Homes, Bodie Style

Let's look about this home.

A peek inside.

Many of the houses were on an elevated foundation.  My guess would be due to the heavy snow during the winter and wanting a dead air space and somewhat dry ground beneath the floor.

I am sure the mice and rats appreciated the warm dry space.  This little ground squirrel was refurbishing his home beneath the barber shop.

The neighbor's home was covered with these large 5 gallon cans cut open and flattened out.  This was a common practice to be seen on a number of buildings.  The cans probably contained an oil or fuel used in the mining operation considering the huge quantity of them around the area.

This too I saw quite frequently.  It seems attaching an addition to a house there always was an entry for water to seep in at the connection so tin was added under the eave to channel the water away from the joint.  With no rain gutters as we have today, it makes sense.

Here is that first photo in color as I thought it looked nice that way also.

I have received several inquires as to how nothing is ever stolen or vandalized.  Bodie is very very remote, 13 miles off the main road.  Even the turn-off from Hwy 395 is in a remote area of the eastern side of the Sierra mountain range.  There is only one road into Bodie and anyone can be seen coming in from miles away.  Also all the buildings are locked so you are unable to go inside to wander around.  This is for your safety and the protection of the building itself.  Thus one must look through windows or open doorways and windows covered with wire mesh fencing (see third photo).  Rangers live full time in several of the houses so it is not like the place is left to its own unattended at any time of the year.  In spite of the remoteness Bodie does receive around 200,000 visitors a year, many of them from other countries which begs the question as to how they learned of Bodie in the first place.