Bodie, California is a town out in the middle of nowhere, just north of Mono Lake, and is the most authentic ghost town in the country. It’s so famous, they built a state park around the town. It had in its heyday all the elements of a good Western. There was a bank, a jail, a cemetery, saloons and a couple churches. There were main characters like the  sheriff, a banker, stagecoach driver, a minister, many miners and yes, a few prostitutes. It all started in ’49 gold rush of course. Gold fever swept the whole Sierra Nevada Mountain range, and Bodie on its eastern slope as miners came with dreams of striking it rich. 

Lonely and windswept now, in its heyday, from 1878 to 1882, over 10,000 people populated Bodie and inhabited about 800 buildings. Now only 100 buildings remain standing in a state of “arrested decay”. Many of the buildings were destroyed in a large fire in 1932. By then the town was already declining due to mine closings, prohibition and the depression. The fire seemed to push the last remaining people out. Because people left in a hurry, there are many personal items left which make this town so interesting.  By 1943 only three people remained in Bodie.