Bodie Cemetery - A Place Frozen In Time

 

Two weekends ago, my love and I traveled east over the Sierras on a little road trip. We stopped first in Bridgeport (the same place where the Murder of Poker Tom occurred), and then we traveled onward to Bodie State Historic Park. Bodie is a ghost town that has been preserved forever frozen in time.  The stores shelves are still filled with items that were there the last time anyone ever lived there. 

Bodie itself was founded by Waterman S. Bodey, when he discovered gold nearby in 1875. By 1877, the Standard Mining Company had begun mining and before anyone could say "pay dirt" the town of Bodie had arrived. By 1915, the town had dwindled in population, and that is when it was first referred to has a "ghost town." There were still people living here well into the 1930's and 40's but very few. The last resident of Bodie, the caretaker Cecil Birks died in 1961.

The buildings were left in a state of what they call "arrested decay." The town itself, well, what is left of it, after time, the elements and even some fires got to it, is what you see today.

There are three cemeteries in Bodie but they are all adjacent to one another.  Many of the graves are unmarked so it is hard to tell exactly how many people are buried there. Some of those who died by horrible accidents are buried here. I am going to share with you just a couple of those stories today. 

Charles Benson and George Watson

I could find no trace of their graves while there. So I have to assume theirs is either unmarked or one of the many wooden markers with no name on it. Charles Benson, George Watson and another man named Snibley,  were killed in a fatal gun powder explosion in the tunnel of the Great Sierra Mining Company, on October 2, 1883. Snibley's family had his remains shipped to San Mateo for burial, while Benson and Watson were buried in the cemetery here. 

 Anthony Thumann

One grave that actually was there, and I missed it (which drives me crazy!) was the small obelisk of Anthony Thumann (the newspapers called him Thurman). His death was also mine related, when he fell down the pump shaft of the Standard Mine on November 14, 1883.

David McKinney

McKinney was crushed to death by a falling casting that was being moved from the freight wagon. It crushed his upper body and head. Sadly, the newspapers reported that it took seven minutes for him to pass. Again, like Watson and Benson, I could find no trace of McKinney's grave. 

There were many other accidents, I am sure, but those were just a few of those I found that are recorded to be buried within the cemeteries boundaries. Last but not least it the little girl who has become infamously known as the Angel of Bodie, Evelyn Myers.

(Photo: Roland Boulware)

Evelyn Myers

The Angel of Bodie, as the April 16, 1897 edition of the Daily Appeal (Carson City) called her, was killed accidentally on April 5, 1897, when she leaned over the railing of the porch of her home, when a hired worker, an Indian man, was using a pickaxe to cut a drainage ditch around the house to make way for the melting ice. During the hired man's back swing, his axe hit the crown of little Evelyn's head. She lived for two hours, until the bleeding stopped and she perished. 

People have flocked to Evelyn's grave for many years, and the fact that she has such a beautiful marker probably draws even more attention to her story. In fact, Evelyn's headstone is probably one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest in all of Bodie. Don't forget to stop by and pay your respects to those forgotten in time at the cemetery, if you ever make the trek to Bodie. 

(Copyright 2021 - J'aime Rubio. www.jaimerubiowriter.com) 

Photos by: J'aime Rubio  & Roland Boulware