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Photograph of Wawona Covered Bridge
Photograph by Brian C. Grogan, Photographer, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wawona Covered Bridge

Built in 1868. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Wawona Covered Bridge is a covered bridge spanning the South Fork Merced River near Wawona, California, in Yosemite National Park. The open bridge was built by Galen Clark, the steward of what was then called the Yosemite Grant, in 1868, without its cladding.”

Wikipedia article Wawona Covered Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 44 National Register listings published here for Mariposa County · listed in 2007 · category: Structure · built in 1868.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Pioneer Yosemite History Center, Wawona, 95389
  • When was it listed? January 2007
  • Category. structure
  • Census division. Yosemite Valley
  • When was it built? 1868
  • National Register reference number. 06001261 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1897 to 2004

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Wawona Covered Bridge, surveyed 2004
Topographic sheet covering Wawona Covered Bridge, surveyed 1897

Fires near this property

170 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 170 fires within 5 miles of Wawona Covered Bridge between 1992 and 2020, burning about 9,366 acres in total. 66 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
Natural66
Recreation and ceremony38
Missing data/not specified/undetermined24
Smoking13
Equipment and vehicle use8
Debris and open burning7
Other causes6
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Arson/incendiarism2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 1995Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreYosemite National ParkHWY.41
7 September 1993Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSierra National ForestBUFFIN
3 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreYosemite National ParkCHILNUALNA
28 September 2008Recreation and ceremony3.3 acresSierra National ForestLAUREL
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestTENAYA
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestSUMMER
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestGREEN
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestSIGNAL

Every fire recorded in Mariposa County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Wawona Covered Bridge: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Yellow JacketTungstenOccurrenceScheelite
Elsie MGoldUnknown
Elsie M., Bob and LaukGoldOccurrencePlacer

Every working recorded in Mariposa County

Storms near this property

6 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wawona, the town this property stands in, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
December 2014Heavy RainWawona-Mesonet station Yosemite at Wawona /YWAC1/ rainfall 1.78 inches.
November 2012Heavy RainNorth Wawona-Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 3.98 inches.
November 2012Heavy RainNorth Wawona-Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 4.56 inches.
November 2012Heavy RainNorth Wawona-Twenty four hour rainfall total at Wawona was 3.06 inches.
October 2009Heavy RainNorth Wawona-The RAWS weather station at Wawona measured 7.84 inches 24 hour rainfall.
August 2005Heavy RainWawona-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.

Every storm recorded in Mariposa County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Yosemite Transportation Company Officeunder 500 feet1978
Acting Superintendent's Headquartersunder 500 feet1978
Chris Jorgenson Studiounder 500 feet1979
Hodgdon Homestead Cabinunder 500 feet1978
Wawona Hotel and Pavilion0.2 miles1975
Mariposa Grove Museum3.5 miles1978

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 06001261 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mariposa CountyAll 44 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • 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.