Bodie is billed as a ghost town and it sort of is and sort of isn’t.

As the remnant of a small city of up to 7,000 people, it is a Ghost Town. Because it is in one of the remotest parts of California, when it died, it wasn’t looted too badly, making it an interesting remnant. As an aside, there are a lot of remote parts of California, more than most people think. Even on the populous coast – right on the coast, right on the water –  there are remote spots, empty beaches. In the middle of the Coast Range, there is the Corrizo Plain; empty most of the time. Most of the Highway 395 corridor – except for Mammoth and Bishop – is pretty remote. End aside. Bodie is also high – over 8,000 feet – and dry – east of the Sierras, so it is preserved by the elements.

Even though they are Park Rangers, people do live in Bodie and it get up to 200,000 visitors a year, so it is hard to think of Bodie as a real Ghost Town.

I think of Bodie as being in a state of arrested decay. If left alone it will turn to mulch, which raises the question of How much should it be allowed to decay? The answer seems to be, with some exceptions of plants growing, none. People come to see it as it is and don’t want to see it different.

If it were restored to its former glory, it would be a Disneyland, requiring  a giftshop and – maybe – a couple of stagecoach rides, if it continues to decay and turn into mulch, it would lose its allure. It would become as empty as Tunnel in the Seven Trough Range.

We like our ruins as partial ruins. More accurately, we like things as they are, even if they are partial ruins; we don’t like change. As a culture, we want to hold on to what is and are very leery of letting go, even for what might be. In almost everything, not just Bodie, the alternative to what is, does not sound as good. Almost all over the world, we support what is. We support the power structure; we can not see any other alternative that is as attractive.

But, meanwhile, back in Bodie, this level of decay is very photogenic.