At the Mono Lake Visitor Center was literature on Bodie, California, a ghost town preserved by California State Parks as Bodie State Historic Park. I’m a sucker for ghost towns, especially if it’s accessible by 10 miles of nice paved road followed by three miles of washboard gravel.
Here’s a look around town:
-
- Love those washboard roads. Bodie in the distance
-
- First stop: church, even though it’s Methodist
-
- Our new truck
-
- I think this hearse is in the movie filmed in Bodie
-
- Bodie had its own baseball field
-
- To play baseball, you need your baseball mittens
-
- You can peek in the windows
-
- School
-
- Panoramic view from the stamp mill complex
Only 10% of the town remains. The big fire in 1932 destroyed the rest. Being past its heyday, they did not rebuild. A not-very-good Western movie was filmed in Bodie in 1929 (Hell’s Heroes), so you can see a little more of how the town used to look:
From Bodie we headed to Death Valley and through to the Motel 6 in Beatty, NV, with a stop in Lee Vining for lunch at Nicely’s (review: meh). First stay at a Motel 6 in a long time and it was very positive. Ok, it’s not a Marriott, but the room was clean and basic. No hair dryer, no free breakfast, and Wi-Fi would have been $5 extra. For under $70 it was a good value.
But wait, there was more to Bodie. Next post will be all about the stamp mill and how it was powered. I’m sure you can’t wait.