In addition to my strange obsession with anything forgotten and abandoned, I’ve had a fascination with everything Wild West-related since I was a little girl. Education Images/ Getty In the late 1800s, Bodie was a mining town packed with people trying to get in on the success of the California Gold Rush. The town of Bodie, California was one such Gold Rush mining town that drew people in the hopes of striking it rich. Really? BODIE STATE HISTORIC PARK. Though Bodie himself never lived to see its prosperity, several of its structures from its heyday still stand as a monument to the power of dreams and the hope for a better future. Bodie was a tough place to be, though. Bodie became a ghost town—an abandoned town that no longer has people living in it. In 1917, the Bodie Railway was abandoned and its iron tracks were scrapped. I don’t know how or why, but Bodie has captured my heart. Bodie State Park is an Old West town rumored to be the best preserved of all abandoned towns in America, so of course, I had to check it out for myself. It had hot summers and harsh winters. Bodie Ghost Town. Bodie : SummitPost.org : Climbing, hiking, mountaineering. This video shows the old gold mining ghost town of Bodie. Leave a town to rot. This, everyone, is the story of a Ghost town. Its more than 170 remaining buildings are kept in a state of “arrested decay” in the Bodie California State Historic Park. Comment It was reported to have been a rambunctious town in the same vein as Deadwood or Tombstone. Bodie was founded in 1861 and largely abandoned by 1932. A very brief history helps shed light on the legacy of Bodie. And drank all the liquor. That’s why people left after the gold ran out. "Abandoned" is the eighth episode in the tenth season of Smallville, and the two hundred-fourth episode overall. It aired on November 12, 2010. Bodie Called to Those Seeking Fortune. Example of state park BS #1: I went to Bodie not too long after it formally became a state park and noticed something different, finally figured the state park knocked down all the outhouses. Dec 5, 2014 - Explore Suzanne Q's board "Bodie" on Pinterest. They made their homes in places like Bodie, one of the most infamous but also eerie ghost towns throughout the Wild West. When Bodie was abandoned the residents packed their stuff when they left. It's not every day we come across an abandoned home -- especially not one like the "Murphy House" in Bodie, California's "ghost town." Jun 17, 2017 - Explore Brian Terhorst's board "Bodie, California" on Pinterest. By the 1920s, the population hovered around 100; in 1942, the post office closed and Bodie was abandoned. However, the Standard Mill was closed around 1916 and just a year later the Bodie and Benton Railway was abandoned. The downturn began at the end of the 1800s, when a fire ravaged parts of the town – but Bodie was built back up and wouldn’t be wholly abandoned until the 20th century. Waterman) S. Bodey discovered gold near what is now called Bodie Bluff. 1. What to do in Bodie Ghost Town Explore the History of Bodie Ghost Town. “In 1859 William (a.k.a. The town is kept in a state of arrested decay. But now we don't know, because now it's out of context," she says. Photo credit: leftways.com. Centralia, Pennsylvania Photo Credit. Bodie is a ghost town located in California. The first label of Bodie as a "ghost town" was in 1915. Wandering through any abandoned town is eerily interesting, but what makes Bodie fascinating is that the people who lived here didn't… Considering that the Bodie State Historic Park is only open part of the year, that is quite a lot of people. Visit Bodie, California with this episode of the Amateur Traveler video podcast. Bodie is one of the best preserved ghost towns in the West. So Bodie got totally abandoned for twenty years, until it fist became a Historic Landmark, and then a State Park in 1962. How do you pronounce the Bodie Island Lighthouse? The Origins of the Curse . Today Bodie is a state park. He would grow so successful that he eventually would own the Bodie bank, leased the Mono Lake Railway & Lumber Company (formerly known as the Bodie and Benton Railroad,) became the town’s principal property owner, and the owner of the Standard Mill. Supposedly, the curse can be lifted by returning the items to the town. See more ideas about ghost towns, abandoned places, abandoned buildings. The California State Historical Parks System finally took over the town in 1962 and made it into a State Historical Park, dubbing it the official gold rush ghost town of California. During the Gold Rush, hundreds of rough and rowdy men flocked to Northern California’s most remote and rugged edges to strike it rich. They weren't stupid, just unemployed, and Bodie is not very hospitable in the winter. It may be abandoned now, but back in the 19th century, Cerro Gordo was once a bustling hub for mining silver. After a mine cave-in in 1875 revealed vast quantities of gold ore, people from all over the world rushed to the high desert town. It stands 156 feet (48 m) tall and is located on the Roanoke Sound side of the first island that is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.The lighthouse is just south of Nags Head, a few miles before Oregon Inlet. Melissa Larosa-Steele faved this . The first Bodie Island lighthouse was built in 1847 and had to be abandoned due to a failing foundation, while the second lighthouse, which was built in 1859, was destroyed by retreating Confederate troops to keep it out of Union hands in 1861. Bodie, a town that served those who traveled west during the gold rush, is now a historical park. The last mine closed in 1942, due to War Production Board order L-208, shutting down all nonessential gold mines in the United States. Due to Bodie’s status as a landmark, there are only about a … The Bodie Ghost Town went from a vibrant and rowdy mining town to an abandoned town that is in arrested decay. It was founded in 1865 following the discovery of silver in the area by a man named Pablo Flores. See more ideas about ghost towns, bodie california, abandoned places. Abandoned. A car abandoned in Bodie (Carly Severn/KQED) Jones and her colleagues now have no way of knowing exactly where in the park it originated. A mill was established in 1861 and the town began to grow. Bodie was one of the best gold mining locations in California in its peak years of 1877 – 1882. The Curse of Bodie brings bad luck to artifact thieves who steal the things its former residents left behind, possibly frightened by a supernatural event or after a catastrophic medical event. Once Flores set up silver mining productions in Cerro Gordo, it became a flourishing mining town. Photographer Jeff Sullivan captured what it looks like today. Bodie: A City of Abandoned Dreams The Gold Rush was founded on a promise of prosperity, but too often left only ruins behind. The town of Bodie is not as notorious as Deadwood in South Dakota or Jerome in Arizona, but the Bodie ghost town of California is a still rich with history. The first gold nuggets in California were … It officially became a ghost town in the early 1900s. In a time when auto travel was on a rise, many were adventuring into Bodie via automobiles. Nowadays about 200,000 people visit Bodie every year. As of June 24, 1994, only 140 of the grave sites had been located. The last burial to take place in the Bodie cemetery was on August 14,1994, when Kenneth L. Mckeough – born in Bodie in 1908 – was interred. 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