Mariposa Creek, originally called the Mariposa River, is a creek that has its source in

Mariposa County, California Mariposa County () is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,131. The county seat is Mariposa. It is located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of Fresno, east ...

. It flows through the town of Mariposa then southwest through the Sierra foothills, into and across the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

Merced County Merced County ( ), is a county located in the northern San Joaquin Valley section of the Central Valley, in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 281,202. The county seat is Merced. The county is named after ...

, and empties the sloughs of the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

south of the city of Merced.

History

Mariposa Creek was named by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

explorer

Gabriel Moraga Gabriel Moraga (1765 – June 14, 1823) was a Sonoran-born Californio explorer and army officer. He was the son of the expeditionary José Joaquín Moraga who helped lead the de Anza Expedition to California in 1774, Like his father, Moraga is on ...

on September 27, 1806, when his expedition discovered a great cluster of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

(''"mariposas"'' in Spanish and Portuguese): :"We named this place Mariposas utterfliesbecause these abounded, especially at night and during the morning. These butterflies became quite a nuisance. Their eagerness to escape the sun's rays was so pronounced that they pursued us closely everywhere and one of them got inside the ear of one of the privates, causing him great discomfort and us much trouble in extracting it." Each year on the first weekend in May, Mariposa residents mark the annual arrival of migrating monarch butterflies with a "Butterfly Days" festival and parade. During the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

, the Mariposa River was a rich gold-bearing creek and the site of several mining camps, including Logtown, Mariposa and Mariposita.

Watershed

Mariposa County contains three major drainage basins: the

Merced River The Merced River (), in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through ...

, Chowchilla River/ Fresno River, and a localized cluster of streams of the east valley known as the Lower Mariposa group of streams. These three basins and their component watersheds are part of the much larger San Joaquin River system that drains the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. At the lower end of the watershed, Mariposa Creek is dammed by the Mariposa Creek Dam ( high). The Mariposa Public Utilities District (MPUD) operates the Stockton Creek Dam ( tall) on Stockton Creek, a tributary of Mariposa Creek.

Mariposa Creek Parkway

Mariposa County maintains a park along the creek in downtown Mariposa. It features an Art Park with an amphitheatre, and a demonstration garden of California native plants sponsored by the local chapter of the

Master Gardeners Master Gardener programs (also known as Extension Master Gardener Programs) are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as vol ...

Images

File:Mariposa Creek Parkway.jpg, Mariposa Creek Parkway File:Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, Mariposa Creek Parkway.jpg, Mariposa Creek Parkway, Demonstration Garden File:Mariposa Creek Parkway, combined stone art and map.jpg, Mariposa Creek Parkway, combined stone art and map

References

{{Authority control Rivers of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Tributaries of the San Joaquin River Geography of the San Joaquin Valley Rivers of Merced County, California Rivers of Mariposa County, California Rivers of Northern California Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California