Another Old Car at Bodie

Not much left of this car to identify it by.

Boy, I just don't know.

Typical Scene in Bodie

This was a hard life, no doubt about it.

  The cold for me would be the worst aspect of living here.

More Discards

From someone's bed?

Something I would use to drain oil in but most likely it was for cooking.

 This just might be have been big enough to take a bath in?

Hmm...maybe not.

Oops, gotta go.

Bodie & Snow

Another discarded wash basin.  You can see by the mountains in the distance that Bodie is not too far away from ever receiving snow.  Elevation 8,379 feet (2,554 meters)

Another example of re-purposing materials.  Looks like the snow caved in the roof some. or maybe the building was made with a sway-back ridge.

 This can was spared the indignity of being ripped open, flattened and nailed to the side of a building.

High Wire Act

Seen at Bodie State Historic Park, California

More Interior Views #2

I am sure that wiring met code...Bodie code that is.

With the size of bedrooms in homes today...

I wonder what a Bodie resident would think.

The door molding held up well.

I thought this image looked good in black and white also.

Flea Market Find

This is Svea 123 backpacker stove, made in Sweden all in brass.  With only one moving part, the valve, they have a well-established record of reliability among weekend hikers to extreme mountain climbers alike.  It runs on white gas (Coleman fuel) and is self-pressurizing, meaning no pumping to build pressure in the tank. You prime (preheat) the stove with a small amount of fuel placed in a shallow reservoir beneath the burner, light it, which heats up the tubing thus vaporizing the gas for ignition at the burner.  Very ingenious.  

The first model the 123, was introduced in 1955.  Then in 1969 the 123R came on with the only difference being a built-in cleaning needle in the burner.  This is that model and it was sold in 1976.

How do I know that?

It was still in the original box along with the sales receipt from North Face!  Someone paid $25 for it back then.  Today brand new ones which are identical to this sell for $100.  I paid $5.

It comes with a aluminum cup and handle

which is the cover for when you pack it away.

 I bought it from a seller who gets his junk from unclaimed storage lockers.  I know the stove was well-cared for - who else would keep it stored in its original box along with the instructions and the receipt? I could tell the little stove was well used from the patina to it also all the black soot that was on it.  I wanted to remove the soot but leave the patina alone which soaking in some vinegar for a few minutes did the job.  Some people really polish the brass out which makes them look brilliant but I didn't want that.  I feel bad for the person who once owned this and probably lost his storage locker for one reason or another to auction.  It would be neat to know all the wilderness places this little stove has been. And yes, it works great with their little pulsating roaring sound like a jet engine at take off.  It boiled a cup of water in three minutes.

More Interior Views

Remember, these are taken through dirty windows.

Nice wallpaper.

Not so nice ceiling paper.  

Did they make ceiling paper or did someone use wallpaper on the ceiling? 

Is this an oil burner heater?  I don't for this was before my time.

Another room where the coverings did not hold up to well.  Most of the rooms in homes had cotton fabric ceiling coverings so the one above in paper was different from most.

Bodie Waste Management Company

There wasn't one.  Everyone just tossed their refuse out the back door.

It is fun to try a figure out what the various cans may have contained.

Think of all the jobs that basin was used for.

The large one gallon container held what?  Cooking oil?  Lamp oil? 

Another basin just like the one above.  Perhaps these are what the general store in Bodie sold.

Here the neck of a medicine bottle.  Doc Johnson's Snake Oil Elixir perhaps.

I like the colored glass the bottles of that day were made from.

The Bodie Schoolhouse

The schoolhouse is one of the few buildings in Bodie that withstood the weather, fires, the passage of time and general neglect quite well.

The rest of these pictures were a challenge to get shooting through dusty windows and trying to eliminate reflection and glare from the sun.  The best way to overcome all of that was setting the end of the lens flush to the glass and hope for the best.

Nice to see they had a music program.

In Bodie you learned skills that would serve you well as an adult.  Bodie was a mining town so the boys learned about mining.  (I',m just making this stuff up so don't pay attention to me)

  A 100 years ago global warming was not a concern.  Today at the Bodie schoolhouse we can see the effects of global warming 100 years from now on the globe setting right next to the window getting baked by the sun every day.  

The Bodie school environmental science program was way ahead of its time.

I couldn't help but think that the front part of the school room was "staged" what with the chalk writing still on the blackboards.  

If you click on the picture you should be able to read everything there is to read.

If I were a student in the Bodie school I'd be watching that clock.  

I did a lot of clock-watching in school.

What is This?

 It is a lever that operated the dump on the back of this truck.  Or perhaps it operated a winch which would pull the mining car full of ore up on the back.  Not really sure how it worked.

I cannot begin to imagine driving this beast.

If you didn't notice the wood spoke front wheels in the above photo, here is a detail of the rear wheel.

All that plant life is sage and is very fragrant in the spring.

Seller is Motivated

With no money down and low interest free monthly payments

 you too can have the home of your dreams in Bodie, California.  

Another Dead Car

What a life this car must have had.  Some funny person stuck a 50 gallon oil drum up front.

It reminds me of cars I've seen in Laurel and Hardy films.

Water

With the firehouse post some wondered where they got their water from to fight fires.  Well nearby the firehouse was this hydrant.  But that really doesn't answer the question for I do not know of any water works department or pump station anywhere in the town.  So where did water under pressure come from to feed this hydrant?  There may have been lines coming in from nearby mountains connected to underground springs.  I really don't know.

For most homes, this was the extent of their plumbing.  There just wasn't any.