Why California Won't Restore This Ghost Town

Bodie boomed on gold in the late 1870s and faded over the next sixty years. Since 1962, California has kept it in arrested decay: braced and repaired, but never restored. We test the town's legends, including its famous curse, against the records to find out why. Historical photographs are labelled on screen with their dates; modern photographs are labelled as modern. The 1962 photographs are from the Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress); the 2012 photographs are from The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress. Thumbnail: modern photograph by Rennett Stowe (CC BY 2.0), cropped, lightly colour-adjusted, text added. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:51 1. A name without a record 1:13 2. Boomtown 2:12 3. The wild west version 3:10 4. The long goodbye 4:16 5. The deal 5:45 6. The story that guards the town    / @beyondtheview360   Sources: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=31546 https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509 https://www.nps.gov/places/bodie-hist... Photos cropped, colour-adjusted and animated; date labels added. CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Rennett Stowe from USA: "Storm in the Old West (36819414495)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... daveynin from United States: "J.S. Cain Residence - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Looking outside from inside - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Snowy day in Bodie - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Abandoned Littering - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie's Methodist Church - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Steel windows shut closed - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Shell, anyone - Flickr - daveynin" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Mike McBey: "Leaning hotel, Bodie (24922322987)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie Ghost Town (38893547595)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie ghost town (48315697947)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie Methodist Church (Abandoned) - Flickr - M McBey" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Thomas Kriese: "Bodie CA in 2009" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie CA - mine building" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... claralieu: "Bodie, California -47" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Mispahn from Hamburg, Germany: "Bodie CA - ghost town" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Adan Garcia: "Bodie, CA (49668940067)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Melissa Wiese from Sacramento, CA, recently of Fresno, CA, United States of America: "Bodie CA - building" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... mypubliclands: "Bodie Hills Wilderness Studdy Area IMG 2275" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Fall Colors, Bodie Hills Wilderness Studdy Area - 51629030843" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Rennett Stowe: "Lost Gold Mine" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Eric T Gunther: "Bodie California ghost town" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... | "Bodie Ghost town California" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... David Broad: "Bodie Ghost Town, Sierra Nevada, California - panoramio (1)" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... #Bodie #GhostTown #California