Taken from the introduction: This investigation is concerned with the history of Bodie, California as a mining town and will cover briefly a history of the area before going into the main body of the paper which will research the railroad that served the mining camps of the Bodie area, as well as briefly researching neighboring railroads, to show the roles they played in the building up of this east of the Sierras town. This paper will also go into the politicing and business maneuvering of the Bodie Railroad in an effort to get connections with outside rails -- a necessity if the railroad was to survive. It will also cover the roles played by outside railroads in an effort to limit the Bodie Railroad to its own tracks. In short it will show why the railroad was built and why it could not survive.