How California’s Ghost Towns Recount Gold Rush History?

Abstract

The “ghost towns” of California present the history of the gold rush and offer places for popular historic experience. These once run-down and abandoned towns are newly celebrated as tourists’ destination. This paper analyzes how these ghost towns recapture history and memory, as well as eliminate or distort certain aspects of the old west.BRBodie, the gold mining town flourished between 1876 and 1910s, was designated as the State Gold Rush Ghost Town. It endeavored to keep the status of the town as it was, did not build or add anything more. The keepers of Bodie claimed that they conserved the real west of the past in “arrested decay”. However, the ideal old west they preserved could be seen as modeled after the images from popular media.BRThe State Silver Rush Ghost Town Calico, on the other hand, made the ghost town as a fun town. Walter Knott, who had romanticized the old west and the mining era, created both a fake Calico in his Knott’s Berry Farm and the real Calico, the ghost town. This silver mining town once bustled, now welcoming visitors with different kinds of entertainment, such as plays and mining experiences.BRBoth Bodie and Calico explain the mining era as an adventurous and heroic time of the white settlers, while eliminating the ordeal of the Chinese laborers and the Native Americans. The California State Railroad Museum’s “Chinese Railroad Workers’ Experience” exhibition shows that a partnership between academia and public history could improve historical representation of the era.