Saving Ghost Town From an Old Friend : Bill would protect historic Bodie from renewal of mining, the industry that gave it life

Between 1859 and the 1940s, the town of Bodie, near Mono Lake, was a center of gold and silver mining in California. In its heyday, in the late 1870s, about 10,000 people lived in its 600 or so buildings.

When Bodie was abandoned, after World War II began, it became the largest, best-preserved ghost town in the western United States. To this day, buildings remain as they were when residents left, with dishes and eating utensils still on some tables. Bodie is now a California Historic Park, a National Historic Landmark and a tourist attraction that draws 200,000 a year.

State parks personnel have maintained Bodie in a state of arrested decay. Their aim has been to keep the 120 surviving structures as they were when the site became a state Historic Park in 1962. The destructive effects of rain, wind and snow have always been their biggest enemy. Now, ironically, the town is threatened by mining, the very activity that first gave it life.

Bodie lies on public land that still contains valuable gold and silver veins. Title to some of these resources is privately held, even though the metals are under public lands. Mining could require a 200-acre open pit and take 12 to 20 years. It would also require milling and processing facilities, roads and tailing dumps and would leave cyanide waste. All this could mean the ruin of Bodie.

A pending federal bill would bar new mineral claims on 6,000 acres of public land around Bodie and permit mining on existing claims only if it caused no adverse effect on the site’s historic and natural resources. Sponsored by Rep. Richard H. Lehman (D-Sanger), the bill passed the mining and natural resources subcommittee of the House last week. Lehman’s bill would implement a resolution passed by the California Legislature last year asking Congress to protect a unique site. It deserves support.