The Bodie Hydroelectric Substation, a key component of the town’s power infrastructure, is a brick building attached to the Wheaton and Hollis Hotel on Main Street, originally part of the 1892-1893 electrification project. Constructed during the “Leggett’s Folly” initiative, it housed transformers that stepped down incoming high-voltage AC for safe distribution to the Standard Mill and eventually the town, symbolizing Bodie’s entry into the 20th century. The building’s brick construction contrasted with Bodie’s typical wooden structures, providing durability against fires and weather. Remnants of white paint on its walls remain visible today, evoking its operational era.
Initially focused on mill power, the substation received 3,100 volts from Green Creek, reducing it to 100 volts for lighting and machinery. It played a pivotal role in the 1893 activation, where delayed startup briefly fueled doubts before success. After the 1911 avalanche, the substation integrated with the new Jordan Canyon plant, handling higher voltages (up to 33,000) for expanded town use, including James S. Cain’s operations after he consolidated mines in 1915. By 1910, it also served as an office for the Hydro-Electric Power Company.
The substation’s significance lies in enabling cost-effective power, prolonging Bodie’s viability amid decline—reducing wood dependency and supporting cyanide-based revival. Figures like Leggett (innovator) and Cain (investor) were central, with the building embodying technological optimism. Today, preserved in the state park, it stands as a testament to early electrification, attracting visitors to peer at its artifacts and underscoring Bodie’s role in power transmission history.
History of Power Generation in Bodie
Power generation in Bodie mirrored the technological evolution of remote mining towns in the American West, transitioning from labor-intensive steam power to pioneering hydroelectric systems amid economic pressures and resource scarcity. Early operations relied on steam engines fueled by cordwood, hauled from distant forests like the Mono Basin or Aurora Canyon, costing mills like the Standard Consolidated up to $22,000 annually by the early 1890s—a burden exacerbated by “wood famines” as local supplies depleted. Steam powered stamp mills for crushing ore, hoists for mining shafts, and compressors for drills, but high fuel costs and transportation challenges hindered profitability as gold yields declined post-1880s boom.
By the early 1890s, Bodie faced economic stagnation, prompting innovations like the cyanide process for extracting gold from low-grade tailings. Standard Mill Superintendent Thomas H. Leggett proposed replacing steam with hydroelectric power, harnessing distant Sierra streams to drive electric motors—a radical idea amid the “War of the Currents” between DC (direct current) and AC (alternating current) systems. Leggett, convinced by Westinghouse’s AC technology (which allowed voltage step-up for efficient long-distance transmission via transformers), persuaded banker and mine owner James S. Cain to fund the project in November 1892. Dubbed “Leggett’s Folly” by skeptics due to its $100,000 cost and unproven nature, it targeted Green Creek, 12.5 miles south, with a reliable flow of 400 miner’s inches of water (expandable to tenfold).
Construction spanned August to October 1892: enlarging an abandoned ditch for 4,570 feet of water diversion, building a penstock, gates, weirs, and a powerhouse from repurposed Bulwer-Standard mill materials. Dynamo Pond was dammed for storage. In November, a 120-kilowatt Westinghouse AC generator and four Pelton waterwheels arrived from San Francisco. Water plunged 1,571 feet (355 vertically) through an 18-inch pipe, striking nozzles on the wheels to generate 3,530 volts AC at up to 130 horsepower. Power transmitted 12.46 miles via straight copper wires on wooden poles (to avoid “jumping out” at curves, per folklore), entering Bodie above the cemetery and reaching the mill at 3,100 volts. A parallel telephone line aided operations.
After winter delays, full operation began in July 1893 following a 30-day test. On activation day, a crowd at the mill witnessed initial silence after the Green Creek signal, sparking mockery, but motors soon hummed, powering the 20-stamp mill and lighting—heralding Bodie as possibly the first site worldwide for an AC-powered electric stamp mill over long distance. Celebrations ensued, and the system slashed costs, enabling a revival through cyanide processing.
The Green Creek plant operated until an avalanche destroyed it in February 1911. By then, regional power expanded: in 1910, the Hydro-Electric Power Company (later Southern Sierras Power Company) built a new plant in Jordan Canyon (Lundy Canyon), 1,000 feet from Copper Mountain’s base, using reinforced concrete and transmitting 33,000 volts to Bodie via a 30-mile line. This supplied broader needs, including mines and residences, until mining ceased in 1942. Bodie’s innovations influenced Western mining, demonstrating AC’s viability for remote sites and reducing reliance on finite fuels.