The Mariposa County Arts Council is the official Mariposa County, California, USA arts council.
Established in 1981, it runs under the California state arts council, the California Arts Council (CAC).
On May 17, 2012, the council gallery, office, and records were destroyed in a fire that started in the kitchen of a pizza restaurant in another part of the building. [1]
For 30 years, the council's signature event was its annual Mariposa Storytelling Festival. The festival came to an end in 2017 because of rising production costs and falling sponsorship. [2] [3]
Merced is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California, United States, in the San Joaquin Valley. As of 2019, the city had a population of 83,676. Incorporated on April 1, 1889, Merced is a charter city that operates under a council-manager government. It is named after the Merced River, which flows nearby.
Yosemite National Park is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 759,620 acres and sits in four counties – centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.
Mariposa County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 18,251. The county seat is Mariposa. It is located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton.
Merced County, is a county located in the northern San Joaquin Valley section of the Central Valley, in the U.S. state of California.
Mariposa is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Mariposa County, California, United States. The population was 2,173 at the 2010 census, up from 1,373 at the 2000 census. The city is named after the flocks of monarchs seen overwintering there by early explorers.
The University of California, Merced is a public land-grant research university in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California campuses. Established in 2005, UC Merced was founded to "address chronically low levels of educational attainment in the region." UC Merced enrolls 8,847 undergraduates and 696 graduates with 63.8% of students receiving Pell Grants, more than 99% of UC Merced students coming from California, and the largest percentage of low-income students from underrepresented ethnic groups in the UC system.
State Route 140 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, 102 miles (164 km) in length. It begins in the San Joaquin Valley at Interstate 5 near Gustine, and runs east into Sierra Nevada, terminating in Yosemite National Park.
Human habitation in the Sierra Nevada region of California reaches back 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Historically attested Native American populations, such as the Sierra Miwok, Mono and Paiute, belong to the Uto-Aztecan and Utian phyla. In the mid-19th century, a band of Native Americans called the Ahwahnechee lived in Yosemite Valley. The California Gold Rush greatly increased the number of non-indigenous people in the region. Tensions between Native Americans and white settlers escalated into the Mariposa War. As part of this conflict, settler James Savage led the Mariposa Battalion into Yosemite Valley in 1851, in pursuit of Ahwaneechees led by Chief Tenaya. The California state military forces burned the tribe's villages, destroyed their food stores, killed the chief's sons, and forced the tribe out of Yosemite. Accounts from the Mariposa Battalion, especially from Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, popularized Yosemite Valley as a scenic wonder.
An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent political interference in their decisions.
The Merced Sun-Star is a daily broadsheet newspaper printed in Merced, California, in the United States. It has an estimated circulation of 20,000 copies. The newspaper is published every day except for Sundays.
Briceburg is an unincorporated community in Mariposa County, California. It is located on the Merced River near the confluence with Bear Creek, 5 miles (8 km) north-northwest of Midpines, at an elevation of 1138 feet. It is accessed via a bridge over the Merced River that connects Highway 140 with Briceburg Road. The bridge is a 160-foot (49 m) suspension bridge built by the US Forest Service in 1937 and constructed by 30 Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees. Forest Service Engineer J.W. Nute was in charge of construction. The community name honors William M. Brice, who built a store at the location in 1926.
Dayvid Figler is an American performer, author and trial lawyer. He successfully took the Nevada bar exam at age 23. In 2003, he began and served a short term as a Las Vegas municipal court judge after being appointed by Mayor Oscar B. Goodman. Apart from his success as one of the better known criminal defense attorneys in Las Vegas, he has become a regarded legal commentator, one of the most quoted authorities on Las Vegas, and a prolific radio commentator and writer on a variety of topics related to Las Vegas.
The Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System, also known as YARTS, is a public transit bus line based in Merced, California. YARTS provides scheduled service into popular locations within Merced, Mariposa, Mono, Tuolumne, Madera, and Fresno counties, including Yosemite National Park and Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
Merced College is a public community college in Merced, California.
The Hmong are a major ethnic group residing in Merced, California. As of 1997, Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States. As of 2010, there were 4,741 people of Hmong descent living in Merced, comprising 6% of Merced's population.
Mariposa Creek, originally called the Mariposa River, is a creek that has its source in Mariposa County, California. It flows through the town of Mariposa then southwest through the Sierra foothills, into and across the San Joaquin Valley in Merced County, and empties the sloughs of the San Joaquin River south of the city of Merced.
Merced City School District (MCSD) is a school district in California, United States. Its headquarters are in Merced.
Adam C. Gray is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 21st Assembly District, encompassing all of Merced County and portions of Stanislaus County.
The Ferguson landslide, also commonly called the Ferguson Slide, is an active landslide in the Merced River canyon in Mariposa County, California, United States. In 2006, rocks and debris slid off Ferguson Ridge, blocking California State Route 140, a primary access road to Yosemite National Park. The slide still blocked the original road as of late 2021, although temporary bridges allow one-way traffic around the slide and into the park. The slide is a natural phenomenon, and resulted from the erosion dynamics of the river valley.
Mariposa County High School is a public high school located in Mariposa, CA. The school is part of the Mariposa County Unified School District.