The town was officially founded in 1876, when miners discovered rich deposits of gold and silver here. In search of wealth and a better life, people flooded into the small town. Soon the place earned the reputation of ‘sin city’, full of brothels and hopjoints. Subsequently, Bodie went bankrupt, and by the 1940s it became a real ghost town. Currently it is considered to be one of the best well-preserved ghost towns in the world.