Discovering the real Far West - Bodie Ghost town & Jamestown

In the mid 1800's, thanks to the discovery of gold in the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Bodie became a booming town with more than 8000 people. As a bustling gold mining center, Bodie had the amenities of larger towns, including two banks, a China town and a large Red light district, railroad, several newspapers, and a jail. At its peak, 65 saloons lined Main Street, which was a mile long. Murders, shootouts and stagecoach holdups were regular occurrences. This was the real Far West.

But then, since there was no more gold to find, people just left everything behind. A fire destroyed most of the buildings, but there are still a lot of them standing today. This is what they call a Ghost Town in the US. It's not exactly haunted (well, maybe..), it's just deserted.

From Highway 193 a paved road leads up the slope until it suddenly turns into a dirt road.. this place is so deserted that the state doesn't even bother paving the road anymore. What lies ahead are the remnants of once a bustling town. Wooden houses, all of them in arrested decay, standing here and there in a small part of the town. The old mining center looks out from up the hill.

Walking through these buildings is kinda creepy, too.. You hear flies everywhere, ravens are crowing, the wind is blowing loudly, making the wood of the buildings squeak.

It seems that some houses were left behind in a hurry: the furniture is still there, so are the kitchen tools. There are two saloons with a pool table and a bar. The school is still intact, with benches and craft work made by the town's children. Some houses are nothing more than ruins, others are well preserved. The church for instance is amazing, walking in it feels like being time-warped into the 19th century Old West. There's even a morgue with coffins on display.

You wonder how these peoples lives were like in those days. Getting up at the crack of down, climbing down deep shafts into the mine to dig up gold. Getting a beer at one of the many saloons, getting killed for a nickel and dime.

In the early 1900's, Bodie was completely deserted and turned into a California state park.

Unfortunately, the pass to the West Entrance of Yosemite was still closed. There was a lot of snow on the mountains. So we had to drive all the way North to another pass that would take us through the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada. I'm telling you, this was another amazing place. We saw snow, about 5 meters thick, hanging along the cleared roads. And it wasn't even cold up there ! You could hear the snow melting slowly, crystal clear water running downhill everywhere, and the sky was as blue as blue can be. :-)

It took us about 2 hours of driving down winding roads in the Sierra Nevada before we finally reached Jamestown, a charming colonial town that's on Route 49, the famous gold rush route. You can still buy gold pans and set out on an adventure to go look for gold in the rivers that come from the mountains, but I doubt you'll find much.

I do hope I will get some sleep tonight. Last night Mom and Ton were snoring away and even my ear plugs didn't help.

Tomorrow we're driving through beautiful Yosemite National Park, home of the highest waterfall. :-) More pictures to come !

Enjoy today's slide show :