Bodie State Historic Park preserves California gold-mining history

Bodie State Historic Park, located in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Yosemite National Park, serves as one of the best-preserved gold-mining ghost towns in the United States. Once a flourishing community during the California Gold Rush, the town reached a population of approximately 8,500 people by 1879.

The site features more than 100 original structures, including a saloon, a church, and various stores that remain stocked with period-appropriate goods and furniture. During its peak, the town was known for its lawlessness, characterized by frequent gunfights, robberies, and street brawls. The community also included a Chinatown on its outskirts, where Chinese settlers provided firewood to the town and local railways after being excluded from mining work.

Economic decline and fires led to the town's eventual abandonment in the early 1880s. Bodie was designated a State Historic Park and National Historic Landmark in 1932, and it remains open to the public today.