Hornitos, Ca - Ghost Towns on Waymarking.com

Hornitos was founded in 1850 by Mexican miners who were expelled from nearby Quartzburg. When Quartzburg dried out, the miners moved to Hornitos where the diggings were rich. At its peak, Hornitos ("little ovens") had a population of several thousand and the reputation of being the roughest town in Mariposa county. Not born from the gold rush of '49, Hornitos was a strictly Mexican village built as if it had been transplanted from Mexico. But the town was never the same after it was invaded by the "undesirables" from neighboring mining camps. However, as the gold began to give out along the Mother Lode, the town started to return to its original form with the demand for law and order. The name of the infamous Mexican bandit, Joaquin Murieta, is still associated with Hornitos as he was almost captured there in the early 1850s, but escaped. In its heyday Hornitos was a wide-open camp whose streets were lined with fandango halls, bars, and gambling dens.

Today, Hornitos is a sleepy little village filled with structures from the gold rush days. Among the ruins are the walls of the Ghirardelli store, where Domingo Ghirardelli traded with the miners before moving to San Francisco in 1852 to found his chocolate company. The remains of the store is still owned by the Ghirardelli company, the ruins of the old Wells Fargo office, the stone Masonic Hall, the jailhouse, and others. Fortunately, much of the town can still be seen as it was during the days of the gold rush. It is located of off and west of highway 49 and west of Mariposa. Hornitos lives on as one of the best preserved ghost towns in the Mother Lode.

Reason for Abandonment: Economic Date Abandoned: 08/01/1865 Related Web Page: [Web Link]

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