Photograph of Chris Jorgensen Studio — Photograph by Wearsunscreen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Chris Jorgenson Studio

Built in 1904 (rustic architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Chris Jorgensen Studio is a one-room log building, built in 1904 as an artist's studio for Chris Jorgensen in the Yosemite Valley. Jorgensen, an instructor and assistant director of the California School of Fine Arts, arrived in Yosemite in the 1890s.”
Wikipedia article Chris Jorgensen Studio, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 44 National Register listings published here for Mariposa County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · built in 1904, rustic architecture, by Chris Jorgensen.

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 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Jorgenson, Chris, Studio - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. Pioneer Yosemite Historic Center, Yosemite National Park, 95389
When was it listed? April 1979
Category. building
Census division. Yosemite Valley
When was it built? 1904
Architectural style. rustic architecture
Architect. Chris Jorgensen
National Register reference number. 79000280 - 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 Chris Jorgenson Studio, surveyed 2004

Topographic sheet covering Chris Jorgenson Studio, 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 Chris Jorgenson Studio 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
Natural	66
Recreation and ceremony	38
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	24
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

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 Chris Jorgenson Studio: 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Yellow Jacket	Tungsten	Occurrence	Scheelite
Elsie M	Gold	Unknown
Elsie M., Bob and Lauk	Gold	Occurrence	Placer

Every working 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.

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

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Hodgdon Homestead Cabin	under 500 feet	1978
Wawona Covered Bridge	under 500 feet	2007
Yosemite Transportation Company Office	under 500 feet	1978
Acting Superintendent's Headquarters	under 500 feet	1978
Wawona Hotel and Pavilion	0.2 miles	1975
Mariposa Grove Museum	3.6 miles	1978

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79000280 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mariposa County	All 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.