AGUA FRIA
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AGUA FRIA |
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NAME: Agua
Fria COUNTY: Mariposa ROADS: 2WD GRID #(see map): 3 CLIMATE: Rarely snows. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Almost anytime... hot in Summer. |
COMMENTS: bout
3-1/2 miles west of Mariposa, on Agua Fria Road. Accessable from
the west by Highway 140 (travelling east out of Merced) A place
highly significant in Mariposa County history. While no structures
remain, one can stop and imagine scores of miners wading in Agua
Fria Creek, laboring industriously. REMAINS: Just the creek where it all began...private land. |
| Agua Fria, today a true ghost town, was principally a placer mining camp divided into Lower Agua Fria and Upper Agua Fria. The name was derived from two springs of cold water about a quarter mile below Lower Agua Fria (the principal town). It may have been there that John C. Fremont's men discovered gold in 1849. In 1850 it was a booming trade center and final destination for many new arrivals in California. It was there, too, that James Burney, first county sheriff had established a log cabin which served as a jail of sorts. Burney also recruited men in Agua Fria for pursuit of the natives during the Mariposa Indian War, in 1850. It was Mariposa County's first Seat of Justice from February 18, 1850 to November 10, 1851. A post office was established October 7, 1851. In 1853 a 6-stamp quartz mill was established in Upper Agua Fria. The camp boasted a hotel, express office, assayers, billiard room, bowling alley, monte and faro banks, about a dozen stores, numerous tents and log cabins, and several houses of ill repute, by the Fall of 1850. Agua Fria, on the decline by the mid 1850s, suffered a succession of disasterous fires and was never rebuilt. While there is not much to see, you can take Agua Fria Road to Mount Bullion and the site of Princeton. It's also a nice alternate route into Mariposa. The site, today on private property, is Historic Landmark 518. Submitted by Joshua Reader. |
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