South Hamilton and Montgomery streets.
Although Bodey was well respected within the community of Poughkeepsie, he desired a more adventurous life. In 1848, after receiving news of gold being discovered in California, Bodey said goodbye to his wife Sarah and his two children, and set sail for California and its gold on the Mathew Vasser. After rounding Cape Horn, Bodey landed in San Francisco in 1849.
In 1859, Bodey discovered gold in Eastern California, north of Mono Lake. This discovery sparked a gold rush: the town of Bodie, California sprang up around Bodey's discovery. Bodey did not profit from the discovery: he died in November 1859, after he decided to winter near his find with a Native American companion. He and his companion went out to make a supply trip to Monoville and got lost in a blizzard. When Bodey couldn't go any further, his companion left him and Bodey froze to death. Bodey's body was found the next spring.
“Black” Taylor, half-Cherokee
A decade after the gold rush began at Sutter’s Mill, four prospectors made a rich strike on the opposite side of the Sierras-that is, in the eastern foothills. They agreed to keep the discovery secret until the following spring, but one, W.S. Bodey, returned with another man, a half-Cherokee named “Black” Taylor. Having traveled to Monoville for supplies, the pair were returning to their cabin when they were caught in a blizzard and Bodey perished.
Named for its discoverer, camp Bodey was soon rechristened “Bodie” when (according to local lore) a sign painter misspelled the word and the new version was preferred. At first Bodie was largely neglected due to other strikes in the area. Mark Twain was among the gold seekers who rushed to nearby Aurora, Nevada, for instance.
Badman from Bodie
Bodie Town Jail
In 1859, prospectors chasing rumors of mineral wealth found gold east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Their discovery gave rise to Bodie, one of the West's wildest gold mining boomtowns. By 1880 the phrase "Badman from Bodie" described the town's rambunctious inhabitants, earning the community a reputation for violence that rivaled Tombstone, Deadwood and Dodge City.
John Wayne was here in the early 1970's for a tv special. You can see him standing outside the jail. This is the barred window he was looking in.
Camps like Bodie attracted a breed of adventurous types:
Besides the business and professional men, mine-operators, miners, etc., there were hundreds of saloon-keepers, hundreds of gamblers, hundreds of prostitutes, many Chinese, a considerable number of Mexicans, and an unusual number of what we used to call “Bad men"-desperate, violent characters from everywhere, who lived by gambling, gun-fighting, stage robbing, and other questionable means. The “Bad man from Bodie” was a current phrase of the time throughout the west. In its day, Bodie was more widely known for its lawlessness than for its riches. (Smith 1925)
Given Bodie’s reputation, it is perhaps not surprising that one little girl, whose family was moving to the mining town, reportedly prayed: “Goodbye God! We are going to Bodie” (Smith 1925).
There were other perils and hardships, including the savage winter of 1878-1879 in which hundreds died of exposure and disease, and mining accidents that claimed victims by falling timber, the explosion of a powder magazine, and other means (Smith 1925; Bodie Cemetery n.d.).
The 601 Vigilante Group
It's not clear how that meaning came to be, but the history of Bodie is sometimes difficult to "prove" and is more often "interpreted" rather than "reported". There were many papers in Bodie and "creative journalism" was sometimes practiced in order to sell papers. Sadly, most of those "records" have been lost to history.
The 601 and Joseph DeRoche
It was reported that during a ball at the Miner's Union Hall on Saturday, January 15, 1881, Joseph DeRoche danced with the wife of Thomas Trelour, even though Trelour asked his wife not to. It's unknown if words were exchanged or if some other argument took place, but DeRoche left the event before most of the other attendees.
When Trelour and his wife left the Hall, they walked down Main Street. At the corner of Main & Lowe Streets, DeRoche jumped from the darkness and shot Treloar in the head. DeRoche was immediately arrested, but was handed over to Deputy Farnsworth, who was drunk at the time. DeRoche quickly escaped.
DeRoche made a run for it down Goat Ranch Road, but was caught about eight miles away and returned to Bodie. He was hanged by the Bodie 601 vigilante group on Monday, January 24, 1881. Below is an article that was printed by The Bodie Free Press newspaper:
Judge Lynch held his first court session in Bodie early on Monday morning and passed iudgment on a criminal whose crime is already recorded and impressed on every mind in this community. The tragic end of DeRoche, the murderer, was at once awful and impressive.
The lesson to be learned from it is easily read and the simplest mind can fully comprehend it. That a cruel murder had been committed no one can deny; that the swift retribution was expected every observing citizen could predict with safety. The excitement of the Sabbath did not die away and the wrath of the people did not go out with the setting of the sun. As the shades of darkness enveloped the town, the spirit of revenge increased in intensity and developed into a blazing column of fire. It was burning in its intensity and fearful in its results.
After the adiournment of the court and DeRoche was token back to his narrow cell, a mysterious committee was organized, the like of which has existed in many towns on this Coast since '46, and whose work has been quick and thorough. The Committee, it is reported, held a long session and discussed the matter in hand. The session was long and deliberate, and its conclusions resulted in the lynching of DeRoche.
Between 1:30 and 2 o'clock Monday morning, a long line of masked and unmasked men were seen to file out of a side street into Bonanza Avenue. There must have been two hundred of them and as the march progressed to the jail the column increased. In front were the shotguns carried by determined men. They were backed up by a company which evidently meant business, and no ordinary force could foil them in their progress.
When the jail was reached it was surrounded and the leader made a loud knock at the door. All was dark and quiet within. The call had the effect of producing a dim light in the office, and amid loud cries of "DeRoche," "Bring him out," "Open the door," "Hurry up," etc. Jailer Kirgan appeared, and responded by saying: "All right boys; wait a minute; give me a little time." In a moment the outside door was opened slowly and four or five men entered. Under instructions the door of the cell in which the condemned prisoner lay was swung open. The poor wretch knew what this untimely visit meant, and prepared for the trying and humiliating death. It was some moments before he was brought out, and the crowd began to grow impatient. Some imagined the prisoner had been taken away by the officers - If this had been the case what would have followed can only be imagined. All these doubts were put at rest by the presence of the man.
He wore light-colored pants, a colored calico shirt, and over his shoulders was hung a canvas coat buttoned around the neck. His head was bare, and as the bright rays of the moon glanced upon his face, there was a picture of horror visible. It was a look of dogged and defiant submission. With a firm step he descended the steps and came out upon the street in a hurried manner, closely guarded by shotguns and revolvers. The order to fall in was given, and all persons not members of the mysterious committee to stand back.
The march up Bonanza Street was rapid. Not a word was said by the condemned man, and his gaze was fixed upon the ground. He was hurried up a back street to Fuller. The corner of Green was turned, and when Webber's blacksmith shop was reached, a halt was made. In front of this place was a huge gallows frame, used for raising wagons, etc., while being repaired. Now it was to be used for quite a different purpose. "Move it over to the spot where the murder was committed," was the order, and immediately it was picked up by a dozen men and was carried to the corner of Main and Lowe streets. The condemned man glanced at it for a moment and an apparent shudder came over him, but he uttered not a word. From an eye witness we learn that the scene which followed was awful in its impressiveness. The snow had iust begun to fall, and the moon, which had shone so brightly during the early part of the night, shed but a pale light on the assembled company. When the corner was reached, the heavy gallows frame was placed upon the ground, and the prisoner led under it. The prisoner's demeanor still remained passive, and his hands, encased in irons, were clasped.
"Pull him," was the order, and in a twinkling the body rose three feet from the ground. Previous to putting on the rope, the overcoat was removed.
A second after the body was elevated a sudden twitch of the legs was observed, but with that exception, not a muscle moved while the body hung on the crossbeam. His death took place without a particle of pain. The face was placid, and the eyes closed and never were reopened.
Strangulation must have been immediate. While the body swung to and fro, like a pendulum of a clock, the crowd remained perfectly quiet. After a lapse of two or three minutes a voice, sharp and clear, was heard in the background: "I will give $100 if twenty men connected with this affair will publish their names in the paper tomorrow morning." The voice was immediately recognized as that of a leading attorney. (Only Pat Reddy would have had the courage to face the mob, and a yell went up from the crowd.) "Give him the rope," "Put him out," and similar sentences drowned out the man and his voice. His retreat was as dignified as the exigencies of the case would admit of. While the body was still hanging a paper was pinned onto his breast bearing the following inscription: "All others take warning. Let no one cut him down. Bodie 601." 
The Standard Mill
The Standard Mill,1879
Discovery of the Standard Mine
Note: The following is excerpted from "The Story of Mono County" by Ella M. Cain who was born in Bodie and later taught school there. She was married to David Cain, the son of James S. Cain who was one of Bodie’s early settlers and later one of the principal land owners (his house is the one with the green house window at the corner of Green and Park streets).
The Standard Mine, which eventually produced mullions, had a hard and varied career before it began to poor out the yellow metal to such an extent that one of the biggest gold rushes started that the West has ever known. The Standard was located under the name of The Bunker Hill Mine, the original locators selling out their interests for twenty thousand dollars to an actor named James Stark and a jeweler named John W. Tucker.
Stark owned an opera house in San Jose, and had the idea he could use it in his new venture in Bodie. But the job of transporting it to the latter place, and transforming acoustics built for Patti into frame work for a quartz mill was a sad experience for actor Stark and jeweler Tucker. They ran out of money and were forced to sell their "Opera House Mill" as it was called.
A geologist Professor J.D. Whitney gave a good report on the property, and new capital was brought in. A new consolidation of claims took place. Leland Stanford, then Governor of California, was elected President, and Judge F. T. Bechtel, Secretary. The new company was called "The Bodie Bluff Consolidated Mining Company", and was incorporated for over a million dollars.
Governor Stanford brought a mining expert up with him to Bodie. The "expert", in looking over the property advised Stanford to get out, saying he himself would not give five hundred dollars for the whole district. (The fact was that there were millions just beneath the place where they were then standing).
The Governor took his advice and decided to abandon this seemingly worthless mining ground. The so-called "expert" lived to regret the day he gave this advice.
This put a crimp in the camp for a time. The property then passed into the hands of four men who were without money, but who had faith and brawn. Their names were Essington, Lockberg, Mooney, and Walker. The two latter soon dropped out and the Swedes Essington and Lockberg went in together.
They were boarding with a man named William O’Hara, an Irishman by name and African by birth who grub-staked them. After they owed O’Hara nine hundred and fifty dollars they offered to give him the claim for what they owed. This was agreeable to O’Hara and the miners left. In vain, O’Hara offered the claim to any one who would pay him his nine hundred and fifty dollars. He had no takers.
Essington and Lockberg drifted around for some time and not finding anything as promising as Bodie they came back. O’Hara was willing to let them try again "on tick" and they again began digging and hoping. Lady Luck this time decided to smile on them from a dark cave in the earth.
Timber was scarce, so they used hardly enough for self protection. One day there was a rumble and roar, their tunnel had caved. Disheartened, they went to see the extent of the damages and there it was, the ledge they had dreamed of, had worked for, and had hoped to find.
It wasn’t long before they had cleaned up $37,000 from their "Aladdins Cave" in the gulch. They were using an arasttra and did not want to risk building a mill with this money. When four San Francisco capitalists, Seth Cook, Dan Cook, John Boyd, and William Lent, offered them $67,500 in cash for the claim, they sold.
The new owners erected a twenty stamp mill on th property and changed the name of the claim now known as Bunker Hill to The Standard Consolidated Company. These new owners took out the enormous sum of $6,396,270. The total production of all mining done in Bodie is estimated to be between 95 and 100 million.
Source:Cain, Ella M.,The Story of Bodie, Fearon Publishers, 1956.
Ore cart Small wrench
The cyanide leaching process
In the early days of mining, men would extract gold by placer mining, or by panning. Eventually the larger pieces were played out, and a new process was needed to collect the tiny fragments that were embedded into hard rock.
One process was the stamp mill. Large, heavy stamps were used to crush large rock into fine rock, then that fine rock could be sifted much like miners did it by hand when panning. However, not all of the gold and silver was extracted this way either. Once the fine rock went through this method, the gold and silver was usually so small, it wasn't cost effective to try to extract it. The remainder was dumped into large piles (these piles were called 'tailings') and left as a by-product of mining.
Then the "cyanide leaching process" was developed. Mixing the tailings with a cyanide solution, or simply spraying the tailings with a cyanide solution, would cause a chemical reaction to take place. When gold and silver comes in contact with cyanide, it liquefies. Now the gold-silver-cyanide solution can be drained off and processed again - but this time without the fine rock.
Another chemical reaction is put to work to separate the cyanide solution from the liquid gold and silver. Zinc is then mixed with this solution, which causes the gold and silver to return to a solid form.
Now there is a solid of gold, silver, and zinc. Yet another chemical reaction is used to remove the zinc. Sulphuric acid dissolves the zinc and leaves just the gold-silver mixture.
This gold-silver solid can then be melted down into bar for later processing to separate the gold from the silver.
Miners Union Hall
Main Street 1880 (detail) looking south toward Bodie Foundry,
(Courtesy Mono County Historical Society)
Main Street 1880 (detail) looking
south from Standard Ave.,
(Courtesy Mono County Historical Society)
People of Brodie
Madame Moustache
Madame Moustache was the pseudonym of Eleanor Dumont (also called Eleonore Alphonsine Dumant) (1834, France - 1879,Bodie, CA) a notorious gambler on the American Western Frontier, especially during the California Gold Rush. Her nickname was due to the appearance of a line of dark hair on her upper lip.
She was thought to have been born in France and moved to America as a young woman.
She was an accomplished card dealer and made a living from twenty-one and other casinogames. Moving from place to place, she was reported to work in Bodie, California; Deadwood, South Dakota; Fort Benton, Montana; Pioche, Nevada; Tombstone, Arizona; and San Francisco, California, among other places.
In Nevada City, California, she opened up the gambling parlor named "Vingt-et-un" on Broad Street. Only well-kept men were allowed in, and no women save herself. All the men admired her for her beauty and charm, but she kept them all a nice distance away. She was a very private lady, so she flirted, but only to keep the boys coming. Men came from all around to see the woman dealer - this was rare then - and considered it a privilege. The parlor found much success, so she decided to go into business with Dave Tobin, an experienced gambler. They opened up Dumont's Place, which was very successful until the gold started to dry up in Nevada City. She left Tobin and Nevada City for brighter things.
There was a brief period in Carson City where she bought a ranch and some animals. It was there that she fell in love with Jack McKnight, who conned her out of all of her money.
She moved around from city to city, gambling and building up her money again. Her age started to increase, and with that a lot of the beauty that once entranced miners, faded. This is when the famous mustache began to grow. She still drew crowd though, and had a long-standing reputation for dealing fair.
She also added prostitution to her repertoire during these later years - she became a "madame" of a brothel in the 1860s. To promote her business, she would parade her girls around the town in carriages, showing off their beauty in broad daylight, much to the gasping of the 'proper' women.
Her last stop was Bodie, California. One night while gambling, she misjudged a play and suddenly owed a lot of money. That night she wandered outside of town and was found dead on September 8, 1879, of an overdose of morphine, apparently a suicide.
Rosa May Oalaque
Rosa May. Here she was about 24
Early life
Rosa's parents were Irish immigrants. In 1871 she ran away from her home in Pennsylvania and from 1871 to 1873, she began her career of prostitution. It appears that she began her trade in New York City, and then drifted through Colorado and Idaho. She first appears in Virginia City in 1873 and worked in brothels throughout the Carson City, Reno, Virginia City area.
Virginia City years
From 1873 to 1888, Rosa circulated in Virginia City and Carson City. The majority of her time was spent in Virginia City where she worked for Virginia City madam, Cad Thompson, (Sarah Higgins). Rosa was a favored “employee” and often was left in charge of the brothel during Cad’s trips to San Francisco.
Rosa May, "Spanish Madame", was buried outside of the cemetery proper. As she was a prostitute, some of the "upper-class" people in town would not approve of her getting a burial among the more "respectable" folks. It is said that she cared for the sick and ended up dying of pneumonia in the winter of 1912.
This headstone was placed here around 1965 by Louis Serventi. Louis's Uncle, Antonio, aparently lived near Rosa May when she was in Bodie. Uncle Antonio shared stories of Bodie with the children of his family. Many years later, after Louis had read Ella Cain's book The Story of Bodie, he went to Bodie and erected the marker.
However, this marker appears to be in the wrong location. There is/was a wooden fence around another spot near this marker, that is, or may have been, Rosa May's grave.
Rosa May was the town's most famous prostitute. Born in Pennsylvania, she ran away at age 16 and drifted west, where she worked as a prostitute in mining camps to survive. She moved to Bodie in 1890, where in 1911 she died after caring for sick miners during a pneumonia outbreak. (Yep, a hooker with a heart of gold.)
They might not have been able to save Rosa May, but they did save her red light, which hangs in the town's small museum.
Bodie years
From 1888 to the early 1890s, she traveled to and from Bodie, California and eventually settled there in 1893. She appears on the 1900 census records.Land records from 1902 show that Rosa purchased a house in Bodie’s “Red Light District” for $175.
There are no records of Rosa May living in Bodie after the 1910 census. The only evidence that she is buried in Bodie is a photo illustrating the Rosa May piece from Ella Cain's 1956 book, The Story of Bodie. This photo shows a decrepit wooden fence surrounding an otherwise unmarked grave. Since Ella Cain's biographical sketch of Rosa May is mostly fiction, it is likely the photo was chosen for its picturesque qualities. Author George Williams III conducted an exhaustive search in the 1970s for Rosa May's death records and found nothing
Bodie was declining rapidly during the period that Rosa May disappears, and it may be that she left the area in search of greener pastures. Her supposed resting place in Bodie is a popular tourist destination for those exploring the former Bodie State Park. Behind the myth[edit]
In her book, The Story of Bodie, author Ella Cain relates the story of the epidemic and Rosa succumbing to the same illness that had stricken the miners for whom she was caring. Other resident’s accounts and external records refute that there was any type of epidemic during the winter of 1911-1912.
Letters, diaries, and handwriting analysis, indicate that she was a charming person, took an interest in others, but was somewhat volatile emotionally. There appears to have been a serious or traumatic event, (or events), in her early years but no record exists of what it could have been.
Official documentation about Rosa’s life, (birth and death records, etc.), are either missing or non-existent, but extensive research done by author George Williams III provides some basic facts and general information about her. His research is documented in the book Rosa May: The Search for A Mining Camp Legend.
William "Uncle Billy" O'Hara
"Uncle Billy", as he had become affectionately known, was so well liked, however, that he was able to host a large farewell party for himself before his move to the mining camp of Bodie in 1865.
The Empire Mine Gold and Silver Mining Company hired O’Hara to run their boarding house, which was probably the first of it’s kind in the Bodie Mining District.. Even after the properties were abandoned in 1867, O’Hara stayed on as watchman. At some point Billy received title to the Bunker Hill Mine. When he couldn’t find a buyer for the mine, he turned it over to Peter Eshington and Louis Lockberg, with the agreement that they would pay him $8,000 when the mine began to pull out ore. Eshington and Lockberg worked the Bunker Hill at a loss until an accidental cave-in revealed a rich vein.
Perhaps because of his success with money in Bodie, Uncle Billy O’Hara wound up back in Aurora where he earned a reputation as a fair and favorite lender to those in need. At his death in 1880, Billy had accumulated $40,000. Because of his assistance and encouragement to anyone who tried, the Bodie newspapers declared him the "Foster Father of Bodie & Aurora."
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"Uncle" Billy O'Hara's death notice from the Daily Alta California, (San Francisco), Volume 32, Number 10969, 26 April 1880.
(Courtesy Veridian Newspaper Archive)
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According to the present day Bodie cemetery brochure, Uncle Billy is buried in Bodie, but the sands of time have taken its toll on his grave, and the exact location is unknown.
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Lottie Johl
Lottie was born in Iowa in 1855. She lived on a farm in her early life. She was very beautiful and said to smile all the time. At an early age she married and had a daughter. Unfortunately, something happened in the marriage and she divorced her husband. At some point the daughter was left with either her former husband or her parents. Lottie took off to find work. Eventually she reached Bodie in 1882 at the age of 27. She headed to "Maiden Lane" which you see soon and worked there. While working there she also worked the dancing halls. Lottie loved to dance.
At some point she met Eli Johl. Eli worked as a butcher in town and partly owned the store. The two fell in love and married. Unfortunately, Lottie was never really accepted socially by the people in town because of her former work at "Maiden Lane". At some point she went to a costume ball in the Miner's Union Hall and was disguised in a beautiful white satin dress her husband had purchased for her. Since she was covered up no one knew who she was. When voted the prize winner she took off her mask and the people there were in shock. She could not win such a award due to her status. She ran off crying.
Later on she became sick. A doctor gave her some medicine, but it did not cure her. She died within 24 hours. It turns out she was accidentally given poison. The authorities said this was not done intentionally. This is her grave site Eli Johl really had to fight to have her buried in the cemetery. Something to remember is the cemetery was for the respectable people not vagrants, badmen gunfighters, or prostitutes. He was successful so she was buried inside and not on the outside. All that really remains is the gated fence.
Eli would always visit her grave and on Memorial Day he would decorate her grave and sit near by. Something like this:
Pat Reddy
Pat Reddy was a Bodie lawyer. Yes, he was the one who defended the "Bad Man from Bodie". On more than one occasion he kept supposedly guilty ment from being hanged. Pat was very well known for his abilities as a lawyer, and was call upon often.
James Stuart Cain
J.S. Cain came to Bodie at the age of 25 looking to make his fortune in business. He built an empire one piece at a time. One of his first businesses was barging timber across Mono Lake to Bodie. Timber was used for shoring up mines, building hoisting works, firing the wood-burning boilers for the steam engines, building homes and other structures AND it was used for cooking and heating!
Cain successfully ran mines, including being President of the Southern Consolidated Mining Co.; in 1890 he purchased the Bodie Bank from E. L. Benedict and began buying property around town. By the time California State Parks took over the town, the Cain family owned a majority of Bodie.
James S. Cain and Martha Cain, married in Carson City, Nevada, September 17, 1879
The J.S. Cain residence. He purportedly mined $90,000 in gold in 90 days on a plot of ground leased from Standard Mine and Mill, which refused to renew his lease. That amounts to over $2 million in 2012 dollars.
Bodie Fire Dept
Bodie Graveyard
Victorian Hearse in Bodie
This grave is labeled, Pagdin. You will notice there is a big hole in the marker. It is unusually thick and hollow. There is some thought that this was actually used to store bottles of liquor during the prohibition era. There were some investigations and busts in Bodie during that time.
James Perry, a native of Ireland, died on June 9, 1863. He was 63 years old. You can see the "all seeing eye" and the odd fellows emblem. He was a Mono County Supervisor and miner. The fire of 1892 started in his wife's restaurant.
Killings occurred with monotonous regularity, sometimes becoming almost daily events. The fire bell, which tolled the ages of the deceased when they were buried, rang often and long.
Hotels
Stagecoaches in front of the Grand Central Hotel on Main Street in 1880.
This is a picture of the U.S. Hotel. It was wiped out in the big fire of June 23, 1932. In the 1920's, a chinese man by the name of Sam Leon owned the U.S. Hotel. When the hotel burned down he moved down across the street to start his new bar (or cafe). In the first picture above, it is part of the first structure you see on the right side of the street.
Sam Leon is the one of the left. The barbershop is on the right. Eventually, he moved his business to the DeChambeau Hotel. Here is one of my pictures from some years back.
Dechambeau Hotel and Post Office on the left. The Bodie Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) used the upper floor of the building on the right, which also housed the Bodie Athletic Club and at one time an undertaker’s business.
Old Bootjack Dance Hall
The park is open year round but due to its elevation at 8,375 feet, it is accessible in winter only by snowmobile, skies or snowshoes.
Tucked away in the hills of Mono County is Bodie, with scarce 800 inhabitants. It is a peaceful, respectable town now, but time was when it contained 12,000 erring and excitable souls. Then “a bad man from Bodie” was a synonym for wickedness and daredeviltry, throughout the state, and Bodie, knowing this, was proud and tried to live up to its reputation.
It succeeded. Nowhere this side of the Rocky Mountains were there more wanton killings. Nowhere were more reckless displays of daring. It was a happy hearted time. If men died with great suddenness they also lived to the full every hour of their lives. Money was plentiful, for the mines were panning out and paying well. The numerous dance halls and gambling halls could be relied on to furnish ample excitement, and when this palled there were always shooting scrapes, lynchings, funerals, and then more shooting scrapes.
—Introduction to an article written by Maude Grange and published in the San Francisco Call newspaper on July 7, 1907
Bodie is becoming a quiet summer resort—no one killed here last week.
—Bodie Daily Free Press 1881
Bodie is an historic gold mining ghost town located at over 8000 feet elevation on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mono County, California. During its heyday in the 1880s it was a stereotypical bustling, rough-and-tumble boom town of the American west.
Drinking, gambling, violence and prostitution seemed to be favorite pastimes along with opium parlors, though other upright citizens carried on more tempered and respectable family lives.
According to the book “Saga of Wells Fargo,” there were 30 mines operating in Bodie during its height of activity and establishments that served alcohol numbered “something better than one to a mineshaft.” This for a town of 5,416 people, according to the U.S. census count taken in mid-1880, though estimates vary.
“The workingman off duty was confronted with a bewildering choice of oases on which to lavish his patronage,” reads the book. “At all of these, the products of the town’s three breweries—the Bodie, the Pioneer, Pat Fahey’s—were the favored chasers. … The river of life flowed at its fullest in Bodie, both around and through its citizens.”
Today about five percent of the town’s historic buildings remain and the site is a designated State Historic Park.
Bodie has been the subject of much myth making and exaggeration, and inaccuracies either intentionally or unwittingly promoted and repeated. Some of which have, apparently, been included in the official State Park literature. Michael H. Piatt, author of “Bodie: ‘The Mines Are Looking Well …’,” has written about and debunked some of the most prominent myths (bodiehistory.com).
The following text is taken from the visitors brochure:
Bodie was named after Waterman S. Body (also known as William S. Bodey), who discovered gold here in 1859. The change in spelling of the town’s name has often been attributed to an illiterate sign painter, but it was a deliberate change by the citizenry to ensure proper pronunciation.
The town of Bodie rose to prominence with the decline of mining along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Prospectors crossing the eastern slope in 1859 to “see the elephant”—that is, to search for gold—made a rich discovery at Virginia City. This huge gold strike, later to be known as the Comstock Lode, started a wild rush to the surrounding high desert country.
By 1879 Bodie boasted a population of about 10,000 and was second to none for wickedness, badmen, and the “worst climate out of doors.” One little girl, whose family was taking her to the remote and infamous town, wrote in her diary: “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie.” The phrase came to be known throughout the West.
Killings occurred with monotonous regularity, sometimes becoming almost daily events. The fire bell, which tolled the ages of the deceased when they were buried, rang often and loud. Robberies, stage holdups and street fights provided variety, and the town’s 65 saloons offered many opportunities for relaxation after hard days of work in the mines. The Reverend F. M. Warrington saw it in 1881 as “a sea of sin, lashed by the tempests of lust and passion.”
Nearly everyone has heard about the infamous “Badman of Bodie.” Some historians say that he was a real person by the name of Tom Adams. Others say his name was Washoe Pete. It seems more likely, however, that he was a composite. Bad men, like bad whiskey and bad climate, were endemic to the area. Whatever the case, the streets are quiet now. Bodie still has its wicked climate, but with the possible exception of an occasional ghostly visitor, its badmen are all in their graves.
Between 1860 and 1941, the Bodie Mining District produced close to $100 million in gold and silver. During those years, gold prices ranged from $20 to $35 an ounce; the price of silver ranged from 70 cents to $1 an ounce.
Methodist Church
Bodie Schoolhouse
Brodie Schoolhouse All of Davis Rosenthal’s children (Aaron, Samuel, Heneretta & Benjamin) attended this school, before they moved to Hawthorne, NV
“The small sawmill was used for cutting firewood. With snow as much as 20 feet deep, winds up to 100 miles and hour, and temperatures down to 30 or 40 degrees below zero, plenty of firewood was needed to keep Bodie’s poorly constructed houses warm during winter.”
The interior of a Bodie house.
Tin Roofs
Shingled roof made from recycled tin containers. Many of the houses in Bodie are cleverly faced or roofed in this manner.
Lots of fascinating junk still sits rusting around Bodie. Old cars especially:
By 1879 Bodie boasted a population of 10,000 and was second to none for wickedness, badmen and "the worst climate out of doors." One little girl, whose family was taking her to the remote and infamous town, wrote in her diary: "Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie." The phrase came to be known throughout the West.
The old general store has been turned into a small museum. Other than that, the buildings remain untouched. Sitting creepily in the back of that museum was this vintage hearse, which once plied the streets of Bodie with its morbid cargo. (Awesome band name: "Morbid Cargo.")
