The Ghost Town of Bodie
History of Bodie
The tiny town of Bodie lies east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in one of the most desolate regions of California. Bodie has been left abandoned for the last 75 years but remains perfectly preserved with homes, stores and even a school house filled with personal belongings. Gold was discovered in Bodie in 1859 by W. S. Bodey who perished shortly after the discovery in a blizzard while carrying supplies into town. At its peak, 65 saloons lined Main Street, which was a mile long. Murders, shootouts, barroom brawls, and stagecoach holdups were regular occurrences in the wild west country. While the church is the most prominent standing building, a secret red light district operated at the north end of town. What was once a booming mining town slowly declined into a desolate ghost town with the last of the population leaving in 1942.
The Curse of Bodie
Rumblings of the Bodie curse began in the 1970's when tourists began reporting unexplained incidences after taking home artifacts as souvenirs from the town. As I mentioned before, the ghost town of Bodie is full of all sorts of belongings left behind by the miners and their families. Inside the homes the art still hangs on the walls, clothing is hung inside the closets and dishes sit on the dining tables. It's as if the entire town population just vanished and never took any of their belongings. So many citizens came to a tragic death in Bodie, both from unfortunate run-ins with violent criminals and harsh weather conditions. There are documented stories of suicides, murders and eerie coincidences.
My boyfriend and I had our own series of unfortunate events directly following our visit to Bodie which we had dubbed "the curse" before we even knew it was a real phenomenon. The next morning after our visit to Bodie we awoke to our car completely buried in unseasonal snow. As we grabbed our boots and headed outside to begin shoveling, we left the door to our cabin unlocked. But when we returned it had somehow locked itself, leaving us stranded outside in the snow. It took over an hour for the managers to get the door open because the master key had gone missing.
After digging out our car, we learned that all the major roads had either closed or required chains on your tires. While preparing to hit the road on a search for tire chains, our car unexplainably locked itself with the keys inside. After another hour of waiting for AAA to arrive, the car magically unlocked itself and we were able to get inside. Finding chains for our car was another fiasco because the entire town had sold out. Long story short, we barely made it out of Bridgeport in one piece as the drive home was rough and very icy.
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