Mount Bullion (formerly, Princeton and La Mineta) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) in

Mariposa County 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 of ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, it had a population of 154. A post office operated at Mount Bullion from 1862 to 1955, with a closure for a period during 1887. The place was first named "La Mineta" (for "little mine"). Then it was called "Princeton" for the Princeton Mine nearby. Finally, the name "Mount Bullion" was applied in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, whose nickname was "Old Bullion" due to his fiscal policies.

Geography

The community is in west-central Mariposa County, along

California State Route 49 State Route 49 (SR 49) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849 California gold rush. Highway 49 is numbered after the "49ers", the waves of immigrants ...

. It is northwest of Mariposa, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

, and southeast of Bear Valley, at an elevation of . The Mount Bullion CDP has an area of , all but of it land. The town sits on a low divide between the headwaters of Agua Fria Creek flowing to the southeast and the heads of Norwegian Gulch and Green Gulch, which run west to Bear Creek. Both creek systems find their ways southwest into 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 c ...

References

Census-designated places in California Census-designated places in Mariposa County, California Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Mariposa County, California {{MariposaCountyCA-geo-stub