The ghost town of Bodie in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Bridgeport, California is perhaps the best preserved icon of the gold rush days of the American West. Kept in a state of arrested decay by the California State Parks, this national historic landmark is a rich source of photographic inspiration and a colorful step back in time.
In its heyday of the 1880s Bodie’s population grew to nearly 10,000 and an estimated 100,000 million dollars of gold was culled from the surrounding hills. Gunfights occurred regularly in the streets after long days working the mines, the gambling halls and brothels thrived, and the bad men from Bodie quickly became legend across the country.
Today Bodie is quiet except for the occasional tumble weed blowing down Main Street and the creaking buildings that look as if they may collapse at any moment. But as you look through a window at the stocked shelves of the Boone Store or the open books in the school-house it’s not hard to imagine the challenging life of the pioneers who flocked to this remote valley in pursuit of that precious metal.