California 30th October, a town called Bodie, the end .... definitely

February 05, 2015

We had eaten in a rather lonely picnic area with only some crows for company. After lunch the low cloud started to clear and blue sky emerged. We walked back into the town past the head frame, and hoist machinery into Green Street.

The weak sunshine seemed to have injected a shot of life into the surroundings. The house to the right in the picture below is the Dolan House. Two Mono County sheriffs lived in this house in around 1900. Below that is the Methodist Church built in 1882. There was a Catholic church as well but this burnt down in 1928. The interior of the Methodist Church was badly vandalised, but seems to have had a lick of paint. I have next put in a map of this area of Bodie showing the buildings around the centre.

The DV Cain House (above) is now inhabited by the resident ranger. There were 2 Cain houses in Bodie. This one belonged to the son, David Cain (known as Vick). Built in 1870 it is the oldest house in Bodie. Vick brought his bride Ella Cody to Bodie in 1904 and his father, who was living here at the time moved up the road.

Walking east we came to the Red Barn a very large structure typical of many that used to exist in Bodie

Next we came to the grandest house in Bodie, the James Stuart Cain House standing on the corner of Green and Park Streets. James Cain came to Bodie when he was 25 and made money by transporting timber for the Bodie mines. He expanded, with the Bodie Railroad and Lumber Company, then with Joe Maguire, he leased some ground from the Standard Mine and in 90 days extracted 90,000 dollars worth of gold. It was discovered that the Standard Mine had illegally tapped into Cain's mine so Cain took them to court. The cost of the settlement was so great Cain took over the Standard Mine. He went on to own the bank and most of the property in town, staying on after the second disastrous fire in 1932 and taking over the properties as people left the town. In 1958 he requested that California create a state park to save Bodie and this was achieved in 1962.

In the large window at the front of the house have been placed a large number of glass bottles.

Next door to the J S Cain house, on Park Street is the sawmill, used for cutting firewood. It must have been extremely busy over the winter months although all the timber would have been brought into Bodie by wagon, train or later, lorry. Then further down Park Street is the Donnelly House seen 3rd below on the left of the picture.

The Donnelly house was occupied by Charles Donnelly, a butcher who married an English woman Annie Pagdin, an artist. It was said that the front garden was the only place in Bodie that could sustain anything green and conveniently, hops were grown here. The house on the right is the Seiler House.

Opposite the J S Cain House on Green Street we saw the Boone Store and Warehouse. Erected in 1879 this was the general store. It was owned by Harvey Boone, a direct descendent of Daniel Boone.

Mr Boone also owned the next door garage.

The store lies on the junction of Green and Main Street. Further down Main Street is the fire station which must have worked overtime. There were 2 major fires in Bodie, one in 1892 and then another in 1932 caused by a little boy playing with matches! On both occasions there was plenty of water in the reservoirs but the screens were clogged with stones and mud as they had not be cleaned and the water could not be extracted.

Above is the view looking across from the fire station towards the schoolhouse. The brick construction is the hydroelectric building.

Opposite the fire station on Main Street we could see the Lottie Johl House, The interior of this is charming. Lottie Johl was a prostitute but married a local butcher and so elevated her status, although apparently some folk never forgot her origin. She took to painting in her married life. Later in time the house was used as a post office looked after by a Mary McDonell.

Further down main Street we came across the Sam Leon Bar attached to the Barber Shop. Sam was the last Chinese person left in Bodie and worked here operating a bar and restaurant even during the prohibition times of the 30's. It was not a family venue and Sam it was rumoured brought ladies in over the weekends for the convenience of his customers.

We now turned about to go back to 'downtown' Bodie. We passed the Swazey Hotel again, one of the more rickety buildings in Bodie.

And then past the undertakers premises to the Bodie Odd Fellows Lodge and the Post Office. The lodge was inaugurated in 1878 by Grand master Charles Rendell. It was also used by Bodie Athletic Club. The brick built building was a post office in 1879 and then became Grandma Johnson's Rooming House before morphing into the Dechambeau Hotel.

Scattered around Bodie are the remains of rusting cars and machinery which no photographer can resist. I have included some of these and also a few rather charming interior shots of a rather beautiful bedroom.

Finally, although our feet were aching, we had to go to the graveyard. The respectable citizens were buried in the cemetery although there was a boot hill outside. I have not spoken about the murders which took place in Bodie or the strange tale of the doctor who was found to have dug a fresh body from her grave for the purposes of dissection, but I will include a list of my references at the end of this blog where all can be revealed.