While in no way as apocalyptic as Neil Young’s song lyric, gold rush ghost towns are captivating ‘memento mori’ symbols which have always fascinated me and there’s no better place to experience them than in America’s Southwest.
The two that have really left their mark are Bodie, which is not far from eerie Mono Lake on California’s Nevada border and Dunton Hot Springs, which is a couple of hours from Telluride, in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Both are hidden in remote valleys accessed by dirt roads; both also are former mining towns; in Bodie’s case with the richest seam in California’s Gold Rush. Both also share a more than colorful past. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s names are carved into the bar in Dunton’s saloon, as this is the place they hid out after a bank robbing spree in Telluride, while Bodie in its heyday is said to have contained 65 saloons, numerous brothels and 'houses of ill repute', gambling halls and opium dens, which served a population estimated at 10,000 in 1881, not much smaller than Los Angeles and Sacramento’s. Finally, both had their heyday in the 1890s.
Here the comparisons end, as today Bodie is a National Historic Landmark preserved in a state of arrested decay and suspended animation, as if the residents had just left town. You can peer through windows into cobwebbed saloons, livery stables, a gymnasium and a church where everything is just as it was, but under an ever-thickening layer of dust.
The much smaller town of Dunton by contrast, has been ingeniously transformed into the most low-key, quirky luxury resort you’ll find anywhere, where the ‘rooms’ are the still rustic looking hand-hewn wooden buildings and cabins that made up the former settlement.
At its centre is the original 19th Century hot springs bathhouse, which no doubt soothed the aching bones of many an outlaw and Pinkerton in its day.
Luxurious it may be, but somehow the frontier spirit of old Dunton Gold Mining camp endures. I love the way this place represents a pre-nanny state America with no warning signs, a warm welcome but absolutely no concessions for kids and a robust disregard for protocol or hazard. The black snake dozing peacefully in the bathhouse for example is a fixture, not a reason to call Pest Control. Other buildings have been wittily re-purposed- you can practice yoga in the former Pony Express stop building or watch a DVD in the erstwhile Dance Hall.
Equally impressive is the food. When we stayed, there were only a couple of other guests, and Doug the chef who we got to know a little when he took us down to the corral to introduce us to his two horses, literally cooked our meals to order at whatever time we pleased. As is so often the case, the most remarkable dish we had there was also the most unpretentious, a Caramelized Onion and Red Pepper Soup.
Caramelized Onion and Red Pepper Soup: Serves Three
4 large red peppers, roasted in the oven, peeled and seeded
1 1/2 very large onions, sliced and caramelized; save some for the garnish
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
Place the peppers and onions in a food processor, process until smooth. Pour into a saucepan; add the chicken stock and the cream, season to taste and heat until just starting to boil.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a few caramelized onions.
The day we left Dunton we had one of those nightmare road trip sequences of events, with a flat tyre on a dirt road, a rainstorm soaking us to the skin as we re-loaded the car having changed the wheel and several missed turn offs adding hours to our journey. Doug’s kind but misguided parting words “you guys are awesome- if I had a family, I’d want them to be like you”, were ringing in my ears as we were having a loud and completely pointless family argument over these various mishaps.
I’ve always dreamed about being let loose in a deserted village or town. It’s an historical inquisitiveness; I want to see what they used to survive, what they wore and what their time killers were. I suppose I am just nosey but I like to have a complete view of past lives. An old mining town would be perfect.
Quite the experience, one I would pass on if black snakes are the norm!!!!!