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McFarland’s General Store at the reproduction ghost town of Silver City in Bodfish, CA – kernvalley037x

1 Comment | This entry was posted on Jun 05 2010

ghost city

Image by mlhradio
Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. The general store. Corlew’s Silver City – manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew’s Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew’s Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale – many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew’s Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It’s a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time – but that’s partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of ‘arrested decay’. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew’s Silver City, visit Their Official Website.
Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #37 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish’ photoset.

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