Aurora, Nevada... Is there anything there?

[tgtaylor]

Has anyone been to the Bodie train station?

[Merg Ross]

When I think of Aurora, Bodie, and the Mono Basin as they were, I recall my favorite book as a teenager. Check out "Roughing It" by Mark Twain. His observations of Mono Lake are excellent, and a contrast to present day.

[tgtaylor]

When I think of Aurora, Bodie, and the Mono Basin as they were, I recall my favorite book as a teenager. Check out "Roughing It" by Mark Twain. His observations of Mono Lake are excellent, and a contrast to present day.

Have you been to MArk Twain's campsite about 20 miles out of Bodie? Angel Camp I think they call it but I may be wrong on that.

[Drew Wiley]

Merg - I remember Tioga Pass as a one-lane dirt road, with my dad loading his pipe
while steering with his knees in order to freak-out my mom. Mono Lake was still full
enough that the tufa towers weren't visible. I grew up with Mono Indians, and had
long interviews with one elderly individual who recounted stories of how he had
crossed Paiute Pass barefoot, with only a rabbit-skin blanket, to trade with the east
side Mono. This transpired when he was a teenager. A neighbor of ours, who is still
alive, is featured as a little girl in the classic Sierra Club book of early Calif Indian
photos called "Almost Ancestors". Her nephew and I climbed cliffs and waterfalls
together, and somehow both survived. When I was in grammer school, at the start
of each school year, some of the Indian kids would be a couple of weeks late to
school because they were still helping their grandmothers harvest Autumn acorns
from our yard. Now some of them are casino multimillionaires!

[Brad Rippe]

Taylor, I was in Bodie last week for the first time in 35 years and it hasn't changed much. The train station (up the hill) as well as all the extremely interesting mine tailing piles are all off limits! They are very strict too. Visitors are limited to the fenced-in area not too far up the hill. One ranger told me he gave a group $600 citations for going up the hill past the signed fence!
I remember walking all over the place years ago with no restrictions, but it is still a very interesting site.
I was there showing my daughters the place, so no LF photography for me. I'd like to go back with a photographers group early and late in the day, that would be incredible.
As far as Jim Gallis comment that it is over-photographed, he's probably right, but even though I have seen hundreds of Bodie photographs, there is still something compelling about each one.
-Brad

[Merg Ross]

Have you been to MArk Twain's campsite about 20 miles out of Bodie? Angel Camp I think they call it but I may be wrong on that.

No. However, Angel camp was made famous by Bret Harte, a good friend of Twain's.

So much history in those hills and mountains, and so little evidence remains. My first visit to Bodie was in 1951, long before it became a State Park. It was a wonderful place to camp and photograph, very few people. However, without it becoming a State Park, it would no doubt have suffered the same fate as Bodie.

[tgtaylor]

Thanks for the reply Brad.

The train station has been off limits as far as I can remember. I understand that it is good condition.

I was in Bodie for Friends Day last week and, although Bodie has been photographer to death, it always looks worthy for several box cars more of negatives! In fact, I just received a box of 4x5 Rollie IR and am seriously thinking of returning in the near future.

BTW, my trip last week to Bodie was with a Pentax 67 soft focus lens which I am now appreciating along with Jim Galli's soft focus work. Pictorialism has something to say.

Thomas

[dperez]

Thanks for all the info about Aurora and Bodie. I have avoided it for years for the reasons that Jim Galli mentioned. But after a trip up to Silverton, CO a few years ago I decided I would make a go at Bodie since it was much closer and I could make return trips a little easier.

I found elements of Silverton to be kind of touristy with a lot of the buildings in town sporting fresh coats of paint and the like... But there was a charm to it as well that I picked up on after a couple days there. I’m also interested old painted advertisements that adorn the exterior walls of old brick buildings of the early 1900s. Of course the ruins 11 miles into Silverton’s main dirt road are nice and I didn’t see too many people there.

Although it’s not really a ghost town (yet), one of the places that has always intrigued me was Holbrook, AZ. I used to drive through Holbrook once a week when I lived in Flagstaff. Unfortunately, I didn’t own a LF camera then. I will go back eventually, as the town is stuck in the 50s and 60s.

[EdWorkman]

Speaking of literature- Mark and Mono Lake, read Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin- it can be found for free on the internet. The house she lived in is in Lone Pine or Independence or one of those in the Owens Valley, and her descriptions of the eastern side of the Sierra are exquisite.

[tgtaylor]

No. However, Angel camp was made famous by Bret Harte, a good friend of Twain's.

So much history in those hills and mountains, and so little evidence remains. My first visit to Bodie was in 1951, long before it became a State Park. It was a wonderful place to camp and photograph, very few people. However, without it becoming a State Park, it would no doubt have suffered the same fate as Bodie.

Years ago, back when I was all of 18, I had orders to report to Oakland Army Base for overseas deployment. Being from New Orleans and having never been out west (this was "the sticks" to me back then) I arrived in SF a few days early to tour the city and see the sights. I stayed in a rather pricey (for me) hotel named The Mark Twain. A hotel with name like that out here was a surprise to me as I was sure at the time that Twain had never set foot way out here - far away from the Mississippi. Guess back then I had never progressed beyond Huckleberry Finn in Twain literature.

Interestingly, Mark Twain didn't have anything to say about Bodie even though he lived 20 miles away; and Bodie is equally silent on Mark Twain. Surely he visited Bodie as their campsite is located on a dirt road (definitely high clearance) that either starts at or continues thru Bodie. Surely Twain and his diggin' buddies came to town occasionally to party.

If my memory is correct, the last resident left Bodie ~ 1948 after which the town was completely abandoned until it became a State Park. In 1951 you must have had unrestricted access to the interiors. I'd bet you "camped" in one of the hotels or houses.

Thomas