A famous quote from a young girl's diary, "Goodbye God, I'm Going to Bodie," was used commonly to express the complete wickedness of the town during its heyday. At the time of its gold rush in 1879, there were 10,000 residents, numerous brothels, and 65 saloons, with daily murders, robberies, stage coach holdups and street fights.
Now, Bodie is a state park with about 5 percent of the original buildings (most of the town burnt down) in a condition of arrested decay. At over 8,000 ft in evelation without a tree to be seen, the climate is brutal. We listened to the docent explain what life was like back in the days of the "wild west." He told of the the notorious Bodie 601 vigilante group who lynched a man, the prostitute who was buried right along the fence of the "respectable" cemetery, the 3 year old boy who burned over half the town because he didn't get cake and ice cream on his birthday.
All of the photos here were taken by my niece, Allison. She asked to borrow my camera and we went around together discussing what would make an interesting photo op for her.
