County Past
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Mariposa County, California

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
46historic places
—earliest paper
1850formed
17,131pop. 2020
23cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 46 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973; 4 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Yosemite, El Portal, Wawona.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for California is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Mariposa titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

28 of 46 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

46 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Acting Superintendent's HeadquartersWawonaBuilding1978
Ahwahnee Hotel NHLYosemite National ParkBuilding1977
Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and TurntableEl PortalDistrict1979
Big Gap FlumeGrovelandSite1975
Bower CaveGreeley HillSite2003
Camp 4YosemiteSite2003
Camp Curry Historic DistrictYosemite National ParkDistrict1979
Coulterville Main Street Historic DistrictCoultervilleDistrict1982
Crane Flat Fire LookoutAspen ValleyBuilding1996
Degnan's RestaurantYosemite NPBuilding2017
El Portal Archeological DistrictMariposaDistrict1978
El Portal Old SchoolhouseEl PortalBuilding2011
Glacier Point Trailside MuseumEl PortalBuilding1978
Half Dome Cables and TrailYosemiteDistrict2012
Hetch Hetchy Railroad Engine No.6El PortalStructure1978
Hodgdon Homestead CabinWawonaBuilding1978
Hornitos Masonic Hall No. 98HornitosBuilding2005
Jorgenson, Chris, StudioYosemite National ParkBuilding1979
LeConte Memorial Lodge NHLCurry VillageBuilding1977
Mariposa County CourthouseMariposaBuilding1977
Mariposa County High School AuditoriumMariposaBuilding1991
Mariposa Grove MuseumWawonaBuilding1978
Mariposa Town Historic DistrictMariposaDistrict1991
May Lake High Sierra CampYosemiteDistrict2014
McCauley and Meyer BarnsEl PortalBuilding1978
McGurk CabinYosemite VillageBuilding1979
Merced Grove Ranger StationEl PortalBuilding1978
Merced Lake High Sierra CampYosemiteDistrict2014
Merced Lake Ranger StationYosemiteBuilding2014
Ostrander Lake Ski HutYosemiteBuilding2014
Rangers' Club NHLYosemite National ParkBuilding1987
Snow Creek Ski HutYosemiteBuilding2014
Snow Flat Snow Survey ShelterYosemiteBuilding2014
St. Joseph Catholic Church, Rectory and CemeteryMariposaBuilding1991
Sunrise High Sierra CampYosemiteDistrict2014
Track Bus No. 19El PortalStructure1978
Vogelsang High Sierra CampYosemiteDistrict2014
Wawona Covered BridgeWawonaStructure2007
Wawona Hotel and Pavilion NHLWawonaDistrict1975
Yosemite Transportation Company OfficeWawonaBuilding1978
Yosemite ValleyYosemiteDistrict2006
Yosemite Valley Archeological DistrictYosemite VillageDistrict1978
Yosemite Valley BridgesYosemite VillageDistrict1977
Yosemite Valley ChapelYosemite National ParkBuilding1973
Yosemite Valley Railroad Caboose No. 15El PortalStructure1978
Yosemite Village Historic DistrictEl PortalDistrict1978

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Mariposa was formed in 1850 (1850-02-18) from unknown / original county.

MARIPOSA created from non-county area.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Mariposa County population from 1850 to 2020 (Census historical series).

18k11k2,7751850188019201940196020002020
18501860188019001920194019501960198020002020
4,3796,2434,3394,7202,7755,6055,1455,06411,10817,13017,131

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

SiteTypeDist.
Yosemite National ParkPark unit34.0 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

23 cemeteries and 3 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 23 of 23 listed
NameLatLon
Agua Fria Cemetery37.49617-120.0278
Bear Valley Cemetery37.56943-120.11549
Bear Valley IOOF Cemetery37.56983-120.11361
Brewer's Green Mountain Cemetery37.28928-119.99947
Catheys Valley Cemetery37.44495-120.10309
Coulterville Chinese Cemetery37.71598-120.19622
Coulterville Public Cemetery37.7153-120.19609
Dudley Cemetery37.75341-120.10999
Givens Cemetery37.48571-120.21003
Granite Springs Cemetery37.72104-120.30575
Harris Family Cemetery37.46408-119.73755
Hornitos Odd Fellows Cemetery37.50832-120.23467
Mariposa District Cemetery37.49139-119.97557
Mariposa IOOF Cemetery37.49109-119.97479
Mariposa Masonic Cemetery37.49192-119.97525
Pate Cemetery37.35078-120.18141
Quartzburg Cemetery37.53992-120.20599
Saint Catherine's Catholic Church Cemetery37.50377-120.23581
Saint Joseph Cemetery37.48272-119.96128
Santa Cruz Cemetery37.439-120.19813
Sarah Priest Cemetery37.56499-119.95246
White Rock Cemetery37.33317-120.04205
Yosemite Pioneer Cemetery37.74876-119.5888
Historical populated places — 3 of 3
NameLatLon
Newtown37.70326-120.19185
North Wawona37.54855-119.64099
South Wawona37.54132-119.64182

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Mariposa County, California

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.