2022 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
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This was one of the more interesting articles I wrote, took two months of research to write the article. Fascinating stuff.
www.pashnit.com
The last three miles of the road to Bodie Ghost Town are gravel, and the park service tells us they'll never pave it.
Probably not what this bike as designed for.
Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
The last three miles of the road to Bodie Ghost Town are gravel, and the park service tells us they'll never pave it.
Probably not what this bike as designed for.
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Bodie Ghost Town is one of my favorite places in California. I have brought many people here for the first time over the last 20 years, so much so, that I began buying books about the boom town a few years ago and reading the history. One of the best books I’ve read on Bodie is Mining Camp Days, by Emil W. Billeb. (You can still buy this book on eBay or Amazon). Here’s a guy that actually lived in Bodie, was there when the town was active, and published his memoir of his experiences in 1968. Everything in the book is first-person perspective. I eventually combed through my several books I had acquired during visits here along with about another 30 articles of various topics pertaining to the town to write up an outline, and spend several weeks writing my own Pashnit article about the town.
We generally spend an hour+ here, although that’s never enough, a half day goes by in a flash wandering around the town. You can’t take two steps without looking down to see an old can, a bucket, a car axle, you name it, strewn about the grounds. 10% of the town remains + 10,000 people once lived here atop this mountain at 8300 ft. The more you read into the history of this town, the more interesting it gets.
www.pashnit.com
We generally spend an hour+ here, although that’s never enough, a half day goes by in a flash wandering around the town. You can’t take two steps without looking down to see an old can, a bucket, a car axle, you name it, strewn about the grounds. 10% of the town remains + 10,000 people once lived here atop this mountain at 8300 ft. The more you read into the history of this town, the more interesting it gets.
Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
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Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
By 1879-1880, Bodie grew to accommodate an estimated 8500 residents spanning 2000 buildings. Estimates as high as 10,000 townspeople were claimed, although much debate swirls around the 10,000 number and the number has never been accurately substantiated. Census takers listed 5416 names in the mid-1880s, but newspapers of the time argued many people were not counted.
Some 65 saloons lined the mile-long main street. Behind the saloons was a red-light district, known tongue-in-cheek as Maiden Lane or Virgin Alley. Miners earned on average $4.00 per day, about $100 in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation. On payday, there was nowhere to go except into town to spend their earnings, whether at the saloon, the brothel, or the opium den. Murders, shootouts, stage holdups and alcohol-fueled barroom brawls were commonplace. Bodie quickly gained a reputation as one of the last true Wild West towns. To feed the thousands of people who lived here, 200 restaurants offered food to hungry miners.
On average, Bodie has 303 nights below freezing every year. No month has ever been frost free. Having 80% of the calendar year below freezing each night presented special challenges to those living at the 8375-foot elevation in 1880. Residents took tin shingles and shingled the exterior sides of their wooden homes, then took newspaper, and papered their interior walls to prevent blowing snow into their homes. If those weren’t available, they even used canvas to wrap the exterior of the home.
Winter storms produced 100+ mph winds and whiteout conditions. Residents got lost crossing the street and died, their frozen bodies found in spring under piles of snow. High winds were known to generate snow drifts 20 feet high past the second story windows of the school house.
An idea of how crazy the weather is at this elevation. This was a couple of days ago, with the last <normal> winter storm we had pass over the Sierra Nevada Range.
Yes, that's 140 mph winds these people endured.
Some 65 saloons lined the mile-long main street. Behind the saloons was a red-light district, known tongue-in-cheek as Maiden Lane or Virgin Alley. Miners earned on average $4.00 per day, about $100 in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation. On payday, there was nowhere to go except into town to spend their earnings, whether at the saloon, the brothel, or the opium den. Murders, shootouts, stage holdups and alcohol-fueled barroom brawls were commonplace. Bodie quickly gained a reputation as one of the last true Wild West towns. To feed the thousands of people who lived here, 200 restaurants offered food to hungry miners.
On average, Bodie has 303 nights below freezing every year. No month has ever been frost free. Having 80% of the calendar year below freezing each night presented special challenges to those living at the 8375-foot elevation in 1880. Residents took tin shingles and shingled the exterior sides of their wooden homes, then took newspaper, and papered their interior walls to prevent blowing snow into their homes. If those weren’t available, they even used canvas to wrap the exterior of the home.
Winter storms produced 100+ mph winds and whiteout conditions. Residents got lost crossing the street and died, their frozen bodies found in spring under piles of snow. High winds were known to generate snow drifts 20 feet high past the second story windows of the school house.
An idea of how crazy the weather is at this elevation. This was a couple of days ago, with the last <normal> winter storm we had pass over the Sierra Nevada Range.
Yes, that's 140 mph winds these people endured.
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By 1876 as the deepest mine shafts reached 1,200 feet, the Standard Company bored into a profitable deposit of gold-bearing ore. Even more high-grade ore was discovered in 1878 by the adjacent Bodie Mine. Each discovery of gold attracted more hopefuls, and Bodie prospered during this time of 1877 to 1880. Over 10,000 tons of ore was extracted by the Standard Mining Company and yielded close to $15M over the next 25 years.
The discovery of gold at Bodie is commonly attributed to William Bodie (spelling variations of the name abound). A tinsmith, originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, Bodie left his wife and 2 children in 1848 for the gold fields of California arriving in the first wave of Argonauts in 1849 then settling in Tuolumne County near Sonora. Bodie is said to have continued his trade as a tinsmith, regularly writing to his wife back in New York while participating in social clubs and joining the fire department. Bodie had joined one of the largest mass migrations in modern history with the promise of gold in California. Argonauts thought they would collect their fortune in gold, and then return home as heroes. Very few actually found gold. Many never returned.
Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
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The ghost town of Bodie is currently in a state of arrested decay, a term coined by the park service. The park service maintains the buildings, but keeps them looking like it’s still 1880. An author once remarked after visiting over 500 ghost towns in 12 states that Bodie is the best preserved of them all. It’s not uncommon to see some sort of upkeep on the buildings, a roof being shingled, or general maintenance. If shingles need replacing, they are identical to how they looked in 1880.
Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
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Bodie State Historic Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Visit the Ghost Town of Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Range
www.pashnit.com
Last edited:
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