The eerie ghost town that's been abandoned for 110 years now a haven for dark tourism

Just under 150 years ago, the discovery of gold in this remote part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in saw people flock to the area in 1876. Just three years later, it had established 2,000 structures with a population of around 8,000 residents.

The town of Bodie lies around 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe and 12 miles southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of 8,379ft. However, it has since become a and is now recognised as a National Historic Monument by the Department of the Interior. Today, it receives around 200,000 visitors each year, keen to explore this eerie relic of the past.

Bodie became what's known as a boom town - a community that underwent rapid population and economic growth 149 years ago. It began as a mining camp of little note following the discovery of gold in 1859 by a group of prospectors, including W.S. Bodey. Bodey died in a blizzard the following November while making a supply trip to Monoville (near present-day Mono City), never able to see the rise of the town that was named after him.

In 1876, the discovery of a profitable deposit of gold-bearing ore transformed Bodie into a Wild West boomtown. One legend says that in 1880, Bodie was California's second or third largest city. However, the US Census of that year disproves this. Bodie's mines produced gold and silver valued at an estimated $85 million (£64 million) in 2021 figures.

As a bustling town, Bodie boasted a Wells Fargo Bank, a railroad, several daily newspapers, a jail and an incredible 65 saloons down its Main Street. That being said, life was not always pleasant - murders, shootings and barroom brawls were regular occurrences, just like in films.

However, the town declined in the subsequent decades as promising mining booms in Montana, and Utah lured men away from Bodie. The get-rich-quick, single miners who came to the town in the 1870s moved on to these other boom towns, and Bodie transformed into a family-oriented community. The Methodist Church, which still stands today, was built in 1882.

However, by 1915 Bodie came to be known as a ghost town. Mining profits from the previous year were as low as $6,821 ($153,309 in 2023). In 1917, the Bodie Railway was abandoned and its iron tracks scrapped.

According to the 1940 census, 90 people lived there and none at all a decade later.

Also registered as a California Historical Landmark, the Wild West ghost town was officially established as Bodie State Historic Park in 1962, partly supported by the , dedicated to the preservation of the landmark. Around 110 buildings remain standing today, including one of the many once operational gold mills.

Visitors arrive mainly via SR 270, which runs from US 395 near Bridgeport to the west. The last three miles of it are a dirt road. Bodie is also a rare example of the dry-summer subarctic climate, with hot to freezing summers and long snowy winters. Winds can sweep across the valley at close to 100mph. Due to heavy snowfall, the roads to Bodie are usually closed in winter.