Re: Bodie, the last great ghost town

"arrested decay" may be the historians version of what realtors call "deferred maintenance". Health professionals would say, "appears older than stated age".

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Fixer upper?

My goal at this stage of life is "controlled decay".

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

You might find this a little interesting.

IMO, Nevada has better ghost towns than California. OR COULD HAVE but the state decided pursuing such funding wasn't worth it. Most ghost towns in Nevada have been stripped of everything but mine shafts. Aurora, down the canyon from Bodie, could've been the best but its remains were shipped off to LA during the building of the rape-a-duct through Owens Valley.

There are a few places that have remnants of buildings, old foundations, or maybe a little cemetery left.

I found one interesting spot that I won't reveal other than to say it sits in the middle of mine tailings near Fairview Peak off Highway 50. Part of an old building, or maybe an old outhouse, lay scattered among the tailings. Some of it was buried.

I found it by chance, just got out to take a pee, is all. Then walked around a bit and found a bunch of petrified wood. Then more, then more. I followed the trail of petrified wood to a mound that had partially petrified, partially dried. Then finally on top of the mound, completely dried wood. Not enough for a building, just enough for an outhouse.

I had to do research on how long it takes for wood to petrify, and it can be as little as a few years if conditions were right. This area is along a wash that seems to stay damp enough for minerals to leach into wood quickly and do the petrifying replacement of carbon with quartz. I have many pieces that are only partially petrified.

I would guess, because of the time frame of Nevada mining exploration, this petrified wood can't be more than 100-150 years. It's definitely stone and definitely wood that has been hand-cut and most definitely not from the area (there are no trees that size in about 99 percent of the state).

I don't know much about Nevada, outside of the usual suspects (ski areas) but I am wondering if the state chose to place its funds in natural areas, rather than preserve unnatural building sites that have no artistic quality (I sort of say this with a wink and a nod, because most of the preserved "buildings" that I have known are somewhere in the 500-900 year old range)

That's a good question, Bee. There are obvious places in Nevada that are well-preserved emigrant/gold rush places like Virginia City and Genoa, and to lesser extents places like Rhyolite (near Pahrump), Tybo, Unionville and Jarbidge. It could be that Nevada didn't really have much of a population beyond Reno until Vegas started to grow, and Vegas residents in general have no regard for history, much less the history of the state. I'm from SoCal and I have a much greater appreciation for Nevada history than probably 99 percent of those who live here.

Some of my people are from Bodie. A lot of Basques and Slavs moved to the area and intermarried with Paiutes. Pahrump pah = water, rump I don't know. Tybo means white people. Tonopah is Greasewood lake Tonoabe + pah = greasewood + lake (water)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2009 11:19PM by Yosemite_Indian.

Pahrump means "Water Rock" because of the artesian wells in the area.

I have a book that says Tybo means "White Man's Place"

I read somewhere that the weekend of August 8 will be somewhat of a celebration of Bodie's 150th. Don't know what kind of party will happen there, but I imagine a few people will dress in period clothing circa 1880.