Bodie: "The Mines Are Looking Well..."
By Michael H. Piatt

The History of the Bodie Mining District
Mono County, California

The Book
The words "The Mines Are Looking Well" frequently appeared in late nineteenth-century newspapers and mining journals to reassure investors who had speculated in risky, often corrupt, western gold and silver mining stocks. Infused with investment capital, companies spent lavishly as they dug for mineral riches. Their abandon cast an air of confidence that made the future deceptiively bright for burgeoning mining towns scatered throughout the American West. One such town was Bodie, California.

Unlike previous books that have discussed Bodie's social history and focused on the three notorious boom years from 1878 to 1880, BODIE: "The Mines Are Looking Well..." tells the old town's complete history. Author Michael H. Piatt explains the forces that determined Bodie's fate from W. S. Bodey's discovery of gold in 1859, through the boom years, to the town's abandonment in the mid-1950s.

Tracing the stories of six principal mines, Piatt examines Bodie from the perspective of its industry. Woven into this gilded narrative are tales of life in a remote, rough-and-tumble community, lively accounts of gambled fortunes, frontier violence, engineering marvels, and battles of men and machines against the forces of nature.

The sources used to uncover these dramatic details include newspapers from Bodie and neighboring towns, mining journals, government reports, and publications by technical societies. Principal among eyewitness accounts are interviews with the late Robert T. "Bobby" Bell (1914-2003), prospector, miner, and mill hand. Born at Bodie, Bell was the last person to have worked in Bodie's underground.

This exhaustively researched book includes detailed source notes, a comprehensive bibliography, a glossary of mining terms, and is brought to life with more than 160 maps, sketches, and historic photographs, most of which have never before been published.

The Town
Over 8,300 ft. high in the Sierra Nevadas, the mining ghost town of Bodie, California is a forlorn sight. It is hard to imagine that it was once a booming, thriving city notorious for its wicked men and climate. Today, the men are gone, but the climate remains.

Bodie became a California State Historical Park in 1962 and is carefully preserved in a state of 'arrested decay.'

The Author
A native of California, Michael H. Piatt first saw the ghost town of Bodie in 1968. That initial visit has influenced his research, writing and way of life for more than three decades. In 1969 and 1970, he served as an aide at Bodie State Historic Park. In 1981 he set aside his career as a civil engineer to study traditional blacksmithing in New Mexico. From 1982 to 1994, he worked at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, demonstrating the craft of fashioning tools and hardware in the manner of early American blacksmiths. The author of articles on western mining and transportation, he lives in central Massachusetts.

The Dust Jacket Photos

The photographs of the Standard Mill, Main Street, Wagon, and Tom Miller's Kitchen that appear on the dust jacket and back cover are from the PhotoGraphics Bodie Gallery.

Signed, original, photographic prints of these images on matte finish Kodak or Fuji Crystal Archive paper are available here.