Bodie State Historic Park

Bodie is one of America's best-preserved ghost towns, a former gold mining boomtown that reached a population of 10,000 by 1880. With 60 taverns, a red-light district, and rampant violence, it was known as one of the most lawless places in the West. When silver prices crashed in 1890, the town was gradually abandoned. Today, approximately 170 buildings remain in a state of "arrested decay," exactly as they were left over a century ago.

Bodie was founded in 1859 after W.S. Bodey discovered gold in the eastern Sierra Nevada, though he died in a blizzard that November and never saw the town that bore his misspelled name. By 1879, the population exploded to nearly 10,000, making it California's third-largest city, with 65 saloons lining a mile-long Main Street. Historian Roger McGrath documented 31 killings between 1877 and 1882 in a population of just 2,712—a murder rate ten times higher than modern cities. Only one person was ever convicted. Citizens formed the vigilante group "601" (meaning "6 feet under, 0 trial, 1 rope"), and one young girl reportedly prayed, "Goodbye God! We are going to Bodie."

The town's violent history has left it thick with spirits. The J.S. Cain House at Park and Green Streets is haunted by a Chinese maid who had an affair with the wealthy mine owner. When Cain's jealous wife discovered the relationship, she threw the woman out on a bitter winter night. The maid wandered into the snowstorm and was never seen alive again. Her ghost loves children but despises adults—a ranger's wife reported waking to find a heavy presence sitting on her chest, nearly suffocating her until she fought free and fell to the floor.

Three-year-old Evelyn Myers, "The Angel of Bodie," was accidentally killed in 1897 when a miner's pick struck her head as she leaned over a porch railing to watch him dig. The townspeople loved her so much they collected money for an elaborate marble angel to mark her grave. Her giggles are still heard in the cemetery, and her spirit appears to visiting children, asking them to play.

At the Gregory House, an elderly woman's apparition sits in a rocking chair, endlessly knitting. The Mendocini House fills with the aroma of Italian cooking from Mrs. Mendocini's phantom kitchen, accompanied by children's laughter and the sounds of parties in the empty rooms. At the Dechambeau House, a woman's face peers from the upstairs window at startled visitors. Deep in the closed mine shafts, rangers still hear the screams of a white mule that died with a broken back, and disembodied voices echo from the darkness.

One of Bodie's most chilling accounts involves a murdered man whose apparition visited his three killers, shaking his fist and attempting to attack them. All three subsequently died from unexplained illnesses.

The infamous "Curse of Bodie" warns that anyone who takes even a pebble will suffer misfortune. Park interpreter Catherine Jones revealed the curse was invented by a ranger to deter theft, but it took on a life of its own. Rangers receive curse letters weekly—rambling confessions returning bottles, glass shards, nails, coins, and even a grand piano. "My fish died the day after," wrote one child. A shoe stolen in 1978 came back decades later with a note: "My trail of misfortune is so long and depressing it can't be listed here." Returned items require law enforcement reports and, as Jones explains, "will probably live in a box forever" since no one knows where they belonged.

Today, 168 buildings stand in "arrested decay," exactly as they were abandoned. The Bodie Foundation offers annual Ghost Walks through this National Historic Landmark, where 200,000 visitors come each year to experience one of America's most authentically haunted places.