Rosa May

She was a prostitute during the late 19th century and very early 20th century who lived in Virginia City and Bodie, California. Legend says she was selflessly nursing sick miners during an epidemic and succumbed to the illness herself.

Because of this, Rosa May has been referred to as the “hooker with a heart of gold.”

Her parents were Irish immigrants. In 1871 she ran away from her home in Pennsylvania  and between 1871 to 1873, began her career of prostitution.

It appears that she started in the trade while living in New York City, and then drifted through Colorado and Idaho. She first appears in Virginia City in 1873, where worked in brothels throughout the Carson City, Reno, and Virginia city areas.

From 1873 to 1888, the majority of her time was spent in Virginia City where she worked for madam, Cad Thompson, a.k.a. Sarah Higgins. Rosa was often was left in charge during Cad’s trips to San Francisco.

Between 1888 through the early 1890s, she traveled to and from Bodie and eventually settled there in 1893. Land records from 1902 show that Rosa purchased a house in Bodie’s “Red Light District,” for $175, back up against the “Celestial section,” of town as the Chinese were known.

Letters, diaries, and other writings suggest she was a charming person, took an interest in others, but was somewhat volatile emotionally. There appears to have been a serious or traumatic event in her early years but no record exists of what it could have been.

While she first appears in the 1900 census records — there are no records of Rosa May living in Bodie after the 1910 census. This lack of a paper trail has left many historians to speculate what became of her.

Bodie was declining rapidly during the period that Rosa May disappears, and it may be that she left the area in search of greener pastures. Her supposed resting place in Bodie is a popular tourist destination for those exploring Bodie State Park.

While there is a headstone with her name on it located outside of Bodies’s cemetery proper, it is believed not to be marking her actual resting place. The only evidence that she is buried in Bodie is a photo illustrating the Rosa May piece from Ella Cain’s 1950’s book, “The Story of Bodie.”

This photo shows a decrepit wooden fence surrounding an otherwise unmarked grave. Since Ella Cain’s biographical sketch of Rosa May is mostly fiction, it is likely the photo was chosen for its picturesque qualities.

In her book, Cain relates the story of the epidemic and Rosa succumbing to the same illness that had stricken the miners for whom she was caring. Other resident’s accounts and external records refute that there was any type of epidemic during the winter of 1911-1912.

Author George Williams III conducted an exhaustive search in the 1970’s for Rosa May’s death records, he found nothing.  His research is well documented in the book, “Rosa May: The Search for A Mining Camp Legend.”