24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Hornitos, CA

Hornitos is a census-designated place in western Mariposa County on Burns Creek — a Gold Rush town that is now one of California's most famous near-ghost towns, preserved as California Historical Landmark No. 333.

Hornitos was founded in 1850 by Mexican miners who had been expelled from the neighboring camp of Quartzburg, building on a small Mexican village founded there in 1848.

The name Hornitos is Spanish for 'little ovens,' taken from the old Mexican above-ground tombstones in the town cemetery, which were built in the shape of little square bake ovens.

Hornitos boomed into one of the richest and toughest towns of the Southern Mines, with early population estimates as high as 15,000; local lore holds that some $40,000 in gold a day was shipped to the mint by armed stagecoach, and the town had Mariposa County's first Wells Fargo Express office.

The legendary bandit Joaquin Murrieta was reputed to be a frequent visitor to Hornitos in its lawless early days, when the town was lined with saloons and underground fandango halls.

Domingo Ghirardelli ran a general store in Hornitos between 1856 and 1859, where he perfected the chocolate recipes that later made his name famous in San Francisco; the ruins of his store can still be seen in town.

Hornitos was laid out in Mexican style around a central plaza, and the adobe Pacific Saloon building of 1851 still faces the square.

The town's post office opened under the name 'Hornitas' in 1856, and the spelling was changed to Hornitos in 1877.

Hornitos incorporated in 1870 as Mariposa County's first incorporated town, but as the mines played out the population collapsed, and the town was finally disincorporated by state statute in 1973.

Hornitos had a population of just 38 at the 2020 census, down from 75 in 2010 — fewer than one resident for every 400 people who lived there at its Gold Rush peak.