Ella M. Cain--Bodie Schoolmarm and Historian

by Peggy Lee

            It was a clear, warm, and sunny day in July of 1960 when we met Ella Cain. Our family had come to visit Bodie, that ghost town we had heard so much about. Bodie had the reputation, and a well earned one, of being the wildest gold camp in the West and we had learned that there remained a great number of buildings still standing, that we were wanting to see. We were on vacation and staying in a cabin at Mammoth Lakes so we took the shortest route from that direction which took us up the Cottonwood Canyon road off of highway 167, the road to Hawthorne. This road of course was not paved and very rough, and along the way the muffler on our Mercury sedan broke loose. This did not make my husband happy.

The Bodie schoolhouse as it appears today. (Photo by Martin Cole)

             This was before Bodie had become a state park and you could still drive into town. Luckily we spotted a long piece of wire lying beside the road and that looked like a good temporary fix for the muffler, so we parked up on Green Street very close to the school building, and my husband got to work fastening up the muffler. 
             While he was working on that I noticed that the school door was open. I took our children with me and entered into the schoolroom. Mrs. Cain was seated at the front behind the teachers desk. She stood and welcomed us and told the children and I to be seated at the students desks. She was very friendly and asked if we had ever been to Bodie before, and then she proceeded to tell us some of Bodies history, and also that she had been teaching here in the early 1900s. She showed us books and globes and many other items that had been in that room for many years. There were flags and maps, lunch boxes, and even paper mache Jack-O-Lanterns left from some long ago Halloween celebration. She seemed to enjoy the visit as much as we did but we, reluctantly, had to leave. We spent another hour or two walking around the town till we realized that it was time to head back to our cabin. We vowed to come again, and that promise has been kept since we have visited Bodie almost every year for over forty years. It seems as though every time we come we learn something new about that wonderful old town.

Ella Cain

            The large two story wooden building with the belfry on top was not the first school in Bodie. The first was most likely the one opened in March of 1878 on Main Street that was taught by Belle Moore, the wife of Ben Butler who owned a saloon also on Main Street. [i] Then there was one located about two blocks higher up on Green Street, it is said  that a disgruntled student who did not want to go to school set fire to it. This newer one had originally been the Bon Ton boarding house that had been run in 1879 by Mrs. C.A. Ratjohn.  Some of the early teachers were a Mr. Cook and a Mr. McCarty. The school was of the one-room type with students of all ages and grades. Some of the older ones were even 16 or 17 years old. [ii]
            Ella Cain was born  in Bodie in 1882 as Ella Margaret Cody,  daughter of  Michael Joseph [iii] and Catherine (Shaughnessy} Cody. She had two sisters, Mary and Katherine, and  three brothers, Ralph, Edmond ,  and Mervyn. Her maternal grandparents, James and Margaret (Dunn) Shaughnessy were both born in Ireland and immigrated to Hartford, Connecticut. They answered the call of the California gold rush, and went by boat to Panama where they crossed the Isthmus on mule back, then went  by sailing vessel to San Francisco. Catherine, the first of their six children, who would become Ella's mother, was born in the little mining camp of Howland Flats, Sierra County, in 1862. 

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2005 Tour Information

We're still in the process of revising our 2005 schedule.

Please contact us at info@explorehistoricalif.com for current tour information.

Explore Historic California!

     Not too many years ago, the family station wagon was the magic carpet to adventure. Today, that family station wagon is likely to be a four wheel drive sport utility vehicle or pick up truck. SUV's and other 4x4's are one of the best selling classes of vehicles. Ironically, industry statistics show that once purchased, few owners will dare to drive their vehicles off the paved highway. Click your mouse through our website and enjoy our armchair adventures and the histories behind them. If you are interested in taking one of our guided tours with your vehicle, please visit our ECOLOGICAL 4-WHEELING ADVENTURES.

     Several years ago, we bought our first SUV. We went to a one-night class at a local community college entitled "How to 4-Wheel Drive" by Harry Lewellyn. The following weekend we attended the hands-on day tour. We liked what we were doing so much that we began going out nearly every weekend and learned how to negotiate a variety of dirt roads. Our spare time was spent doing research on the history and ecology of our favorite areas. A one-day outing turned into 16 years of leading others on mini-vacations throughout Southern California and the Owens Valley.

     Our 4WD outings involve driving on easy to moderate dirt roads and are ideally suited to novice and intermediate level drivers. All tours are suitable for stock vehicles in good condition, although some tours do have vehicle size restrictions.

     Our tours are operated under permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and other authorities.

     We share our knowledge of the backcountry over the CB radio with our guests. We frequently stop to explore mining areas, old and new, and ponder the rocks, plants and animals we may encounter. We'll occasionally visit an old cabin or deserted mountain lookout.

     California has a fascinating history, from geologic unrest and prehistoric petroglyph scribes to the "Radium Queen of the Mojave" and the "Human Mole of Black Mountain." Load up your 4X, fasten your seatbelts and get ready to explore historic California.

Roger, Cecile and Marty