Tools from Bodie and Mammoth Lakes, CA

[timdp]

On vacation we stopped by the Bodie ghost town in eastern CA (middle of nowhere...). Gold was discovered here in he early 1880s and the town grew to 2000 buildings. Two fires and general abandonment have reduced the number to around 100 buildings. This is high desert so the lack of moisture preserves everything. Took a bunch of pics, but the ones shown in this thread will be mostly tools with a few automotive pics.

Th stamping (ore crushing) mill:



Tool room in the mill. All of the tools were belt driven from a large steam engine.

The big lathe, approx. 20 feet long. Transported in one piece from Mass.


Headstock and faceplate


Shaper




Drill press


The small lathe


Tool bench


C. Parker pipe vise. Looks like the patent date is 1869.


Part of the belt array. The wide one is well over 12" wide.


Generator room produced some of the first electricity in CA.



Drilling tools used to drill holes for dynamite:




The actual ore crushers. There were three of these machines. The iron crushing head on the right most stamp is a pretty new one, while the others show considerably more wear.


Random shots from back in town.

Carpenter/buggy builder shop


Braces and block planes


Pump




Forge blower


Saws used for cutting firewood. It could get down to 20 below in the winter.




Random strongbox lying on the ground. Only found a rock inside...

 

[Jarhead0408]

That's pretty awesome man! Thanks for sharing the pics with us!

 

[timdp]

Part two: random interior kitchen shot and automotive stuff.



The gas station



Shot through very dirty windows






Ore wagon

 

[RivennHewn]

more please.

Thanks for sharing

 

[timdp]

more please.

Thanks for sharing

That's pretty much it for tool and automotive related pics. The rest are building exteriors and building interiors shot through dirty windows... Of course there are the bar and casino pic if people want to see them.

I am embarrassed to say that I somehow did not make it to Bell's Machine Shop in town. Searched Google images for it and found only one pic of the bellows and forge hood.

 

[3baygarage]

Cool thanks for sharing. I see that's a Buffalo Forge Blower. Looks like some good stuff through those dirty windows.

 

[joseph.a.owens.9]

Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[capcarl]

Great pics! Thanks for posting them!

 

[gasman23]

Unbelievable that most of it is almost 100 years old or older, and still in a relative good condition.

 

[Aggieng]

Saws used for cutting firewood. It could get down to 20 below in the winter.

They needed it in the summer too. Bodie is one of the coolest spots in the country during the summer months, with an average low temperature below freezing during most of the summer I believe. It actually has a subarctic climate.
Thanks for the pics.

 

[timdp]

Part 3: Mammoth Consolidated Mine, Mammoth Lakes CA

Note the background smoke level from the Rough fire. We bailed a day early because the smoke got too thick.

Compressed air was used for drilling and hammering so we will start with the engine and compressors.

Engine and compressor




Oil fired engine




Compressor


Later, gasoline engine powered mobile compressor (with aluminum crank case and exhaust manifold)




Random decrepit car


Ore processing mill








Mystery chunks of iron

 

[langss]

Great Pictures. I visited Bodie in 74 way before they paved the road to get in there. There was a lot more stuff around to see, but you know how that goes.

 

[timdp]

Great Pictures. I visited Bodie in 74 way before they paved the road to get in there. There was a lot more stuff around to see, but you know how that goes.

You will be happy to know that the last three miles are still dirt...

Yeah, the did not start protecting it until maybe the '80s. Still lots of stuff just lying on the ground everywhere. There were definitely things I wanted to pick up: a couple of those star drills, the strongbox. The Willys would make an awesome rat rod...

T

 

[gasman23]

Bodie is one of the coolest spots in the country during the summer months, with an average low temperature below freezing during most of the summer I believe. It actually has a subarctic climate.

I was there in the summer of 2006, temperatures were 85/90F
But I didn`t knew it gets so could in Bodie....

From Wikipedia:

Bodie is a rare example of the dry-summer subarctic climate, with warm summers and long, snowy winters.
Winds can sweep across the valley at close to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)Nights remain cold even through the summer, often dropping well below freezing. Bodie rivals notorious Barrow, Alaska as the locality in the United States with most nights below freezing; in fact no month has ever been completely frost-free, with the fewest nights below freezing being two in August 1968

 

[garthg]

You will be happy to know that the last three miles are still dirt...

Yeah, the did not start protecting it until maybe the '80s. Still lots of stuff just lying on the ground everywhere. There were definitely things I wanted to pick up: a couple of those star drills, the strongbox. The Willys would make an awesome rat rod...

T

Not sure I understand why this stuff needs to be "protected". It all was abandoned, after all, wasn't it?

 

[AG Camaro]

Not sure I understand why this stuff needs to be "protected". It all was abandoned, after all, wasn't it?

It's a state park patroled by state park rangers 24/7. They are protecting "California's Gold"!

 

[timdp]

Not sure I understand why this stuff needs to be "protected". It all was abandoned, after all, wasn't it?

If "abandoned" stuff stays around long enough, it magically turns into "historical" stuff. Its actually pretty cool to see the stores stocked with original goods. Same with the carpenter shop, bars, mortuary, casino, hotel dining/pool room/bar and various houses. Better than putting all the stuff in a museum, although the museum store does serve as a partial museum for some items.

If the stuff was in a museum instead of scattered around on the ground, I would not have been able to open up a real stagecoach style strongbox to study the interior construction and discover a rock inside. Interestingly, no one else seemed remotely interested in it, even though it was maybe 20' from the main drag from the parking lot into town and every single visitor walked down that street.

T

 

[Sam'sAutoParts]

Very cool thanks for sharing

 

[ilovevocs]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

 

[vonhef]

Nice... Thanks!


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[John in OH]

Love these kinds of places!! Old machine shops and machine tools are the best! Thanks for the pics.

 

[Jp267]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but this is great. For 15 years I've been mapping Ghost Town in the SW using USGS mapping. Sometimes my location finds come from description s some come from hand drawn maps from 100 years ago. It's really amazing what you can do with USGS maps electronically now as opposed to the paper maps.

Some ghost town I've discovered probably haven't seen people in 20 years. Amazing stuff and a true passion.

Now I need to get a new truck and make the drive from CT to the SW to check my years of mapping! One day I'll have time...

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[jon72vega]

Thanks for reviving an old thread!
My daughter lives in Sacramento, and we last flew out and vacationed with her in 2014.
One of the places she took us to visit was Bodie...... Very cool to see all the old relics so well preserved.

 

[Teenager with old tools]

I keep telling myself I want to go to bodie and haven't yet. For you east coasters I was in maine last summer and visited the place that builds the navy ships their museum had some same cool old tools too.

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[4x4gearhead]

Wow sounds like those are cool places to visit. I love all that machinery in bodie. And the oil fired engines in mammoth. I will have to add them to places id like to go on vacation. Great pictures!

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

It's sad that the things built today will never last as long as that old iron.

 

[MShaw]

If you are at Bath, Maine the Owl's Head Transportation Museum is very close. It has antique cars (including Stanley Steamers), Steam rollers, airplanes and a Corliss mill engine. All are in operation!!! It is cleverly hidden on back roads but well worth finding.

 

[4x4gearhead]

If you are at Bath, Maine the Owl's Head Transportation Museum is very close. It has antique cars (including Stanley Steamers), Steam rollers, airplanes and a Corliss mill engine. All are in operation!!! It is cleverly hidden on back roads but well worth finding.

Oh man im finding it!