The mid-19th century mining town of Bodie, California located at 8,369 feet, atop the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just 3 1/2 miles from the Nevada border, was considered one of the richest gold and silver mining towns in the west. Geologists who know of its present rich ore deposits, say it could have been again, but since it became a California historic state park in 1962, that possibility was terminated.The old town, now the best preserved "ghost town" in the Nation, is maintained in a "state of arrested decay" by the State of California, meaning it will never be restored to its once rough and tough condition of the 1870s, but it is prevented from further deterioration through a system of constant repair.The public is encouraged to visit the old town, and this book is a compilation of stories, news items, historic information, and reports of its past, some true, some possibly true, and some probably outright lies by citizens of the past and "news reporters" who wrote for the many old newspapers that described life as it was lived in the years immediately following the Civil War.  Authors Jim Watson, photographer, and Doug Brodie, former newspaper reporter, have obtained items heretofore never explained nor described in writings about the old town. Their research has made this book a "one of a kind" publication.