Bodie Game Timeline

1859

• On November 20, 1859, W. S. Bodey perished in a snow storm. He and his mining partner, “Black Taylor”, got caught in the severe storm and Bodey couldn’t make it back to their camp. Taylor continued on, so he could bring back supplies to his friend, but upon returning, couldn’t find him. It was several months later when Bodey’s remains were found.

This was just a few months after Bodey’s gold discovery that led to the great town of Bodie, CA.

1861

• April 24, 1861 – Mono County was founded. Mono County was founded on April 24, 1861, with the county seat at Bridgeport, CA.

1862

• Bodie is mentioned so the city must have been started. Story of the name Bodie-[[1]]

1876

• Great Sioux War-Black Hills War.[[2]]
• Jun 25: While leading an attack into a Sioux village in the Montana Territory, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer is ambushed and massacred by over 2,000 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.[144]
• Aug 2: "Wild Bill" Hickok is shot and killed by Jack McCall during a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

1877

• May 1, 1877 – Silas Smith opened his first store [[3]]
• July 10, 1877 – Standard Mill begins production
• September 2, 1877 – First fire bucket brigade
• October 10, 1877 – The Mono County Bank was incorporated.
• December 1, 1877 marked the first non-stop stagecoach trip from Carson City, NV to Bodie.
• December 4, 1877 – The Standard Co. declares a dividend of $1 per share… and the Bodie boom begins!

Possible Game Starting point.

1878

• February 2, 1878 – Beginning of stage service 3 times a day between Bodie & Aurora, and once daily to Bridgeport, 1878.
• June 1, 1878 – Bodie Mining Co. makes a rich strike and stocks soar from .50 cents to $50 a share almost overnight.
• June 28, 1878 – Construction on the Bodie Miners’ Union Hall was completed.
• August 5, 1878 – Bodie’s first daily mail service is instituted.
• August 17, 1878 – Harvey Boone arrives in Bodie. Boone Store.[[4]]

1979

• June 10, 1879 – The first load of Bodie ore weighs in at over 10,000 lbs. with “every piece showing gold.”

This would be a good goad to the PCs, wherever they are. They could see a newspaper notice and that the gold rush is just starting.

• September 6, 1879 – H.Z. Osborne & Co. printed the first “Daily Free Press” newspaper in Bodie.
• October 1, 1879, Pat Reddy, attorney at law, becomes Bodie’s newest citizen.

1880

• January 24: The fire hydrant system in Bodie is completed.\
• May 1: The Tombstone Epitaph prints its first issue in Tombstone, Arizona. It remains the oldest continuously published newspaper in the state.
  • The Tombstone Epitaph could have an article about Bodie that sends a gunfighter PC to Bodie.

Possible Game Starting point.

• May 11: A dispute over land titles between settlers of California's San Joaquin Valley and the Southern Pacific Railroad leaves seven people dead in what is later called the Mussel Slough Tragedy.
  • Southern Pacific Railroad could have Agents hunting robbers or people who had been involved in attacking the railroad. PCs might be attacking the Railroad.
• December 19: Tom O'Folliard, best friend of Billy the Kid, is shot and killed by members of Pat Garrett's posse in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
• Dec 23 :Charlie Bowdre, a member of Billy the Kid's gang, is shot and killed by members of Pat Garrett's posse at Stinking Springs, New Mexico.

1881

• February 19, 1881 the Bodie Railway and Lumber Company was organized.
• June 6, 1881 – Newspapers report the town has become a resort, having no killings in the past week.
• Jul 14 :Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He is buried the next day between his friends Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre in the town's old military cemetery.
• Oct 26:The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place in the street behind a saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, pitting the Earps and Doc Holliday against Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claiborne. Billy Clanton and the McLaurys are killed, and Virgil and Morgan Earp, along with Holliday, are wounded.

1882

• Mar 24:Outlaw William "Curly Bill" Brocius is shot and killed by Wyatt Earp at Iron Springs in southeastern Arizona.
• May 9, 1882 – The “Bodie Evening Miner” newspaper is first printed by John J. Curry & Co. for Bodie, Mono County, California.
• Jul 17: U.S. cavalry under Adna R. Chaffee and Andrew W. Evans pursue and defeat warriors of the White Mountain Apache tribe at the Battle of Big Dry Wash in the Arizona Territory.
• September 15, 1882 – The first gathering took place in the Methodist Church. www.Bodie.com/history/structures/methodist-church/
• Union Market Advertises "Beef, Mutton, or pork and wholesale prices. Ham, Bacon, and sausage, constantly on hand,"

1886

• Jack Langrishe, a popular western entertainer, is elected justice in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
  • Langrishe was known as the Comedian of the Frontier. He could easily have been in Bodie at some point.

1893

• Jun 11–12 Following a ten-month manhunt, local train robbers John Sontag and Chris Evans are wounded during a shootout with a posse of lawmen on a ranch north of Visalia, California. Both outlaws are eventually captured, and Sontag dies of his wounds three weeks later.
  • Sontag and Evens might spend time in Bodie. Bad Men. Train Robbers.

1898

• October 6, 1898 – The Standard Mill burns down. www.Bodie.com/history/structures/the-standard-mill/