Bodie is a State Historic Park tucked away in the Eastern Sierra off of Highway 395. The ghost town stands in a state of arrested decay, meaning the rangers do not alter the buildings that remain unaltered, but maintained to preserve them as they were last photographed in 1962. This includes putting on new roofs, rebuilding crushed foundations, resealing windows that are framed. This entire process is to keep the park looking as it did when the miners and final residents fled without losing the structures to natural decay. 

 

Bodie’s beginnings are intricately tied to the California Gold Rush. Gold was first discovered at Sutter’s Mill in the Western Sierra in 1849. People moved from across the country, motivated by the chance to strike it rich. Nearly a decade after the strike in the Western Sierra, four prospectors made a rich strike in the Eastern Sierra but promised one another to keep it a secret until the following Spring however, one of the men, W.S. Bodey returned with a half-Cherokee man named “Black” Taylor. The two had gone to Monoville for supplies and upon their return were caught in a blizzard. Bodey died.  Camp Bodey was named for W.S. Bodey. Though, and this is interesting and so like American history, Bodey, B-O-D-E-Y was reported written B-O-D-I-E by an illiterate sign maker and the misspelling became preferred, so while the state park is named after W.S. Bodey, B-O-D-E-Y, it is spelled B-O-D-I-E. 

 

Bodie was overlooked in favor of other rich sites in the area including the near by Aurora, Nevada, though it eventually boomed in 1876.  A freak mine accident, a cave in, exposed a body of gold and the Standard Consolidated Mining Company invested in equipment and lumber. Another strike hit in 1878 in the Bodie Mine. After 6 weeks a million dollars of gold was shipped out of the town. 

 

Because of the booms Bodie’s population grew rapidly with boarding houses, hotels, restaurants, saloons and of course a red light district capitalizing on the mining town’s inhabitants. The population was diverse, it was not just business men, miners, mine operators but bar tenders, gamblers, prostitutes, Chinese and Mexican workers, and of course “Bad Men” a term used for violent men who liked to drink, gamble, shoot and steal. These Bad Men of Bodie brought the town much of it’s notoriety, many believe it is more famous for their crimes than for the mining. 

 

 

Bodie hit hard times in 1878-79 when an exceedingly tough winter killed hundreds due to exposure and disease. Mining accidents killed victims. That and the Bad Men of Bodie, it’s not surprise that one little girl’s prayer, “Goodbye God! We are going to Bodie,” has become a part of the town’s reputation and history. 

 

Despite the hardships Bodie was at one time, a thriving place with 600-800 buildings and more than 10,000 people. Though as with most mining towns, the boom eventually ends. After 1882 the town slowly declines. Two major mines combined in 1887, both the Bodie and Standard mines continued to work together for 20 more years. Fires also riddled the town, as we have mentioned in previous podcasts, wood buildings and no fire safety equipment was detrimental to many towns in the 19th and early 20th century. A fire struck in 1892, another in 1932 which destroyed much of the town. Prohibition and the Great Depression also contributed to the abandonment of the town as mining saw very minor profits. By the 1950s Bodie was a ghost town. One writer explained,  When people were leaving Bodie, there were no moving companies in the area. People simply packed what they could on one wagon or truck and left the rest behind.” He adds, “That is why many of Bodie’s buildings still contain belongings that were left here years ago” (Williams 1992, 36).

 

In 1962 Bodie became a State Historic Park and the term arrested decay was coined as the state decided how to handle the Historic Site. There are 168 remaining structures within the town and a cemetery. Many chilling stories have been reported by visitors to Bodie. Houses have been rumored to have been haunted, such as the J.S. Cain house. Cain was once a prominent businessman. His home is reportedly haunted by a Chinese woman, potentially a maid. She has been appeared to children in the second floor bedroom. And a ranger’s wife explained,  “I was lying in bed with my husband in the lower bedroom and I felt a pressure on me, as though someone was on top of me. I began fighting. I fought so hard I ended up on the floor. It really frightened me. Another ranger who had lived there, Gary Walters, had the same experience, in the same room, except that he also saw the door open and felt a presence and a kind of suffocation.” 

 

Other experiences include a woman peeking out the window of the second story of the Dechambeau House and children’s laughter can be heard by the Mendocini House and the smell of Italian cooking wafting out during long winters. A park ranger once heard the sounds of a party and assuming they were coming from the house found that it was empty. A man visiting the cemetery noticed a little girl laughing and playing with someone who could not be seen. This ghost is known as the “Angel of Bodie” and is reported to be Evelyn, the three-year-old daughter of Albert and Fannie Myers who died in 1897 when a miner’s pick accidentally hit her in the head. 

 

While there are reports of hauntings, there is also the Bodie Curse. A television documentary explains “Bodie’s inhabitants were of hardy stock, fiercely possessive of what they had built in this barren desert, and it is said that the long-dead spirits want to ensure that what they left behind remains intact. According to legend, anyone who removes anything-large or small-from the town is cursed with a string of bad luck. Misfortune and tragedy are heaped upon the victim until the stolen item is returned. Some claim that the ghosts of Bodie patrol the crumbling ruins to guard against thieves.” 

 

Joe Nickel, who provided a lot of information on the town’s history used for this podcast explains, park ranger J. Brad Sturdivant, “The curse still exists today.”  He said, “Most of it comes back in an unmarked box…We still get letters . . . from people saying, 'I'm sorry I took this, hoping my luck will change'”

 

In 1972 family visited Bodie and a little girl and her sister found a bed that people were throwing money on to, the two girls used a stick to get some of the money and the family reported having terrible financial issues, they were unable to keep a job or home. In 1994 a tourist took some souveniers and in the next year was in a horrible car wreck, lost their job and expeienced continued illneses. The items were returned. In the early 2000s two teenage girls wanted to test the curse. They took rocks and made necklaces with them, at first it was general bad luck but they intensified to physical reactions, rashes where the rocks had touched, a sprained ankle and finally a terrible earthquake trigger the girls to send the rocks back. 

 

Catie Rhodes explains, the legendary Ed Warren, an expert in Demonology had some theories about Bodies curses. He believed the town’s former residents, greedy and desparate for money instilled a supernatural power that draws those who left everything behind, and the spirits of these owners refuse to leave and move on. 

I was recently at Bodie and had a chance to read some of the letters sent to the Park. In the Museum and Visitor’s center there is a binder filled with them. 

 

A note from December 9th, 2001 reads “Dear Friends of Bodie, When I went to Bodie in August I found a pretty flower that I wanted to press and make a bookmark. That day, my Dad took my brother and I fishing as Lake Lundy. We went on a boat. I tried to cast my line, but the hook caught my brother between the eyes. That night, I took a hike and got lost in the forest. A few weeks ago, my dad was coaching my brother’s hockey practice. One of my brother’s teammates accidentally skated into my Dad. He fell backward onto the ice and hit his head. The kid’s helmet hit my Dad in the mouth and knocked his teeth out. The Doctors thought he had a concussion and a broken nose. He is okay now though. I have enclosed the flower in this envelope. I am sorry that I took the flower and I wont’ ever take anything from Bodie again.” 

 

The Bodie curse remains alive even today.