The story
Bodie is the benchmark American ghost town. Gold was found here in 1859, but the real boom came after 1876, when the Standard Company hit a rich vein. By 1879 roughly 8,000 people lived at 8,400 feet in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada, supporting around 60 saloons and a reputation as one of the roughest mining camps in the West.
The rich ore didn't last. Mining declined through the 1880s and the town shrank for the next fifty years. Fires in 1892 and 1932 took out most of the business district, and the post office closed in 1942.
California made what was left a state historic park in 1962 with a policy it calls arrested decay: the buildings are stabilized but never restored. About 110 structures survive, and many interiors were simply left as they were — furniture in the houses, goods on the store shelves, lessons still on the schoolhouse board.
What remains today
About 110 original buildings, including the Methodist church, the schoolhouse, the Standard Mill, and houses with intact interiors. Widely considered the best-preserved ghost town in the United States.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Bodie — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Bodie's permanent record.
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