becoming the first non-native people to gaze upon her wonders.
Most of the county’s towns, small though they may be, have their own particular histories. Hornitos,” little ovens” in Spanish, reputedly named after the town’s above ground stone graves which resembled adobe ovens, was the home of notorious bandits Jaoquin Murrieta and Three Fingered Jack. Some, like Agua Fria, no longer exist but at one time had been thriving communities. Regardless of whether it is an actual town, village or crossroads, Mariposa County has a colorful array of place names: Usona, Catheys Valley, Incline, El Portal, Midpines, Ponderosa Basin, Lushmeadows, to name just a few. I personally lived at both Bootjack and Jerseydale, where my father was stationed as a forest ranger.
From Catheys Valley’s rolling grasslands at 1,300 ft. elevation to Parsons Peak at over 12,000 ft., natural beauty abounds. Yosemite is the most obvious jewel, but most of the county is forested in oak and pine, with canyons carved by Ice Age glaciers and multiple lakes, rivers and streams. Hunting and fishing, hiking and backpacking, are the main forms of recreation. Want to see wildlife in its natural state? Mule deer, black tail deer, cougars, black bears, golden eagles, coyotes, bobcats are all residents. If it lives in California, likely it lives in Mariposa County. a screenplay – the first full-length screenplay I ever wrote. I realized it’s not something I could film myself, because of the special effects involved. In fact, I didn’t understand just how involved filmmaking really was. I thought you wrote a script, grabbed a camera, and shot it. My brother and I ended up buying a pizza place, and I decided to write a screenplay based on our experiences there, because I could shoot without using special effects. All this was practice, hoping I could meet the right people; I just don’t have the technical side to do it myself. So that’s still sitting on my shelf, waiting to be revised and, hopefully, shot some day. I actually have three full-length screenplays written, but that first one took almost two years to write.