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

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

(CDP) in Mariposa County,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 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 and it is known as the Golden Chain Highway. The road was initial ...

. 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 parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, 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 ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

Demographics

Mount Bullion first appeared as a

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

in the 2020 U.S. Census

2020 Census

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