Editing Mariposa, California (section)

==History==
===Early Inhabitants and Spanish Naming===
Before Spanish arrival, the Southern Sierra [[Miwok]] lived in what is now Mariposa. In 1806, a Spanish priest traveling with early California explorer [[Gabriel Moraga]] named the area. When the expedition came upon a creek filled with thousands of yellow butterflies, they called it “Las Mariposas,” the Spanish word for butterflies.<ref name="MariposaOnHoldNarratives">{{cite web |title=On Hold Narratives |url=https://www.mariposacounty.org/1620/On-Hold-Narratives |website=Mariposa County |publisher=Mariposa County Government |access-date=12 January 2025}}</ref>

{{multiple image
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 | header       =
 | image1       = JuanBautistaAlvarado (cropped).jpg
 | height1      = 120
 | alt1         = Portrait of Juan Bautista Alvarado, a middle-aged man with dark hair and a serious expression, dressed in 19th-century attire.
 | caption1     = [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]] (1809-1882), Governor of Alta California and owner of Rancho Las Mariposas under Mexican rule
 | image2       = John Charles Fremont, engraving.jpg
 | height2      = 120
 | alt2         = Engraving of John C. Frémont, showing a stern-faced man with thick hair and wearing a military uniform.
 | caption2     = [[John C. Frémont]] (1813-1890), explorer, military officer, and owner of Rancho Las Mariposas during the California Gold Rush
 }}

===Rancho Las Mariposas===
{{further|Rancho Las Mariposas|John C. Frémont}}
[[File:Mariposa (CA, USA), Fremont's Fort Historical Marker -- 2022 -- 141723.jpg|thumb|Fremont’s Fort historical marker near Mariposa]]
In 1847, John C. Frémont purchased a 70-square-mile land parcel known as Las Mariposas for $3,000.<ref name="AmadorLedger1915">{{Cite news|title=STATES MINING INTERESTS Expert Writes of Possibilities Along The Mother Lode|newspaper=Amador Ledger-Dispatch|date=17 December 1915|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=AL19151217.2.21&srpos=7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-mariposa+mining+history-------|access-date=28 December 2024}}</ref> Formerly owned by Governor [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]], the ranch turned profitable once Frémont discovered a five-mile quartz vein producing hundreds of pounds of placer gold monthly. Its “floating grant” status, however, sparked extensive property and mineral-rights disputes. Squatters and mining companies contested ownership until 1856, when the [[Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in Frémont’s favor. The Mariposa Estate covered 44,000 acres in the heart of the [[Mother_lode#California_Mother_Lode|Mother Lode]] region, where gold pockets in quartz veins could yield between $100 and $30,000. By 1915, total output surpassed $12 million in gold.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Parcel of Large Fremont Grant Sold |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MCS19121206.2.28&srpos=3&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-fremont+grant------- |newspaper=Merced County Sun |volume=XLI |issue=37 |date=6 December 1912 |access-date=6 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="AmadorLedger1915" />

===Founding of Mariposa===
Mariposa’s rise as a gold rush boom town began along a seasonal trickle called Agua Fría, where prospectors—lured by tales of glimmering [[placer mining|placer gold]]—pitched their first camp.<ref name="CGN">{{California's Geographic Names|799}}</ref> When floods and fires during the winter of 1849–1850 forced them to higher ground, they relocated near [[Mariposa Creek]], establishing a bustling county seat by 1851. The [[Mariposa_County_Courthouse|historic courthouse]], completed in 1854, still stands.

===Mariposa War===
{{further|Mariposa War}}
During the early 1850s, tensions between local Native tribes—primarily the Southern Sierra [[Miwok]]—and white settlers peaked, prompting the [[Mariposa War]].<ref name="Bunnell1892">{{Cite book |last=Bunnell |first=Lafayette H. |title=Discovery of the Yosemite |date=1892 |chapter=Chapter I |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/discovery_of_the_yosemite/01.html |access-date=2025-01-06}}</ref> The conflict stemmed largely from the presence of miners and the trading operations of [[Jim_Savage|James Savage]] along the [[Merced River]] and [[Mariposa Creek]].<ref name="Bunnell1892" /> Alarmed by escalating violence, Mariposa residents formed volunteer militias. With state backing, these militias eventually secured control of the area.<ref name="Bunnell1892" /> Modern historians also consider the Mariposa War part of the [[California Genocide]], and it indirectly led to the so-called “discovery” and naming of [[Yosemite Valley]]. By the late 19th century, many Miwok people had been forced from their ancestral lands.

===Twentieth Century and Beyond===
In 1914, voters in Mariposa County narrowly approved the creation of a county high school. Following a bond measure of $12,000 and the donation of nearly eight acres of land by the Mariposa Commercial and Mining Company, the school’s permanent campus opened in 1917.<ref name="MG_1918">"History of the High School," ''Mariposa Gazette'', Volume LXIII, Number 36, 26 January 1918. [https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MG19180126.2.68&srpos=2&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Mariposa+high+school+1914------- Retrieved January 12, 2025].</ref> 

During World War II, the U.S. Army constructed the [[Merced Army Airfield auxiliary fields#Mariposa Auxiliary Field|Mariposa Auxiliary Field]] (1942–1945) to train pilots; post-war, the site was redeveloped as today’s Mariposa-Yosemite Airport.<ref>[http://www.militarymuseum.org/MariposaAuxFld.html militarymuseum.org Mariposa Auxiliary Field]</ref>

On July 18, 2017, the town was evacuated due to the rapidly spreading [[:Detwiler Fire]], which threatened Mariposa and its surroundings.<ref>{{cite news |title=Evacuation of Mariposa ordered due to Detwiler Fire |url=http://abc30.com/news/evacuation-of-mariposa-ordered-due-to-detwiler-fire/2229350/ |access-date=July 19, 2017 |agency=ABC 30 Action News |publisher=KFSN-TV, Fresno}}</ref>