Wawona, California
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Yosemite Valley census division. It stands on Big Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wawona quadrangle. 111 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,999 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 2004The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Wawona
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 6 records
Wawona Hotel and PavilionNational Historic Landmark · listed 1975
Acting Superintendent's Headquarterslisted 1978
Hodgdon Homestead Cabinlisted 1978
Mariposa Grove Museumlisted 1978
Wawona Covered Bridgelisted 2007
Yosemite Transportation Company Officelisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresWawona fell from 169 to 111 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 169 | |
| 2020 | 111 | -58 (-34%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 28 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1897 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000
- 1900 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000
- 1903 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1909 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1947 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Yosemite Valley quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Wawona quadrangle1:24000
- 1992 USGS Wawona quadrangle1:24000
- 2004 USGS Wawona quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
170 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 170 fires within 5 miles of Wawona between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,764 acres in total. 65 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 65 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 38 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 |
| Smoking | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Other causes | 6 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | HWY.41 |
| 7 September 1993 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | BUFFIN |
| 3 September 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | CHILNUALNA |
| 28 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.3 acres | Sierra National Forest | LAUREL |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | TENAYA |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | SUMMER |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | GREEN |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | SIGNAL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Wawona: 2 occurrences, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Tungsten. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow Jacket | Tungsten | Occurrence | Scheelite | |
| Elsie M | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Elsie M., Bob and Lauk | Gold | Occurrence | Placer |
Storms near this place
6 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wawona in 6 storm reports between 2005 and 2014: 6 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2014 | Heavy Rain | Wawona | - | Mesonet station Yosemite at Wawona /YWAC1/ rainfall 1.78 inches. |
| November 2012 | Heavy Rain | North Wawona | - | Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 3.98 inches. |
| November 2012 | Heavy Rain | North Wawona | - | Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 4.56 inches. |
| November 2012 | Heavy Rain | North Wawona | - | Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 3.06 inches. |
| October 2009 | Heavy Rain | North Wawona | - | The RAWS weather station at Wawona measured 7.84 inches 24 hour rainfall. |
| August 2005 | Heavy Rain | Wawona | - | A thunderstorm cell near Wawona in Mariposa County produced an estimated 2 to 2.5 inches of rain in an hour on the afternoon of the 16th. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Wawona | 0.7 miles | 28 | |
| South Wawona (historical) | 0.8 miles | 28 | |
| North Wawona | 1.0 miles | 28 | |
| North Wawona (historical) | 1.1 miles | 28 | |
| Fish Camp | 4.1 miles | 23 | |
| Ponderosa Basin | 6.5 miles | 23 | |
| Elliott Corner | 8.1 miles | 28 | |
| Yosemite West | 8.4 miles | 29 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Wawona | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3460942 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1652868. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.












