Bodie State Historic Park

Part ofEastern Sierra & Owens Valley

On this driveU.S. 395: The Eastern Sierra

A gold town of ten thousand left exactly as it emptied, held in arrested decay at 8,375 feet.

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Duration

Three hours minimum; the townsite is large and rewards slow walking.

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Admission

State park day-use fee per person.

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Best Season

Late spring through October; the road is unplowed in winter.

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Fun Fact

The town was left with its contents in place, so the general store still displays stock on its shelves and the schoolhouse still holds its books.

The Story

W. S. Bodey found placer gold in these hills in the summer of 1859 and died in a snowstorm that winter, which set the tone. The town stayed small until a mine cave-in in 1875 exposed a rich vein, the Standard Company bought in two years later, and by 1879 something close to ten thousand people lived up here at 8,375 feet, in more than two thousand buildings, drinking in something like sixty-five saloons. A child hauled here by her family reportedly wrote in her diary: Goodbye God, I am going to Bodie. The bust began in 1881, fires in 1892 and 1932 took most of the town, and the last mining stopped in 1942.

About one building in twenty survives, roughly 110 of them, and California keeps them in what it calls arrested decay: stabilized against collapse, never restored. Roofs are patched from the inside; walls stay crooked. Interiors were left as found, so the shelves in the general store still hold goods, the schoolhouse still has its desks and books, and there is a pool table waiting in a saloon.

It became a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and a state park the next year, which is the only reason any of it is still standing.

The last three miles of CA-270 are unpaved and the road is not plowed in winter, when access is by snowmobile or ski. Check conditions before committing to the drive.