Gold Mining May Return to Bodie

When a young girl discovered her family was moving to California’s most notorious gold-mining town, she lamented in her diary: “Goodby God, I’m going to Bodie,” a phrase that afterward became famous throughout the West.

Born of an 1859 gold strike in desolate, high-desert country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Bodie became known for its bad climate and bad men.

Fueled by the wares of 65 saloons, the hard-drinking miners made street fighting their favorite pastime. Undertakers carried losers to the cemetery almost every day.

When the mines finally gave out after yielding more than $100 million in gold, its 10,000 residents left and Bodie became a ghost town. To save the site and about 170 buildings that remained, the state made Bodie a historic park in 1962.

Maintained in what has been described as a state of “arrested decay,” Bodie is the most authentic ghost town in California.

Ironically, gold mining may be revived at Bodie. However rich the diggings, some folks are up in arms. Citizens have formed a “Save Bodie!” group to prevent an international gold-mining corporation from digging into the hills above the town.

Galactic Resources of Vancouver, Canada, has bought inactive mining claims on private lands on Bodie Bluff and on an adjacent ridge that overlooks the park. The company also has filed claim to adjoining property under control of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Studies have indicated that more than 1.25 million ounces of gold and 10 million ounces of silver could be recovered from open-pit or other mines and by using modern machinery and techniques to extract the metal. Galactic’s subsidiary, Bodie Consolidated Mining Co., based in Bridgeport, Calif., made drilling tests last year.

The company plans additional tests at the end of this month. Meanwhile, the state Senate adopted a resolution earlier this month requesting that the federal government withdraw mining as a permitted use of land around Bodie.

The Save Bodie! group is worried that open-pit mining will damage, if not destroy, the character and setting of the ghost town.

The group is seeking to prevent change in the area surrounding the town, which is designated a National Historic Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

To visit Bodie, drive north from Los Angeles on U.S. 395. A few miles beyond Mono Lake but before reaching Bridgeport, turn right on California 270.

The road wanders 13 miles eastward through uninhabited terrain before ending at Bodie. The last three miles are unpaved. In a basin rimmed by barren hills you’ll find Bodie, which resembles a Hollywood Western movie set.

Dirt streets of this town 8,375 feet above sea level are flanked by rippled boardwalks leading past false-front buildings of weathered wood and tin roofs. A bell tower marks the old Methodist Church, and on a hillside, off in the distance, is the Standard Mine stamping mill.

The mine’s success (about $15 million in gold in 25 years), starting in 1878, brought prosperity. Some miners and entrepreneurs, of course, never left town. They are buried on another hillside in a cemetery that had separate sections for members of the Miners’ Union and the Masonic Hall, respected citizens and the Chinese.

A granite block marks the resting place of town founder Waterman S. Body (also known as William S. Bodey). He discovered gold here in 1859 but died later that year in a blizzard. In winter, snow can pile up 20 feet high, winds can get up to 100 m.p.h. and temperatures can drop 30 to 40 degrees below zero.

The spelling of the town name as Bodie, instead of Body, has been attributed to an illiterate sign painter. But historians contend it that was deliberately written that way to prevent mispronunciation to “bah-dee.”

It costs $3 per car entry fee at the parking lot or at the entry station, which reopens Memorial Day weekend. Afterward, go down the trail to town and the park office on Green Street. For four quarters a machine will spew out a Bodie brochure with a walking-tour map.

Smoking is prohibited in the 500-acre park except for the parking lot. Fires in 1892 and 1932, as well as vandals and cold winters, have destroyed about 95% of the original structures.

There is still plenty to see. All of Bodie’s remaining buildings have been preserved just as they were when the last residents left in 1935. A watchman patrolled Bodie until it became a park 28 years ago. Today the only population is nine--two rangers, a maintenance man and their families.

Although all buildings are closed to the public, guests can peek in windows and open doors.

Beginning Memorial Day weekend and continuing through the summer the 112-year-old Miners’ Union Hall reopens as the park’s visitor center and museum. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A visit also can be made to the sparsely furnished Miller House, whose owner, Tom Miller, worked for a railway that transported the pine lumber used for building much of Bodie.

Also beginning Memorial Day weekend, visitors may take a guided tour of the Standard Mill, where gold ore was crushed and processed.

One-hour tours, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., are offered on weekends throughout summer. Each is limited to 20 people. For a reservation, get a tour token at the visitor center and museum when you first enter the park.

Bodie has no restaurants, shops or other commercial facilities. If you bring food and drinks, you can lunch in the picnic area.

Camping is outlawed. The nearest campgrounds, lodgings, restaurants and gas stations are south at Lee Vining and north at Bridgeport.

Park hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but closing time extends to 7 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends.

For information, including weather and road conditions, call (619) 647-6445.

For more information about proposed mining activity around Bodie, write to Save Bodie!, P.O. Box 28366, Sacramento 95828, and Mark Whitehead, Project Manager, Bodie Consolidated Mining Co., P.O. Box 869, Bridgeport, Calif. 93517.

Round trip from Los Angeles to Bodie State Historic Park is 710 miles.