I had to go searching to see if I had reposted this one before, but apparently I haven’t. I have shown the photos in past posts, but this is the first time I have put the whole post here from my visit to Bodie back in 2015.
Another thing I want to say is something that I couldn’t articulate back then. I still don’t think this is a ghost town. While they maintain it, it isn’t one. In my mind, this is a museum, and they try to show you how it was back then. That is all I was trying to say. Also, there is nothing wrong with them wanting to do that.
Here is the post.
Yesterday was all lined up to be an amazing day of photography as we traveled through Nevada again and then back to California. Part of the trip was to stop off at Bodie. We were very excited to go there and see what we would find. A ghost town is something I never thought I would ever get to see.
We had to drive up a road that led to nowhere, or so it seemed. Part of the road was sealed and then we had to drive on a dirt road. Slowly it came into view.
We had to pay to go into it, $15 a car and then two dollars for the brochure. That kind of set the mood, plus all the cars we followed into it, and the cars following us. The holiday weekend was over, but the place was full of people. It was hot, dusty and busy.
The place is maintained, which I was surprised about. In my mind not really a ghost town, but the remnants of a town that is now always being restored. When things start to fall apart, they fix them. Some buildings had collapsed, but that may have happened before they started maintaining it. When you walk around you can’t quite work out whether it is meant to be a representation of what life was like, or a ghost town that will just fade away. It seems to be somewhere in between.
I did like seeing inside the buildings, though there were very few that you could see inside, and most of the time you had to look through dirty glass. The above image was taken in a house that they have set up for you to go in. I would have liked to have seen more of that. I like the element of life.
I will just leave you with some more photos of the town. It was fun to go there, and I’m glad I did, but it wasn’t quite what I thought a ghost town would be like. There are other places and I think I would seek them out if I really wanted to see one. I won’t have any time to do that this time, but maybe in the future, you never know.
Here is a gallery with a few more photos.
Hi Leanne, it was a great story with Amazing photographs. I really enjoyed reading the story and feeling the photos.
Good work.
Keep up the good work
Thank you.
Wonderful images.
Thank you Egidio.
What a coincidence. Sarah (https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/) just posted her adventure there the other day.
A great place to take photos
I saw it Brian, and yes a great place for it.
I agree with your assessment of this being more a museum than anything else, really. It reminds me of a much more stark and isolated version of Living History Farms, a local attraction (https://www.lhf.org/).
Some great photos. I love the brown bottles and the room with the long table and billiards.
Thank you Julie, thanks for the link, great places and yes very similar.
What a coincidence – I posted about Bodie today too! I think I must have had a better experience there than you. We visited quite late in the season so it wasn’t too busy and it certainly wasn’t hot – we had to put sweaters on as the altitude made it feel a bit chilly! And my understanding is that it isn’t ‘always being restored’. They do shore up dangerous structures but everything otherwise is as it was when abandoned, it hasn’t been restored at all. For me a restored place wouldn’t have the layers of dust, the broken furniture, the peeling wallpaper etc. I know it differs from other ghost towns in having the protection of the state park but it still felt ‘haunted’ to me.
Having said that, I loved seeing your photos! Some are similar to mine but in others you’ve captured things I missed, like those brown bottles which look great with that backlighting 🙂
I saw your post. I was there in early September and I think it was around memorial day. They try to maintain it as it is, I don’t think they are trying to put it back the way it is, but they are doing work on it and I saw people out with tools doing that when I was there. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, but if you look at the definition of what a ghost town is I don’t think it is one. I think it is a museum and I like that you can go there and see what life would have been like for them back there. I agree it does have that feeling, it is strange to think of what it must have been like in it’s hey day. Good that many generations will be able to see it, whereas other ghost towns will eventually disappear.
Thank you, I commented on yours, you got much better photos of the indoors than I did.
Great photos Leanne. When I visited, there weren’t many people and I don’t remember having to pay an entry or parking fee, but then I wasn’t driving. Also, the buildings weren’t open for us to go into. I agree that it is more of a museum since they charge and maintain. It’s still a great experience.
Thank you Anne. Sounds like you were lucky Anne, there were many there on my visit. Only one building was open if I remember correctly, so most of them were closed. It was a great experience, I am glad I got to go.
Those folks lived a very different life, didn’t they? A difficult and dirty life.
They really did, it would have been a strange world. Yep, a hard life I suspect. Thank you John.
Great photos!
Thank you Sara.
Interesting.
Thank you.
Not my idea of a ghost town, either. And $15 a car to enter? Plus $2 for a brochure?! Craziness. Too rich for my blood!
Yeah, not my idea either. To me a ghost town is abandoned and just left. Yeah, the had to charge so they could afford the repairs. Thank you Lois.
yes, a ghost town in name only, it seems
Yeah, that’s what I think, thank you Beth.
One of my places on my bucket list I want to visit!
I hope you get there Cindy.