The Town Everyone Walked Away From

Bodie, California, was once a gold rush boomtown of around 8,000 people, with 65 saloons on a single mile of Main Street. Today about 110 buildings remain, with dishes on the tables and goods still on the shelves, kept by the state exactly as they were left. This is the true story of Bodie: the prospector who froze to death before the town was born, the boom that made it one of the wildest towns in the West, the brutal winters, the slow bust, the fires of 1892 and 1932, and why the town was left in a state of arrested decay. #Bodie #GhostTown #California #AmericanHistory #GoldRush Chapters: 0:00 The Town on the Hill 0:55 A Name Spelled Wrong 2:02 Boom 3:39 Bad, Bad Bodie 5:18 The Cold 6:33 The Bust 7:17 A Second Life 8:30 The Last People 10:12 Arrested Decay 11:44 What Remains Footage and photos: Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress (HABS). Music: "Mysterious Emotional Piano" by tyops (CC BY 4.0) - https://freesound.org/people/tyops/so... "Love's Aftermath" by Asher Fulero (YouTube Audio Library); "A Distant Call" by Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, Tone Seeker (YouTube Audio Library); "Red Shift" by The Grey Room / Density & Time (YouTube Audio Library); "Curse Of Old" by Density & Time (YouTube Audio Library) Image credits (Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons): King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_September_2016_016.jpg King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_September_2016_019.jpg King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_September_2016_059.jpg Utilizer (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_the_Bodie_schoolhouse,_Bodie_State_Historic_Park,_California.jpg Utilizer (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_Schoolhouse_Interior.jpg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tom_Miller_Stable_and_Ice_House_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg J.B Marshall (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comstock_lode.jpg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Stamp_Mill_in_Bodie,_California-wideshot.jpeg Marc-Lautenbacher (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghost_town_Bodie_in_the_Sierra_Nevada,_California,_USA.jpg Mike McBey (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie,_California_(39760700652).jpg Roy Point Anderson (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_Fire_station_and_Mine_Building.jpg Supercarwaar (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Safe_at_Bodie_Bank.jpg Alchemist-hp (CC BY-SA 3.0 de) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold-crystals.jpg X Trippin (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_-_streets_of_the_old_west.JPG Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_cemetery1.jpeg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morgue_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg daveynin (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snowy_day_in_Bodie_-_Flickr_-_daveynin.jpg daveynin (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wood_Street_leads_to_the_stamp_mill_-_Flickr_-_daveynin.jpg Tara Disser (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_in_Bodie,_California.jpg James St. John (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyanide_leaching_of_low_grade_gold_ore_rock_piles_(above_Squaw_Gulch,_Cripple_Creek_Mining_District,_Colorado,_USA)_4.jpg James St. John (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyanide_leaching_of_low_grade_gold_ore_rock_piles_(above_Squaw_Gulch,_Cripple_Creek_Mining_District,_Colorado,_USA)_2.jpg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Site_of_Occidental_Hotel_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg Supercarwaar (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dechambeau_Hotel_and_I.O.O.F._Hall,_Bodie.jpg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_Bank_ruins_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_S._Cain_Residence_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Site_of_Sawdust_Corner_Saloon_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg Daniel Mayer (CC BY-SA 3.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IOOF_Hall_and_Post_Office_in_Bodie,_California.jpeg Roland Arhelger (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autowrack_in_Bodie_(CA,_USA).jpg Caitlifornia (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bodie_State_Historic_Park,_an_old_hotel_in_arrested_decay.jpg daveynin (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_Bodie_residence_house_-_Flickr_-_daveynin.jpg Charles (Chuck) Holland (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3805L4_1.8k-4.jpg Cspotts (CC BY-SA 4.0) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panorama_at_Bodie,_CA._Ghost_town.jpg All other images are in the public domain or licensed from Pixabay.