Ghost Town Called Bodie...!

I love the old ghost towns. Imagine if they could talk what stories they would tell!

I think a wonderful vacation would be traveling around the country, visiting the many ghost towns and studying their history.What fun that could be!

Bodie, California

Credit: Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Bodie, California was officially founded in 1876, after miners stumbled upon rich deposits of gold and silver in its hillsides. Gold-crazed prospectors flocked to the settlement at a rate of more than two-dozen per day in the late-1870s, and its population eventually soared to some 10,000 people. Thanks to larger-than-life accounts of whiskey-fueled shootouts, the outpost soon earned a reputation as a “sea of sin” filled with rough men, prostitutes and opium dens.

Like most boomtowns, Bodie eventually went bust. By the 1880s, it had outgrown its meager infrastructure, and a succession of harsh and deadly winters convinced many of its prospectors to move to more profitable locales. The population dwindled until the 1940s, when the last residents finally shipped out. Since then, Bodie has become known as one of the nation’s most well preserved ghost towns. Its 200 ramshackle buildings are kept in state of “arrested decay” by park rangers, and tourists flock to the site to explore its 1880s Methodist church, saloons and post office as well as the ruins of a burned-out bank vault.

Ya know, I've never been to a real ghost town. One more thing I need to put on my bucket list!

Coffee out on the patio this morning, alright?