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Bodie was also widely considered to have “the worst climate out of doors.” Winters produced “snow as much as twenty feet deep, winds to a hundred miles an hour and temperatures down to 30 or even 40 degrees below zero.” Bodie’s houses were generally poorly constructed and many residents, especially the new arrivals, were not adequately prepared for the severe winters. Many died of exposure or disease.
Main Street was once a solid mile of one and two story frame buildings. However, only about five percent of the buildings Bodie contained during the 1880s still stand. The rest of the town has been destroyed over the decades by fire and the elements. The big fire of July 25, 1892 wiped out all but a few buildings of the town’s business district. The Standard Mill was destroyed by fire in 1898, but was rebuilt the following year. On June 23, 1932, a small boy playing with matches started another fire.
The Spire of the old Methodist Church is the tallest (and most often photographed) structure still standing in the once wealthy town reputed far and wide for its wickedness. Among the other buildings still standing are the firehouse, schoolhouse, barbershop, post office, jail, sawmill, machine shop, hydroelectric building, icehouse, several hotels, boarding houses and stables, two stores, the Miners Union Hall, the Standard Mine and Mill (closed to the public) and numerous private residences. The interiors of many of these buildings have been preserved almost exactly as they were when they were abandoned. Thus visitors can peek through tattered lace curtains into dusty rooms with peeling wallpaper, wood stoves, bed frames, wash basins, tables, plates, glassware, the occasional item of clothing, even a morgue complete with caskets. Bodie’s Boone Store, which remained in business until the 1930s, appears today as it did when the state of California acquired it, shelves and display cases still stocked with everything from dry goods and hair tonic to Mills Brothers coffee and Ghirardelli Chocolate.
Bodie State Historic Park is open year-round, although winter storms can be brutal and Bodie Road is usually closed by snow from November through mid-April. Visitors can pick up a self-guided tour brochure at the ranger’s office/residence on Green Street or at the museum in the old Miner’s Union Hall.
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