Bodie's Heros: Wrapping Up at the Church

Happy Christmas Eve!

I hope you got your shopping done and are wrapping up the gifts because I am going to be wrapping this Bodie one up.

Yesterday, I showed the Ella Cain house. This shows you that Ella's place, to the left, was right in front of the church.
The last time I talked about the church, and also in the video, I mentioned how the 10 commandments were eventually stolen from it. Here is how it looked with them.

This is the picture I used in the last blog about this.
Finally, one of my dad's old pictures looking to the north of Bodie.

This ends this series on Bodie. As I said when I started this, although I do like this ghost town, there is so much out there online and in print that I really do not feel like I will, or need to, revisit this town on this blog again. If there ever is then I will come back and edit something into one of these blogs I have done in the past. One thing I think I have mentioned before is that Bodie usually is one of the coldest places in California and sometimes the whole U.S. As I write this the place is probably snowed in from all the snow the Eastern Sierra has had.

Bodie's Heroes (Youtube Version)

The music for the three videos from Incompetech: Smoking Gun

Bodie's Heroes: The Two Cain's

I thought I would briefly mention two Bodie persons.

This is James Stuart Cain:

This was his nice place. He owned and invested a lot in Bodie. He was into everything from mining, lumbering, banking, etc. In fact, you can see in the Hell's Heroes movie his name is on the window of the bank as Cain & Sons.
One of Cain's sons was David V. Cain. David eventually married Ella Cody.
This is where they lived. Ella went away to school then eventually came back to be a teacher at Bodie. She went on to write The Story of Bodie and The Story of Mono County. I have seen her gravesite in Bridgeport and thought I had a picture of it, but cannot find it at this time. I will come back here with it in the future.

Bodie's Heroes (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Heroes: The School

I wanted to be sure to mention some things about the school at Bodie. Here is an old picture with the students out in front.
While it was used as a school it was the highest elevated school in California at an elevation of 8,300 ft. The original school was burned down by a bitter student not too long after it first opened in the late 1870's. This building you see was originally a living quarters, but was adapted into the school. The school in Bodie started off with a small amount of students, but eventually had over 600 students enrolled during the boom town years of the late 1870's to early 1880's. The average attendence was just over 100 students a day though. The reason being many families had chores to be taken care of around home, or they had to work to support their familes as well.

These pictures are a bunch I took a few years ago. The following are through the glass windows.
When I was young I remember looking through these windows and seeing the math problems on the chalkboard. You may want to click the picture above to see it at a bigger size for this. There are a couple of basic math facts that are obviously wrong. I had always wondered if those were just put up intentionally like that. My dad always told me that as far as he remembered they were always like that.
The teacher's desk above. A little further back in the classroom below.
I thought I would throw in a picture my dad took in the 1950's of the school looking north.

Around 1943 the school ended its program since most had moved away from Bodie. There was really no one left to teach.

Bodie's Heroes (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Heroes: The Jail

This is the final phase of my most recent, and hopefully, last series on Bodie. This is the jail:

John Wayne was here in the early 1970's for a tv special. You can see him standing outside the jail.
This is the barred window he was looking in.
This would be the perspective John Wayne had above looking into the jail.
This is from the other side of the jail. You can see how I got here in the video.
This picture was taken in the museum and shows the key to the jail.

In the video I mentioned the only hanging that took place in Bodie by a vigilante group. There were only three vigilante uprisings in Bodie. If you want all the details then you need read the book listed below by Roger McGrath. I will just give a quick summary based on his book which is my favorite Bodie book.

The problem in this one was the jealousy of Thomas Treloar regarding his wife Joanna and Joseph DeRoche. Thomas and Joanna had been married for two years, but DeRoche had known Joanna for many years prior to her marriage. DeRoche also had a family that was living in Chicago while he was working in Bodie.

There had been some jealousy prior to the night of January 13, 1881. Thomas and Joanna had many verbal fights and on one occassion Thomas hit Joanna which caused him to be convicted of assault during the first year of their marriage. On this January night at the special event in the Miner's Hall he told her to stay away from DeRoche. Later that night Thomas saw them dancing together, but was warned not to stir up any trouble there. Thomas and DeRoche had some words and Thomas left.

At the end of the dance Thomas came back for his wife, but he and DeRoche left together. It was at this time that DeRoche shot him in the back of the head while walking down the street. Two witnesses saw what had happened. This is where things got a little strange because DeRoche claimed that he was being attacked at the time. Since the two eyewitnesses saw him kill Thomas no one was going to buy that story.

DeRoche was arrested and put in the Bodie jail. Like a lot old west violence, if you killed a bad man no one would really care, but the problem is DeRoche had killed a person that many in town had some sympathy for. Thomas had fallen down in a mine and was thought to have some brain damage. So, he was not really considered a threat.

The law enforcement in Bodie realized that vigilante activity might happen so they took DeRoche out of the jail cell and transferred him to the deputy's own room in town. During the night DeRoche found a way to free himself of the shackles and escaped. When people of Bodie heard the story of this and the murder they were infuriated. Vigilance groups were formed and sent to find DeRoche.

It would take a few days for this to all play out, but DeRoche was found eight miles away hiding with a family. He was brought back to the jail. They started the legal proceedings, but later in the day the hundreds of citizens were ready to take justice into their own hands. They did not like the idea of the possibility of DeRoche getting off on this one. That night the vigilante group, Bodie 601, came to the jail and got DeRoche. The law enforcement did not even try to prevent it. They set up the hanging spot right where Thomas Treloar was murdered. DeRoche accepted his fate bravely, and he was hanged.

Bodie's Heroes (Youtube Version)

McGrath Roger. Gunfighters, Highwaymen, & Vigilantes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)

Bodie's Baddies: The Fire Station

I thought I would end my Bodie's Baddies phase by showing a little more of the fire station. It is one of the few buildings left that you can point out in the movie.
The front of it. Some thieves stole the bell on top. The caretaker at Bodie heard the bell which woke him up. Eventually, the bell was found and restored to its rightful place. Bodie's Baddies (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Baddies: Return to Bodie Bank

We have been here before since it is one of the key points in Hell's Heroes. I will link the old blog at the bottom. At that time I thought there was little chance the interiors were filmed here. In the video I mentioned I had changed my mine, but it is still not too clear to me what they did here. While I do not think this is something to lose sleep over, let me give you some of the possibilties that could have gone on here.

First, we know they were in front of the real bank. Lots of old pictures confirm that, and even with very little left of the bank we can still show they were there. Check my old Bodie Bank blog below for that. Here is all that is left of the bank. It is the old picture I posted before of the vault.
Looking at the movie pictures it becomes very difficult to make any connection with what they show in the movie with the remains of the vault.
My conclusion was they must have used a set elsewhere, or another place in Bodie for the interiors of the bank.
In 1913, a picture inside the bank was taken of Stuart Cain (left) and Ed Stinson. You will notice the huge desk they would do business with customers is almost the same. The puzzling thing is you see the main vault (that we have remains of) on the right side, but some other type of closet area is on the left. Keep in mind this is about 15 years before they filmed the movie.
In the movie, the bank area looks a little smaller than this. On the other hand, they do not show you everything in the bank. While I am still open to the idea they filmed elsewhere, I think there is a good possiblity they created a fascade of walls and vault inside the bank. That huge desk seems about right, but does not go over far enough in the movie. Is that "wall" draping down on the desk? That clock in the movie looks like it is holding down something. At the end of the day, do I care either way? Not really, but it is interesting to a point with me about what they may have done here. I thought I would close this one off by showing you some of what the museum has on the bank.

Old Blog on Bodie Bank

Bodie's Baddies (Youtube Version)

Bodies Baddies: Lottie's Place

Where I am in this entry and the last one makes more sense if you see the video. I will link it below. Some of these structures in the last blog and the next one are really close to each other. The picture above was taken many years back. The picture below is just from my last trip. You can see the place has held up quite well.

I covered the Lottie Johl story a few blogs back which I will link at the bottom, but this is where she lived. It was later the post office for limited time. This was shot at an angle.

Lottie's Gravesite blog

Bodie's Baddies (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Baddies: U.S. Hotel, Sam Leon's Cafe, Barbershop

We are now in the second phase of my last visit to Bodie ghost town. In this phase, I wll cover some of the places on mainstreet that I did not do two years ago. It will also supplement what I did on this blog two years ago. I will post a link at the bottom if you have not seen what I did in Dec. 2008.

What I did back then was put up a bunch of scenes of the movie, Hell's Heroes, which used Bodie at the beginning and the ending of the movie. Originally, I put up many scenes from the movie in the old channel since it was a rare movie at the time. Since then it has become a little easier to find. The movie is important since it shows what the town once was before the big fire that wiped out most of the town a few years after it was filmed. I have gone back and done some re-editing of some of those blog entries to make them more current with what I will have now.

This phase deals with the scenes filmed on Bodie's mainstreet. Keep in mind that am combining the real history with the reel history of cinema. While the "Bad Man of Bodie" is partly legend, this movie does fit in well with the real history of Bodie.

This first picture I am showing is an old one from two years ago, but I wanted to use it again for point of reference. We are on mainstreet looking to the west. If I were to turn around behind me to the right you would see the remains of the bank. However, from the point of view of the picture, if you turn to the left you would see where the U.S. Hotel would have been.

This is a picture of the U.S. Hotel. It was wiped out in the big fire of June 23, 1932. You do see this structure in the movie.
In the 1920's, a chinese man by the name of Sam Leon owned the U.S. Hotel. When the hotel burned down he moved down across the street to start his new bar (or cafe). In the first picture above, it is part of the first structure you see on the right side of the street.
Sam Leon is the one of the left. The barbershop is on the right. Eventually, he moved his business to the DeChambeau Hotel. Here is one of my pictures from some years back.
Here is from my latest trip. You will notice that they have added on the barber shop pole sign.

I should take this time to mention that this structures are in a state of arrested decay. Meaning, the park employees do just enough to keep them from falling over. Nothing is rebuilt and is close as you will get to what the town was like when it was still functioning.

Bodie's Hell's Heroes blog entries from 2008

Bodie's Baddies (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Dead: Rosa May

The final grave of my survey of some of the sites is that of another red light district worker. Her name was Rosa May. Here she was about 24:
The gravemarker that is not too far from the morgue shows this:

Now, in the video I have of this, I point out that they think that she is really buried about 150 ft. away. Then I show the site has been really beaten down. I remembered that I had just taken pictures of this about two years back so I was positive I had seen her name there recently. This is what I had:

And, this:

These are not there anymore as you can see from the video. They really think this was the location and not one you see in the second photo above based on some of the pictures going back to the 1920's that have the original wooden fence.

I was not going to add this because of the reflection in the glass, but these items are what the Bodie museum has as being owned by Rosa May. Her red light container, a few letters, and some other items.
I am not going to say too much about Rosa May because there is not THAT much known about her. She does have a Wikipedia article that lists a few of the common stories about her. It is said that she cared for the sick and ended up dying of pneumonia in the winter of 1912.

The George Williams book listed in the article is helpful. It is more about his personal search in finding the story about Rosa May. While he does give you everything he found out, including transcripts of letters to Rosa, it is not a complete biography for the simple reason that there is just too much unknown about her life. Which is not too surprising.

Rosa May Wikipedia Article

As I close up this short series on the cemetery at Bodie I wanted to mention one thing. I mentioned the morgue next to the cemetery and there was a morgue in the town proper. The one near the cemetery actually kept the remains during the winter months when it was too difficult to bury the dead due to the snow.

Bodie's Dead (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Dead: Lottie Johl

Continuing my survey of some of the gravesites...

Lottie was born in Iowa in 1855. She lived on a farm in her early life. She was very beautiful and said to smile all the time. At an early age she married and had a daughter. Unfortunately, something happened in the marriage and she divorced her husband. At some point the daughter was left with either her former husband or her parents. Lottie took off to find work. Eventually she reached Bodie in 1882 at the age of 27. She headed to "Maiden Lane" which you see soon and worked there. While working there she also worked the dancing halls. Lottie loved to dance.
At some point she met Eli Johl. Eli worked as a butcher in town and partly owned the store. The two fell in love and married. Unfortunately, Lottie was never really accepted socially by the people in town because of her former work at "Maiden Lane". At some point she went to a costume ball in the Miner's Union Hall and was disguised in a beautiful white satin dress her husband had purchased for her. Since she was covered up no one knew who she was. When voted the prize winner she took off her mask and the people there were in shock. She could not win such a award due to her status. She ran off crying.

Later on she became sick. A doctor gave her some medicine, but it did not cure her. She died within 24 hours. It turns out she was accidentally given poison. The authorities said this was not done intentionally. This is her grave site.

Eli Johl really had to fight to have her buried in the cemetery. Something to remember is the cemetery was for the respectable people not vagrants, badmen gunfighters, or prostitutes. He was successful so she was buried inside and not on the outide. All that really remains is the gated fence.

Eli would always visit her grave and on Memorial Day he would decorate her grave and sit near by. Something like this:

Finally, I thought I would throw one of my dad's old pictures up. I am not going to do too many of these, but that is Lottie's grave there. Down below to the right is the Scanavino family site. You can see some of that near the end of the video.

You will notice that it says, "Boot Hill," on there. This was one of last pictures my dad was messing around with two years ago. I think "Boot Hill" was where you put the undesirables I mentioned outside of the cemetery fences. It was not inside where the "respectable" people were buried.

One final thing I wanted to mention was that Lottie did paint. One of her paintings is in the museum in Bodie and can also be seen in the Soiled Dove book chapter listed below.

For references on Lottie check the following sources:

Seagraves, Anna. Soiled Doves (Hayden: Wesanne Publications, 1994).

Cain, Ella. The Story of Bodie (Bishop: Chalfont Press, 1956).

Bodie's Dead (Youtube Version)

Bodie's Dead: The Strange Graves and Recent

It is time for a few of the odd graves.

In the following picture you can see a tall marker in the distance (middle right in picture). That is where we end up next. Originally, that was supposed to be the marker for William Bodey's remains in 1879. However, The stonecutter did not get paid. So, it was not used for Bodey.

When President James Garfield was killed the town decided to use this marker in his honor. This marker is very difficult to read even if you were there standing in front of it, but this is what it says: To the memory of James A. Garfield, President of the United States. Died Sept. 19, 1881.
This one is labeled, Pagdin. You will notice there is a big hole in the marker. It is unusually thick and hollow. There is some thought that this was actually used to store bottles of liquor during the prohibition era. There were some investigations and busts in Bodie during that time.
This is one of the more recent grave markers. I did not use this one in the video, but thought I would mention it here. Bob Bell was one of the last to work the mines and the Standard Mill. He worked in helping preserve the buildings and park in the 1960's and 1970's. He is important for helping share the history he knew with the park staff. Some of the Bell relatives are buried next to him: "Honest Old Lester" L. Bell, Louise Bell, and Lester Bell (the son Lester L. and Louise).

Bodie's Dead (Youtube Version)