March
2010
What
the Historic Record Reveals About Bodie’s Peak
Population
By
Michael H. Piatt
Current
literature offers various opinions about the number of people who swarmed into
boomtown Bodie. Most modern-day pundits
claim the uproarious mining town’s population exceeded 10,000. Others say 12,000, or even 13,000 restless
souls once occupied the place.(1) The historic record, however, reveals that
fewer people lived in Bodie than mythmakers have led us to believe. Just before hordes of disappointed fortune
seekers began departing in mid- to late 1880, most eyewitnesses estimated the
town’s population at 8,000 or less.
Their remarks are preserved in surviving newspapers. One journalist approximated Bodie’s
population late in 1879 while grumbling about muddy streets. “It is rather a humiliating confession to
make that in a town of 8,000 inhabitants, in the principal street, and in front
of the principal stores, a wagon should mire down. . . .” (Bodie
Morning News 5 September 1879)
Twenty days later, another newspaper published a letter praising the
camp: “Two producing mines sustain a
population close on 10,000 people. . . .”
(Daily Bodie Standard 25
September 1879) A conflicting opinion
appeared three weeks later. “. . . the various civil and criminal wants of a people, now
numbering nearly 7,000 souls, can be supplied.”
(Bodie Morning News 16 October
1879)
Comments printed during the ensuing
twelve months also contained population estimates. “A city of
8,000 inhabitants and no church!”
(Bodie Morning News 30 October
1879) “There are thirty mines running
with steam hoisting works, and as many more with horse whims, etc. . . supporting a town of 8,000 inhabitants.” (Daily
Free Press 8 November 1879) “The
number of people who reside in Bodie is estimated all the way from 4,000 to
8,000. . . . It is thought by those who
are competent to judge that there are about 5,000 people here at present. During the summer there were at least 7,000
here, but the approach of winter has reduced the number
considerably.” (Daily Free Press 13 November 1879)
“It is a fact, universally conceded, that the town of
Complicating matters in 1880, the
Tenth U.S. Census recorded little more than 5,400 people. Bodie’s boomtown press quickly challenged the
figure. “There are many complaints among
citizens that their names are not on the census list,” one editor charged,
arguing that the enumeration was incomplete.
“It is safe to say that the population of Bodie is at least 7,000
instead of 5,416 as reported.” (Daily Free Press 14 July 1880)
Discrepancies between informal estimates and the
census set off arguments that continue to this day. One recent book claims that the low official
count resulted because only homeowners and jobholders were interviewed. According to the theory, people living in
boarding or rooming houses were considered transients and omitted. Minorities, such as Mexicans, Chinese, and
Indians were supposedly neglected as well.
(Sprague 2003, 101-103) This
explanation sounds plausible, but it is not supported by research. National Park Service historian Corri Jimenez
whose Master’s thesis includes an analysis of Bodie’s 1880 demographics from
the federal census asserted, “I can vouch that people living in boarding and
rooming houses were counted! I recorded lots of boarders, which usually
followed a hotelkeeper or homeowner.
Prostitutes were listed too,” affirmed Jimenez. “So were men in jail.” Minorities were also counted. Jimenez tabulated 4,969 whites (including 75
from
Theorizing that enumerators listed only homeowners
and jobholders is crackpot speculation at its worst, because it is presented as
fact without consulting census records.
Newspapers from 1880 also disprove the theory by reporting gainfully
employed workers who were not counted:
“At the Standard Consolidated office,” remarked a disapproving editor,
“they say no [census taker] has been around.
Of the eight persons in the Free
Press office no one is on the list.” (Daily
Free Press 14 July 1880) Another
annoyed newspaperman knew of other employees who were not recorded: “We have nine men in and about the Standard
Printing House, but the census taker did not get the names of one of them that
we know of. The same thing occurred at
one or two other places in town. It is
believed that we have nearer to 7,000 than 5,000.” (Daily
Bodie Standard 15 July 1880) These
complaints are evidence that the enumeration fell short. But who was omitted and for what reason will
probably never be known.
One boom-era journalist departed from his colleagues
by expressing satisfaction with the census.
“
So, why is the notion that Bodie contained more than
10,000 residents so persistent if boomtown reporters and census takers thought
otherwise? A generation after the boom,
imaginary numbers began appearing as if they were established fact. Early in the 20th century a
newspaperman interviewed three aging
Mining all but ceased during the ensuing two
decades, and the population dwindled to 20, maybe 30 stalwart individuals, who
refused to believe the gold was played out.
A few downtown businesses were hanging on, when a visiting writer in
1927 questioned veteran of the excitement, James S. Cain, age 73. In the words of the interviewer, “Twelve
thousand active citizens centered their hopes upon the mining bustle on Bodie
Bluff, 12,000 men and women lived the unrestrained existence of the almost
lawless camp.” Cain, who was actively
promoting the district to outside interests, divulged his vision for the
place: “Bodie’s activities in 1879 will
be as nothing when compared to the boom that is coming!” (Russell 1927, 90)
Elsewhere in town, another staunch believer
anticipated Bodie’s revival. Gazing upon
Dreams of another gold rush seemed
almost real two years later in 1929, when a multi-national corporation moved
into Bodie and reopened a group of old mines.
Pinning their hopes on modern technology and ample funding, company
geologists believed they could find “the lost vein.”
The renewed activity attracted a
reporter who wrote about J.S. Cain, the town’s only remaining banker and its
principal landowner and optimist. “He
has hopes, too,” wrote the journalist, “for he owns a lot of the old claims up
on the four hills. After waiting
fifty-one years, he is certainly entitled to liberal dividends.” Acting unofficially as the district’s
historian and advocate, Cain glamorized the past. “We had 15,000 people here in 1880,” he
recalled, indulging his fantasies while demonstrating that Bodie’s peak
population increased as memories faded.
(San Francisco Chronicle 23
September 1930)
Despite wishful thinking and romantic stories, Bodie
never boomed again and the town never contained 15,000, 12,000, or even 10,000,
inhabitants. Observations recorded
during the boom reveal that eyewitnesses believed only about 7,000 people, maybe 8,000 at the most, ever populated the place.
NOTES