Bodie State park lies near Mono Lake in the North-East of California, in the lee of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It became a boom town in 1876 after the discovery of gold. At it's peak in 1879, Bodie had a population of approximately 5,000–7,000 people and millions of dollars of gold were mined locally. However the boom was short-lived. Starting about 1880 Bodie's population started to decline as get-rich-quick miners move elsewhere. The final blow was when the last mine closed in 1942. The US government shut down all nonessential gold mines during World War II and after that all but three people were left. Mining never resumed after the war.

The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and in 1962 Bodie State Historic Park was created. Bodie has been named as California's official state gold rush ghost town and is said to be preserved in a state of "arrested decay".