Ed Dreschler with the Mariposa Museum & History Center said, "We get a lot of tourists, we have tours that come up from San Francisco on a regular basis."
But of course it's Yosemite that draws people from all over the world to this gateway community. A family from San Jose is heading to the national park for the holiday weekend, but wanted to hit their favorite lunch spot in Mariposa first.
Moto Kawai said, "I like this area, Mariposa, I always stay in Mariposa, the hotel area and I pick this restaurant, it's good, and it's very beautiful."
Tourism officials said the lure of an affordable vacation has kept people coming to Yosemite during the recession, and now it appears more of them are taking the route through Mariposa.
The Director of the Mariposa Yosemite Tourism Bureau said bus traffic to Yosemite on Highways 41 and 120 is down from the past year. But bus traffic on Highway 140 through Mariposa has increased 99%.
That's largely because new bridges were built at the sight of the Ferguson Rock Slide, so big tour buses can once again take Highway 140 to the park.
Happy Burger Diner Owner Greg Fritz said, "It's been great, this holiday season business is up, we're filling up every day, and the hotels are doing pretty good."
The tourism bureau also said it has increased advertising efforts with everything from TV commercials to its facebook page. And it's also worked to attract big sporting events like a huge youth football tournament that will return to mariposa next year.
Diane Hernandez said, "There was said to be more than 3000 people who came in because of that."
Now the community is just hoping for more good news in 2010.
