Bodie
| Bodie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark District | |||
 Bodie (Main Street, 1890) |
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| location | Mono County in California (USA) | ||
| Coordinates | 38 ° 12 '43.7 " N , 119 ° 0' 19.2" W | ||
| Built | 1859-1930s | ||
| NRHP number | 66000213 | ||
| The NRHP added | 4th July 1961 | ||
Bodie is a ghost town in California east of the Sierra Nevada on the border with Nevada in the United States . It emerged as a gold digger settlement after 1859 and was abandoned in the 1930s. Thanks to the low humidity , many buildings, equipment and cars have been preserved relatively well. The ensemble is now considered the best preserved ghost town in the USA.
Ascent
William S. Bodey (some sources also speak of Waterman S. Bodey) found gold in Mono County in the Sierra Nevada, about 20 miles north of Mono Lake , in 1859 . That same year he was believed to have died in a snow storm after heading to the nearest town to fetch new materials and groceries. However, his family founded the town of Bodie here and began mining for gold in 1861. The changed spelling was intentional in order to avoid a wrong pronunciation as "body" (= corpse ).
The geology of the region is characterized by andesite with large breccia veins with a high silicon content and narrow quartzite veins. Free gold is mixed in fine proportions in both structures. Other minerals are pyrite and a relatively high percentage of silver . After the Standard Company, which operated the Bodie gold mine , hit a very profitable vein of gold in 1876, the town grew rapidly. Just four years later, Bodie had 10,000 residents.
The city developed to the west below the range of hills in which the mines were built. The largest mine was operated by Standard Mines and maintained a cable car from the shaft exit in the hills to the outskirts to the company's own ore crusher . During the city's heyday, Bodie had 65 saloons along the main street, numerous brothels , a Chinese quarter with a Taoist temple and an opium den , a railroad , several newspapers , seven breweries, and churches of various religions.
But crime also arrived. Murders , robberies and stagecoach robberies were almost the order of the day. Bodie had a bad reputation and was considered one of the wildest and most lawless cities in the west at the time .
There is a quotation from a little girl who was to move to Bodie with her parents and who wrote in her diary: “Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie!” (“Goodbye God, I'm moving to Bodie!”).
The most successful mining companies in Bodie were Standard at $ 18,000,000, Syndicate at over $ 1,000,000, Bodie Tunnel at over $ 200,000, Bechtel Cons. with around $ 200,000 and Mono with $ 122,000.
Decline
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After a few profitable years, the mine hardly made any profit, also because the gold price had fallen sharply and the operation was therefore less and less worthwhile. The great California gold rush that began in 1849 was over. Because Bodie had no other sources of income to offer, the population fell rapidly in the period that followed.
At the turn of the century there was another small upswing, which, however, could not stop the decline. In 1917 the only railway line was dismantled and the rails were scrapped. Bodie still had a few residents until the middle of the twentieth century.
After a major fire in 1932, which destroyed numerous houses, apart from the few buildings that have remained to this day, the city's fate was sealed. The business district in the city center was completely destroyed by the fire. The post office opened in 1877 and closed in 1942.
The mine was initially operated on in the following years; the workers came from neighboring towns. In the 1960s, gold mining was completely abandoned and the mine closed.
The gold mining town of the same name, Bodie, in Okanogan County , Washington State , where the Bodie Mine was operated, suffered the same fate. Only a few crumbling houses are left of this ghost town .
Population development
The explosive rise and rapid decline of Bodie can be seen in the official population figures that Mono County has regularly collected:
| year | Residents | rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 2 | 19th |
| 1876 | 30th | 16 |
| 1877 | 500 | 10 |
| 1878 | 1500 | 5 |
| 1879 | 7000 | 2 |
| 1880 | 10,000 | 1 |
| 1881 | 3000 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2000 | 4th |
| 1887 | 1500 | 6th |
| 1888 | 500 | 11 |
| 1890 | 595 | 9 |
| 1900 | 965 | 7th |
| 1910 | 698 | 8th |
| 1920 | 120 | 12 |
| 1921 | 30th | 15th |
| 1926 | 50 | 14th |
| 1932 | 100 | 13 |
| 1940 | 20th | 17th |
| 1962 | 10 | 18th |
Bodie State Historic Park
Bodie has been a state park since 1962 . There are still around 170 buildings left that were spared the great fire of 1932, including a. a church, the school , a brick bank building, a bar, a shop and several residential buildings as well as the large mine building.
Many of the furnishings are still unchanged, as if the residents had just left the place. The gravestones of former residents can be seen in the small cemetery in front of the town . The pumps of an old gas station are still there, as are a few rusting car wrecks from the 1930s. Some buildings can be entered. Guided tours are available for the old mine.
The park administration ensures that the original condition is carefully preserved. It is strictly forbidden to take things out of the park.
National Historic Landmark
The Bodie Historic District became a National Historic Landmark on July 4, 1961 .
California Historical Landmark
The rest of the small town is a California Historical Landmark.
Location and directions
The village is located north of Mono Lake in about a 20-kilometer access road between Lee Vining and Bridgeport from US Highway 395 branches off. The park administration charges a small amount from visitors to maintain Bodie. As there are no shops in Bodie State Park, it is recommended that you bring drinks with you in the summer.
The last five kilometers of the drive from Highway 395 to Bodie are no longer paved and lead over a gravel road. The summers in the Sierra Nevada are hot and the winters are very cold with lots of snow. In winter, the access roads are often so covered in snow that Bodie can only be reached on skis or by snowmobiles . Even all -wheel drive vehicles with snow chains get stuck year after year.
Web links
- Bodie in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- Photo gallery from Bodie
- Bodie.com
- Official Bodie State Park Website
- 3D photo of the city of Bodie
- West coast USA: Bodie Detailed description of the history Bodies and a tour with many photos (German)
- Spiegel one day report with many photos
Individual evidence
- ↑ westen-usa.de: Ghosttown Bodie
- ^ A b William B. Clark: Gold in the California Desert . In: Donald L. Fife, Arthur R. Brown (Eds.): Geology and Mineral Wealth of the California Desert . South Coast Geological Society, 1980, pages 128-139
- ^ Richard V. Francavilia: Mapping and Imagination in the Great Basin . University of Nevada Press, 2005. ISBN 0-87417-609-3 , p. 114
- ↑ Calamity Jan: Goodbye God, I'm Going to Bodie. Wild West Publications, Olympia, WA 2002, ISBN 0-9721800-0-1 .
- ^ California State Parks: Bodie SHP
- ↑ Desert USA: Bodie State Historic Park, CA
- ↑ http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/341
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: California. National Park Service , accessed July 23, 2019.
- ↑ http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/341