Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town.
Visitors can walk down the deserted streets of a town that once had a population
of 10,000 people. The town was founded by Waterman S. Body (William Bodey), who
had discovered small amounts of gold in hills north of Mono Lake. In 1877, the
Standard Company struck pay dirt and a gold rush transformed Bodie from a town
of 20 people to a boomtown.

Only a small part of the town survives, preserved in a state of "arrested decay."
Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a
National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie
are being preserved in a state of "arrested decay". Today this once thriving
mining camp is visited by tourists, howling winds and an occasional ghost.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509

Bodie is frequently the coldest spot in the nation (check your newspaper weather page)