Exploring Ghost Town Interiors

Morning after the storm in Bodie

We had a great schedule planned for our photography workshop in the historic mining town of Bodie on Sunday, May 24.  It had been raining the day and night before, so would the weather cooperate?  The weather forecast predicted a 30% chance of rain for the day, and it was mostly cloudy when we arrived at 5:15 am, but there were signs that the cloud cover may break up.

When we arrived on Main Street we were pleasantly surprised to find puddles of water in the street.  The sun didn’t break through the clouds enough at sunrise to paint the clouds shades of orange, but there were plenty of unique shots to be found thanks to the prior night’s storm.  Gradually we started to see patches of blue sky peeking through the clouds

We visited the popular buildings like the Lottie Johl House, which has lots of furniture inside.  It’s amazing that so much has survived from the town’s past: couches, tables, chairs, beds, a gun rack, a cast iron stove, even silverware.  There are appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners and radios, and personal items too, like clothing and toys.  

Our monitors from the Bodie Foundation, Norm and Dave, offered to show us around the Standard Mill, where the gold ore was crushed, and naturally we accepted.  Gold ore entered on rails at the top of the mill.  Electric motors turned wheels and belts to drive camshafts which raised and dripped heavy stamps to crush the ore.  From the now-powdered rock, gold would get trapped in mats on tilted tables, much like a sluice box.  The Standard Mill was originally steam powered, and we saw the old boilers underneath the rest of the building.

During the course of the morning I lost track of how many buildings we explored, but it was close to 20.  I captured dozens of photos, more than I can comfortably fit in blog posts, so I’m trying out a new app DripThat, which lets me publish photos over time.  The DripThat app is available on the Apple App Store  (http://bit.ly/1dhaequ), and you can connect with me there as well to see more from this trip to Bodie: https://dripthat.com/pr?id=jeffsullivan

See more of my photos on DripThat: http://dripthat.com/profile/jeffsullivan

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