Yaqui Gulch Road is an approximately 3-mile rural highway located in Mariposa County. This highway corridor is one of the oldest identifiable roadways in the state as it once served the original Mariposa County seat of Aqua Fria along with nearby Guadalupe and Bridgeport. The community of Agua Fria was founded in 1849 by Sonoran Miners and became the first Mariposa County seat in February 1850. The County Seat was not long lived in Agua Fria as it would be moved to Mariposa in November 1851. The community of Agua Fria would burn during a fire in 1866 and was never rebuilt.
Part 1; the history of Yaqui Gulch Road
Yaqui Gulch Road was once consolidated with what is now Aqua Fria Road. Both Aqua Fria Road and Yaqui Gulch Road connected the early Mariposa County communities of Agua Fria, Guadalupe and Bridgeport.
Mariposa County was incorporated on February 18, 1850, as one of the original counties following California becoming an American state. Mariposa County initially was by far the largest county by area in California which was centered around mining claims in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The original county seat was the now ghost town of Aqua Fria.
Aqua Fria was centered around claims struck by Sonoran miners in 1849. The town site was located near Agua Fria Creek near two cold water springs. At the height of the community, it boasted about a dozen stores, several gambling halls and a hotel. The Aqua Fria Post Office would open on October 7, 1851. Despite Agua Fria obtaining Post Office service the Mariposa County seat would relocate to Mariposa on November 10, 1851.
Guadalupe was located approximately two miles south of Agua Fria near the confluence of Guadalupe Creek and Aqua Fira Creek. This mining community would emerge in the early 1850s but was never very large in size. By 1859 a 15-stamp mill would operate at Guadalupe.
After losing the Mariposa County seat the community of Aqua Fria began a quick decline. The community would be destroyed during a fire on June 22, 1866, and would never be rebuilt. Despite being then recently destroyed the community of Agua Fria appears on the 1868 Whitney map of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to Yosemite Valley. What is now Agua Fria Road (Upper and Lower) appears on the map connecting Princeton (now Mount Bullion) to the now ghost town Guadalupe. Bridgeport can be seen a short distance south of Guadalupe on Agua Fria Creek and along an unmarked connecting road to White Rock. Bridgeport would finally fade in the twentieth century when the modern alignment now used by California State Route 140 was constructed to the north what is Old Highway (the original alignment of the Yosemite All-Year Highway.
Northbound Yaqui Gulch Road begins at the intersection of Old Highway and Buckeye Road. The community of Bridgeport would have been located a short distance to the west on Old Highway.
Yaqui Gulch Road passes through Guadalupe Valley where the ghost town of Guadalupe was once located.
Yaqui Gulch Road passes through the namesake gulch and terminates at California State Route 140.
The town site of Agua Fria is located a short distance of Yaqui Gulch Road via a short westward jog to the beginning of Agua Fria Road. There is nothing to identify the site of Agua Fria now aside from historical plaques.
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