A Ghost Town Frozen In Time: Bodie, CA
A Ghost Town Frozen In Time: Bodie, CA
This week I visited the abandoned mining town of Bodie, CA. Bodie was a gold mining boom town in the 1800s that shared some similar characters to Cerro Gordo.
Bodie was taken over the the State of California in 1962 and has since remained in a state of ‘arrested decay.’ I went there this week to learn a bit more about the town, it’s caretakers, and the efforts they go to in order to preserve Bodie. There is a lot to learn from the experience at Bodie that I can translate back at Cerro Gordo!
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Mailing Address: PO Box 490, Lone Pine, CA 93545
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I came across your channel a few weeks ago. I so enjoy watching your video’s as I love old towns like Bodie and now Cerro Gordo. We have visited Bodie many times over the years beginning in 1985 and continued to enjoy it ever since. Thanks for taking me back again and building and restoring your own town, I really enjoy history.
Can you please add closed captioning to this? I would love to watch it.
My favorite part of Bodie is the out houses and the covered enclosures from the house to the out house. The way they were protected in the winter
I’ve been to Bodie many times, have memories of camping with my kids in Virginia Lakes and going down there for a day trip, with a stop in Bridgeport for ice cream! I’ve got a picture of my kids and their cousins on those same church steps. That was 20 years ago, they’re all grown up now living their lives, but we’ll always have the memories of Bodie, probably one of the best preserved ghost towns in the old west.
"Each building has a presence".. I cant tell you how many old buildings or places I’ve been in and I can tell you that absolutely they all have their own presence
In Cerro Gordo did some of the miners have their family, wife and children ? If so, was there a school and a store?
Awesome. I would love to see that.
Great documentary style video of Bodie. Especially enjoyed how you explained the importance of history and how it relates to us, present day.
More stuff about this fabulous town: Several CA state employes live in the town.
You walk around and kick cans and pick up artifacts from the 19th c.
The town was lawless and had over 60 saloons in a one mile stretch. Lol
The gold mining attracted a lot of criminals and prostitutes.
The area’s climate is actually classified as sub arctic.
History, in and of itself, is fascinating. I’m glad there are people out there that care enough to preserve it.
Nice quality video, but too much time is spent on the guy sitting somewhere staring into the camera chatting away, and not enough time on the town itself. I’ve been to Bodie many times, summer and winter, and it’s an awesome place, but a big part of how hard life was there, is it’s remoteness and particularly it’s elevation of some 8300′ (2500 meters), which is also why it is so well preserved; it is extremely dry at that elevation. That also makes it either brutally cold, or oppressively hot depending on the season, and the people living there would often die from exposure, including the founder, supposedly after a night of drinking unable to stagger home. Everything was brought in by mule teams early on, and later in the wintertime by heavy tractors. Every bit of food and wood for building and heating and cooking was brought in from miles away, since the few trees at that elevation were long gone. There are mountains of tin cans from the food people consumed, and many homes are completely covered in flattened tins nailed to the roofs and the walls. It was a hellish life for sure as the graveyard shows; many children didn’t make it past the first year of life. All this and more could have been mentioned and shown in this video, but I guess the CP chose to primarily highlight himself and his town and issues. Bodie is definitely worth a visit, but do yourself a favor and read up on it before going. And btw, one route from Bodie back to civilization, follows a nice dirt road to Mono Lake, which is an equally amazing place in itself, and the primary location for a brutal Clint Eastwood movie, but that’s another story and all buildings were torn down after filming anyway. Enjoy
Brent. Check out Bodie days in August. They have all the volunteers and locals in costume and character, even the baseball team! Thanks for this video, Bodie is a very special place for me. Glad you experienced.
read the book "A Year in Bodie" by Carl Chavez, it was his first assignment – starting in fall, with his new wife. In winter they had to use a geuine Sno Cat to get from Bodie out to their road vehicle.
By nickname is Bodie
I first went there in July of 1962, My family was on a road trip, with a 15 foot trailer towed by a ’58 Ford station wagon. For some reason my father decided to take the Cottonwood Canyon Road, from Mono Lake, which was not maintained at that time. It was a harrowing trip, with my father cursing the fates that brought him there. But when we caught our first glimpse of the town, we were enchanted. There was no parking lot then, and we parked on Main Street. Ella Cain was selling postcards in the schoolhouse. A storm blew-in from out of nowhere, and my father thought we’d be trapped, so we quickly exited out the road that everyone uses today. It was all dirt then. I’ve returned many times since, and though I doubt I’ll ever be back, I treasure the memories and photos from that first trip.
That’s awesome 👌
I wanna know how bad are the snakes 🐍
I remember traveling out west as a kid, seeing old building and abandoned mines out of the window of the car at nearly every turn. It was mystical. So inspiring, waiting to be explored. There is a never ending fascination with our own human history that is so, so important to preserve and study.
In one of your previous videos you came across crystals in one of the mines around Cg. It made me think of a Louis L’more book where a guy was mining a gold vein. He found it because of a vein of quartz that it was mixed with. Wonder if that is typical at all and if it is, was that what you found?
I been there,,it’s a must see town,,what a great video and story you Create it with this video
Been there once and I’ll never forget it
Too loud I’m gone slow down find a place to slow down
Bodie is astonishing. We rode our motorcycles out it a few years back and was a greea trip. That washboard road back to it on a hardtail chopper was no fun at all though lol
Does this guy own a mining town? Im not sure cuz he only mentioned it 36 times. Anyone have his number? I need to get this answer
I got to visit Bodie back in the 70’s. It is frozen in time. and beautiful. I’ve always wished I could return.
Yeah you made me cry… the way you talk about your philosophy is so on point with mine…. I love your town but Bodies 👍 Thankyou and much ❤️ from Cincinnati,Ohio. And yes I did notice the safe, lol 😆
I am sending you a letter via snail mail with a review of this video and some suggested material for producing a clearer reality and condition of Bodie in its time and Ghost Town the Old West, and historical philosophy in general. I wrote a comment so long that this comment section could not contain it.
Oh I can think of the potential of one problem we face that they didn’t and that is, they didn’t have the threat of nukes, glad they didn’t. Love the videos, you do a wonderful job explaining these beautiful properties.
You need to post the link to the save link
Thx Awesome Job ! jss
I use to live in the stanislaus national forest in a little town call Twain Harte at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I use to ride my motorcycles over the range, down into Nevada and then ride south and go back west through Yosemite… at least twice a year and I have been to Bodie several times. It’s an awesome place and watching your videos really reminds me of that town. I would love to visit your town some day. I now live in Oklahoma but maybe one day I will make it back out that way. Keep up the good work. I just found your channel through demolition ranch and I have been binge watching ever since. Thank you for sharing!
I see wood and lumber but no trees!
Brent, How much Money would one of these Miner make back in that day?
cool
I have always appericated history about Bodie i have been there many times and always manage to find interesting new things. I feel close to this ghost town especially because my godparents are Bodies themselves.
Brent, you did a excellent job of filming, narrating and describing what life was like in this rough and tumble place.
I also really like what you’re doing at Cerro Gordo. Someday, I would like to visit Cerro Gordo with some Funds.
My great grandfather was a miner in Bodie. My grandfather and his two sisters lived there with my great great grandparents. The house they lived in is still standing and my great Aunt Rosalie graduated 8th grade in Bodie! As I watched your video I saw my grandparents home. 🥰
some great pictures and footage of Bodie. I have some family history in the area, and with cerro Gordo. I would like if you hiked the tehachapi mountains. somewhere there is a hideout, that hundreds of people could live in, and people did, for about 160 years, until my great grandparents and 60 others came down so they could find a dr so my grandmother could be born. before and after that, we would take game, fruite, and veg, and nuts up to the mining camps. in my family, we had interests in the cowboy mine, and another mine, I’m not sure about. they had silver, some gold, rubies, and opals. My great grandmother was kidnapped from fort tejon, and taken to spain, them man got hit over the head for his gold, ether at the cowboy mine, or one near cerro gordo. Your video’s are pretty amazing. I saw some places when I was very small, maybe 8, and 10. I saw the salt tram, from the lake a couple of times, and was told, great uncles and cousins worked on it, and they stole horses and mules from cerro gordo. a dr was found, but he was retired, and was annoyed at being taken away from his gold digging.
I know a meth head when I see one
this is my dream town
I love your videos and learning about the history of these mining towns!!
10 thousand people used to live here. Now it’s a ghost town!
Why do others do such stupid things to destroy our history???? I am behind you our friend and will support you!!!
I’ve been to Bodie back in the 80s and it’s the best ghost town that I’ve ever been to. Remember the rock band Cinderella filmed a video there? I’ve also been to Calico back when I was a kid don’t remember much about it but it seems like it is good as well. Keep up the good work!
I certainly prefer your approach to restoring buildings. Having something you can walk into and isnt going to collapse is much better than a suspended collapse in Bodie, that may happen anyway with no windows etc.
Where is my epic car? a 30’s style chevi coupe.. it’s an icon of this place.. probably was(
"Canadian" company? I’d bet dollars to donuts the actual company is "Chinese"
Thanks for the tour of Bodie! That was pretty cool, and yes your right, we do look to nostalgia.
Good show this guy does his home work. Enjoy them all
What an amazing experience…..I would love to see it.
Was hoping this was the town that had a huge concrete stamp mill, where the mine flooded after hitting water. I visited but can’t remember name.
The shaft was flooded to the surface. Huge tailing pile. and everything was concrete. Calf/Nev? Any clues?