Social Status

Social Ladder of Respectability

Bodie was a  95 percent a “Male town”, a freezing cold, rough, high mountain and remote-Mining Camp.  The Saloons were the domain of men.

Social gatherings revolved around the Miners’ Union Meeting Hall, and the male-membership. Dances made-up part of the “social fabric of Bodie”- and were an opportunity to include the married women living in Bodie.

That, left 5 percent of the total population Female. Yet again, the women-folk were divided into two steps on the “Social Ladder”- "Respected" and “Disrespected." The "Respected Ladies” were the Women-Folk, who conducted themselves and were married to a Miner, Rancher or Teamster. The single “seamstress” was on the social step on the ladder of an unmarried women, living near the slaughter-house or next to Chinatown.

A “proper lady” was married. The married Women did not enter Saloons, color their hair, or spend time with men other than their husbands. 

Social status  was “all about  a scale of respectability.” In Bodie's bustling mining community during its peak in the late 1800s, the upper echelons of society comprised about 5% of the population, characterized by wealth amassed through successful mining ventures and strategic investments.

This elite class included mine owners, prominent merchants, and influential figures within the local government, who wielded considerable power and influence over the town's affairs.

While the majority of Bodie's inhabitants labored tirelessly in the mines or provided essential services, this very, small group enjoyed a lifestyle marked by homes, and the “ability to shape the social and economic landscape of the mining town.”

Their elevated status, afforded them not only material comforts, but also “a degree of separation” from the hardships faced by the working-class miners and their wives and children. It also, put constraints on the personal behavior of the few women living in Bodie.

It was very “isolating to live in Bodie.” With very few women living in the remote place, the freezing cold winters and impassable roads- made any kind of Friendship difficult. The women, who had “Sisters or Sister-in-Laws” were the most fortunate in the town. They had family, connection and concern.