Anyone ever seen Bodie, CA?

top1

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Its an old ghost town from the California Gold Rush. It had 10k residents in 1879 with huge gold mines all over the place. Its a historic state park now and taking detector would land me in jail, but I cant imagine a day in there with it, would be just epic. I saw a saloon token sold for $3000. Imagine the coins thats a huge city....
 
Is there anyone you could speak to? Let them know that many of the buried objects are rotting away and should be saved.
 
Exactly, maybe approach them as a volunteer and offer to do it only under their supervision and turn over all finds and just ask for the credit for the find.
 
The park rangers don't care whats "rotting" in the ground. They don't make the rules and do not have the ability to give permission. Unless you are with a University acheology group you have zero chance of seeing what is under the dirt there.

It's not unhunted grounded though. Before it became a protected site it was hunted a lot in the early days.
 
Updated info. for an old post....

Just ran across this old post (10-2011) re: Bodie Ghost Town....
This area is a state park and is monitored by park rangers who live onsite. It is against the law to remove ANYTHING from the park.....think you can "sneak" something out of the town of Bodie? Be warned...The
Bodie Curse will have a bigger impact on you than any fine/penalty handed down to you by any ranger...Copy past link below and see for yourself...
https://www.csicop.org/si/show/curse_of_bodie_legacy_of_ghost-town_ghosts

I've been to Bodie over a dozen times and have to admit, its a strange place. As for metal detecting, You cant do it in Bodie however I have gone many miles past Bodie (4x4 truck needed) and found lots of old ruins, evidence of mining and all kinds of weird stuff. If you travel past Bodie, "off the beaten path"...make sure you check the weather forcast, bring LOTS of water, food etc and let people know where you are going...The High Sierra is no place to take for granted. Great place to explore, terrible place to get lost or break down.
 
I went to Bodie once last summer. Its a very interesting park, and I spent 5 hours exploring it and taking photos. There is still a lot of old stuff such as broken ceramics and metal lying around, but as that saying goes....

"Take only photos."

I might head back over next summer once the passes start to open back up.
 
Interesting?...Cursed and haunted old place? Old Gold Rush era finds perhaps?? Big risk and Dangerous? Pish Posh! Standard Urban modern park work! Yep! Im yer Huckleberry! :laughing:
 
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There is a ranger on-site, yes. And some night infra-red or trip-sensors or something. However, that is only in the areas of the existing ruins, to my knowledge. What you see now is only a fraction remaining of the previous lay of the buildings, streets, etc.... It used to stretch out further.

I knew 2 hardcore md'ing friends who did the tourist deal there. And since they were trained eye md'r enthusiasts, they have eagle eyes developed from years of md'ing. They actually eyeballed 2 v-nickels on the bare dirt streets ! Makes you sick thinking of how much more a detector would find :)
 
The park rangers don't care whats "rotting" in the ground. They don't make the rules and do not have the ability to give permission. Unless you are with a University acheology group you have zero chance of seeing what is under the dirt there.

It's not unhunted grounded though. Before it became a protected site it was hunted a lot in the early days.


Professional archaeologists can get $3,000 for each thing they dig up, garbage or not, as long as they can draw on a map to the square inch where it was found, how deep it was, what direction it was pointed. Who would want to, let alone need to know this exact info? Imagine tour groups sleeping standing up!

They even scold arrested people that pull tabs should be left in the ground as they may be of interest to future archaeologists. Should we cry and ask forgiveness for lowering their pay?
 
Wait... a minute.... you’re not allowed to detect there!!!?????


Wasn’t me!

















JK... of course but I’ve been there, pretty cool.
 
.... They even scold arrested people that pull tabs should be left in the ground as they may be of interest to future archaeologists. Should we cry and ask forgiveness for lowering their pay?

Tsk tsk tsk. George George george ......... Well OF COURSE that pulltab MAY INDEED be of interest to future generations. It's all about context. Not the individual tab or coin or whatever. Don't you know the purist archie comeback lines to your notion ? :

Consider the pyramids of Egypt. Now no one (not even the most calloused md'r) would advocate that we should be able to snoop around sensitive cool historic monuments like those. Right ? Museums there that tourists can browse to see cool things the archies have done and found. Right ?

But consider that a few miles downstream or upstream of those Egyptian pyramids, that they found worker village locations. And archies dug there in recent years and found all kinds of new info. Revealing the life and customs of the common-man worker-bee of the times.

You might have argued "what harm am I doing miles away from the sensitive monument ?" BUT AS YOU CAN SEE : There IS INDEED sometimes an archie pit that *could* be sunk somewhere, 3000 yrs. from now, where a seemingly innocuous item WILL INDEED shed light on how people lived back in 2018. Tsk Tsk.

So HOW DO YOU KNOW that the pulltab you just dug, MIGHT not be where an archie, 3000 yrs. from now, *might* dig his 5 x 5 ft. pit ? Shame on you. I know you are writhing in grief and guilt right now. But not to worry: Box up all your md'ing finds and ship them to me. I will absolve your conscience of all guilt. It's the least I can do for a good friend and forum contributor like you :D
 
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