Hites Cove (also Hite's Cove; less commonly Hite Cove) is a ghost town in Mariposa County, California, United States. The site is on the South Fork of the Merced River, west-southwest of El Portal, within the Sierra National Forest. It is reached via Hites Cove Road off State Route 140.
The settlement takes its name from gold prospector John Hite, who discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein at the site in 1861 and developed it into one of the more productive mines in the southern Mother Lode region. Today the site is best known for the Hites Cove Trail, a hiking route through the Merced River Canyon celebrated for its spring wildflower bloom.
History
Gold mining
John Hite discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein at the site in 1861 and recruited a crew of men to dig a tunnel along the vein and construct a stamp mill. The mine workings eventually extended roughly into the hillside, with additional lateral drifts. Hite built a ten-stamp mill that was destroyed by flood, then replaced it with a twenty-stamp mill later expanded to forty stamps, powered by water. He also erected a hotel, a store, and a two-acre garden with a fountain.
By the mid-1860s the camp had a population of over 100, including Chinese workers who built the Hites Cove Road and occupied a Chinatown at the south end of the settlement. The mine was worked continuously by Hite and partners through about 1879, then passed through various changes of ownership. Total recorded production reached approximately $3 million, most of it before 1900.
The Hites Cove post office operated from 1868 to 1869, and again from 1878 to 1889. A separate Hite post office operated from 1901 to 1902. The settlement buildings burned in 1924. In 1968, stone foundations, retaining walls, and rusted mining machinery were still visible at the site.
Trail and wildflowers
The Hites Cove Trail runs one-way along the South Fork of the Merced River from a trailhead at Savage's Trading Post on State Route 140 to the former settlement. The trailhead marks the confluence of the South Fork with the main Merced River and the site of James D. Savage's 1850 trading post. The trail falls within the Sierra National Forest, managed by its Bass Lake Ranger District.
The canyon is known for a spring wildflower bloom, peaking from late February through May, that includes California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii), western redbud, shooting stars, lupine, Mariposa lily, Chinese houses (Collinsia heterophylla), and Indian paintbrush.
The Ferguson Fire (July–August 2018), which started near Savage's Trading Post and burned of the Merced River Canyon, closed the trail due to landslide and rockfall risk. Extensive trail restoration was carried out from 2019 onward by Mariposa County volunteers; the trail reopened in spring 2021. The trail is seasonally closed in summer and fall due to extreme fire danger.
The South Fork Merced River in this corridor carries both federal Wild and Scenic River designation and a California Wild Trout Stream designation.
See also Mariposa County, California Merced River Ferguson Fire Mother Lode
References