The Mine On my way home from Mammoth, I took a short detour to Bodie State Historic Park. I’ve visited Bodie a few times. Each time I am struck by the quiet beauty of its wooden buildings and the story of its rise and fall. Bodie was an industrial mining town that, at its peak (1879-1881) had more than 8,000 residents. Two to three thousand worked in the mines, while the rest kept the town running as doctors, lawyers, teachers, tradespeople, railroad workers, police officers,