Editing Mariposa, California (section)

===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" />