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Title: One Hundred Years in Yosemite
The Story of a Great Park and Its Friends
Author: Carl Parcher Russell
Contributor: Newton B. Drury
Release Date: November 17, 2018 [EBook #58295]
Language: English
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Frontispiece: Yosemite Valley
The Story of a Great Park and Its Friends
BY CARL PARCHER RUSSELL
CHIEF NATURALIST, UNITED STATES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
With a Foreword by Newton B. Drury
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles · 1947
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES
CALIFORNIA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON, ENGLAND
COPYRIGHT, 1932
COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
WASHINGTON BARTLETT LEWIS
1884-1930
AND
CHARLES GOFF THOMSON
1883-1937
The National Park Service is primarily a custodian of and trustee for lands—lands with unique and special qualities, so distinctive as to make their care a concern of the entire nation; lands, therefore, held under a distinctive pattern and policy, administered according to the national park concept.
Yosemite National Park comprises such lands. It is, so to speak, a type locality for the national park idea. While Yellowstone, established in 1872, was the first real national park, Yosemite Valley, in 1864, under an act signed by President Lincoln, was transferred to the State of California to be protected according to park principles, later to be re-ceded to the Federal Government. Here in Yosemite many of the national park policies and techniques of protection, administration, and interpretation have evolved and are still evolving, within the framework of the basic act of 1916, with its injunction to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Dr. Russell’s One Hundred Years in Yosemite, appearing now in its new version, gives not only a chronology of events, and the persons taking part in them, related to this place of very special beauty and meaning. It also portrays, in terms of viii human experience, the growth of a distinct and unique conception of land management and chronicles the thoughts and effort of those who contributed to it. It tells of the obstacles overcome, and of the pressures, present even today, to break down the national park concept, and turn these lands to commercial and other ends that would deface their beauty and impair their significance.
This book, therefore, is more than a history of Yosemite. It traces the evolution of an idea.
In scholarly fashion, sources of information are cited. Many of the documents and other source materials upon which the book is based are preserved in the Yosemite Museum, thus giving special interest to visitors to Yosemite.
Belief in the worth of the national park program cannot but be strengthened by reading One Hundred Years in Yosemite.
Newton B. Drury,
Director, National Park Service
February 13, 1947
It is the purpose of One Hundred Years in Yosemite to preserve and disseminate the true story of the discovery and preservation of America’s first public reservation to be set aside for its natural beauty and scientific interest.
When the original version of this book was written in 1930, I had recently completed the collation of manuscript diaries and correspondence, newspaper files, old journals, hotel registers, state and federal reports, photographs, and a variety of other pertinent historical source materials in the library of the Yosemite Museum. This was the material upon which the book was based. In the preface of the book I made a plea for the contribution of additional Yosemite memorabilia to be added to the Yosemite archives. Perhaps some of the fine response from donors during the past sixteen years is traceable to that plea; more likely, the increased interest in the Yosemite Museum results from the creditable work of the park’s staff members and the message carried by the monthly publication, Yosemite Nature Notes. The notable growth of the Yosemite Museum collections and the improvement of its exhibits and its general program of interpretive work are heartening to all who had a hand in the establishment of the work.
In the original version, and in bringing to the present work the benefit of new material, I have attempted to organize the x published information which has been confirmed by the oral testimony of many Yosemite pioneers and enriched with authentic data from unpublished manuscripts prepared by other “old-timers” to whom I could not speak. In order that a convenient chronology of events might be available to the reader, an outline is appended to the book. This includes the episodes related in the text and in addition mentions many obscure events not treated in the narrative. It also provides ready reference to the sources drawn upon in writing. This method of citing sources has made it unnecessary to encumber the pages of the text with numerous footnotes. Most of the manuscripts referred to are the property of the Yosemite Museum. The whereabouts of other manuscripts is indicated in the bibliography.
To the donors of the expanding collection of source materials and to the Yosemite staff members, also, who have accomplished so much in organizing, interpreting, and publishing upon these materials, I am indebted. Their interest and their labors have facilitated my present writing, and their conscientious handling of file systems, accession records, stored collections, and publication programs will facilitate the work of future investigators of Yosemite history and natural history. At the same time, their good museum practices should inspire further public confidence in the integrity of the Yosemite program, and the collections will continue to grow.
By Ralph Anderson, NPS The Yosemite Museum
A host of friends and associates have contributed to the production of the book. Great thanks are due my wife for her generous help and continuous encouragement. Mrs. H. J. Taylor lent important assistance and advice. Among the Yosemite staff members who gave valuable help, former Park Naturalists C. A. Harwell and C. Frank Brockman and former museum-secretary, Mrs. William Godfrey, made especially important contributions; however, the extraordinary interest of every member of the park naturalist staff has placed me in the debt of the entire organization. The American Association of Museums, in addition to coöperating with the National Park Service in founding the Yosemite Museum, has contributed directly to the production of this book by assisting me in the collecting of rare publications and helping, generally, in assembling Yosemite data. The Yosemite Park and Curry Company has made available many publications and photographs. Mrs. Don Tresidder of that organization, particularly, has given material assistance in establishing dates and historical facts. The Sierra Club has permitted the use of my article, “Mining Excitements East of Yosemite,” which was first published in the Sierra Club Bulletin. To David R. Brower, Editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin and at the University of California Press, I acknowledge particular indebtedness, not only for editorial guidance in producing the book but, also, for his historian’s sense and his basic knowledge of the Yosemite terrain and its story. Some of his contributions to the content of the text are acknowledged elsewhere, but his friendly help has extended to every part of the book. Francis P. Farquhar and Ansel F. Hall, during a quarter of a century of our friendships, have given assistance and encouragement. Mr. Farquhar has read parts of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. His library has been drawn upon in the course of my work. The more recent photographs reproduced upon the following pages are credited to their makers, to each of whom I am deeply beholden. For xii use of the very old pictures used herein, I am indebted to the Yosemite Museum, and to Superintendent Frank Kittredge I express thanks for this and many other helpful acts performed by him and his staff members in furthering my efforts.
In the sixteen years that have elapsed since One Hundred Years in Yosemite first appeared, notable changes have taken place in the geographical boundaries of the national park, physical developments within the reservation have, so far as possible, kept pace with progressing modes of vacationing, and some eight million visitors have journeyed to its wonders. A number of the historic caravansaries that served so conspicuously during stagecoach days have been removed from the scene, and the one-time dusty, tortuous routes of access have been converted to safe, surfaced roads of beautiful alignment. A world-shaking conflict has been waged, and the superlative values of the park have emerged from that war unaffected by the demands of “production” interests.
Many earnest men have applied themselves in guarding the precious values of the great reservation. Some of these conservationists have virtually died in the harness. A growing appreciation of the work of these men is evident, and there is notable acclaim also of the far-sightedness of unnamed leaders who in 1864 obtained the epoch-making legislation that gave America her first public reservation of national park caliber.
It has been gratifying to me to observe some practical usefulness of my original compilation of Yosemite history, and this new version of the work is offered with the hope that it may continue to guide public attention to the significance of the action of pioneers who led the world along the paths of xiii scenic conservation. Upon the executives who now plan and administer programs of protection and management in Yosemite rests a responsibility that gains in magnitude in proportion to the growing pressure exerted by the hordes of people who seek the offerings of the park. The nation is yet in a pioneering stage in defining Yosemite values and regulating their use. In the light of experience of the past, it should be possible to discern some of the path that lies ahead.
The ability to discern even the more subtle influences affecting the security of Yosemite and other great national parks has become a “must” for National Park Service executives. This sensitivity has not developed overnight, but now it approaches maturity. Director Newton B. Drury has exercised a leadership in this regard which marks his period of service as the apex of clear thinking on national park problems.
Carl P. Russell
United States National Park Service
January 30, 1947
By Thomas A. Ayres, 1855 The First Drawing Made in Yosemite
That picturesque type known as the American trapper ushered in the opening event of Sierra Nevada history. True, the Spaniards of the previous century had viewed the “snowy range of mountains,” had applied the name Sierra Nevada, and even had visited its western base. But penetration of the wild and snowy fastness awaited the coming of Americans.
In the opening decades of the nineteenth century the entire American West was occupied by scattered bands of trappers. From the ranks of the “Fur Brigade” came Jedediah Strong Smith, a youthful fur trader, not yet thirty years old but experienced in his profession and well educated for his time. In the summer of 1826 he took his place at the head of a party of men organized to explore the unknown region lying between Great Salt Lake and the California coast. Smith’s leadership of this party gave him a first place in the history of the Sierra Nevada. His party left the Salt Lake rendezvous on August 22, 1826. A southwest course was followed across the deserts of Utah and Nevada, penetrating the Mojave country and the Cajon Pass. On November 27 they went into camp near Mission San Gabriel. Smith was thus the first American to make the transcontinental journey to California, the harbinger of a great overland human flood.
The Spanish governor of California refused to permit the party to travel north as Smith had planned. Instead, he instructed that they should quit California by the route used in entering. Reinforced with food, clothing, and horses supplied 2 by the friendly Mission San Gabriel, Smith returned to the neighborhood of the Cajon Pass. It was not his intention, however, to be easily deterred in his plan to explore California. He followed the Sierra Madre to the junction of the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada and entered the San Joaquin Valley.
He found the great interior valley inhabited by large numbers of Indians, who were in no way hostile or dangerous. There were “few beaver and elk, deer and antelope in abundance.” Reaching one of the streams flowing from the mountains, he determined to cross the Sierra Nevada and return to Great Salt Lake. Smith called this stream the Wimmelche after a tribe of Indians by that name who inhabited the region thereabouts. C. Hart Merriam has established the fact that Smith’s “Wimmelche” is the Kings River, and the time of his arrival there as February of 1827. Since the passes of the Sierra in this region are never open before the advent of summer, it is not surprising that his party failed in this attempted crossing of the range. Authorities have differed in their interpretation of Smith’s writing regarding his ultimate success in traversing the Sierra, but there is little doubt that he crossed north of the Yosemite region, perhaps as far north as the American River.
Smith was, then, the first white man known to have crossed the Sierra Nevada. His pathfinding exploits did not take him into the limits of the present Yosemite National Park, but because his manuscript maps were made available to government officials who influenced later expeditions and because he was the first to explore the mountain region of which the Yosemite is an outstanding feature, his expedition provides the opening story in any account of Yosemite affairs.
Smith’s explorations paved the way for a notable influx of American trappers to the valleys west of the Sierra Nevada. Smith, in fact, returned to California that same summer. Pattie, Young, Ogden, Wolfskill, Jackson, and Walker all brought parties to the new fields during the first five years following the 3 Smith venture. Fur traders informed the settlers in the western states of the easy life in California and enticed them with stories of the undeveloped resources of the Pacific slope. Pioneers were then occupying much of the country just west of the Missouri, and a gradual tide of westward emigration brought attention first to Oregon and then to California.
The presence of Americans in California greatly annoyed the Mexican officials of the country. The fears of these officials were justified, for the trappers scarcely concealed their desire to overthrow Mexican authority and assume control themselves. To add to the threatened confusion, revolt brewed among the Mexicans who held the land.
In 1832 Captain B. L. E. Bonneville secured leave of absence from the United States Army and launched a private venture in exploring and trapping. One Joseph Reddeford Walker, who had achieved fame as a frontiersman, was engaged by Bonneville to take charge of a portion of his command. Walker’s party of explorers was ordered to cross the desert west of Great Salt Lake and visit California. Reliable knowledge of the Sierra Nevada and the first inkling of the existence of Yosemite Valley resulted from this expedition, made in 1833.
Joseph Walker, born in 1798 on the Tennessee River near the present Knoxville, Tennessee, had moved westward with the advancing frontier in 1818 to the extreme western boundary of Missouri. There he and his brothers rented government land near the Indian Factory, Fort Osage. They put in a crop and during slack seasons mingled with the Osages and the Kanzas Indians. Here Walker formed his first ideas of trade with the Indians—ideas which bore fruit during his later experiences on the Santa Fe Trail and with the fur brigades in the Rocky Mountains.
Early in 1831, Walker, enroute southward from his home to buy horses, stopped at Fort Gibson in the heart of the Cherokee Nation in the eastern part of the present Oklahoma. Several 4 companies of the 7th U. S. Infantry were stationed here. This circumstance brought about a sequence of events which left permanent marks upon Walker’s personal career and upon the history of the American West. Captain B. L. E. Bonneville was in command of B Company of the 7th Infantry. Bonneville confided in Walker that the government was about to place him on detached service in order that he might conduct a private expedition into the Rocky Mountains for furs and geographical data. He asked Walker to join him as guide and counselor. To this proposal Walker acceded enthusiastically and proceeded forthwith to organize the equipment and personnel needed for the venture.
On the first of May, 1832, Bonneville and Walker led westward a caravan of twenty wagons attended by one hundred and ten mounted trappers, hunters, and servants from the Missouri River landing where Fort Osage had once stood. Out upon the Kansas plains they went, up the Platte, to the Sweetwater, and through South Pass. In the valleys of the Green and the Snake they trapped and traded through the winter and spring of 1832-33. After the rendezvous on the Green in July, 1833, Walker was named by Bonneville to be the leader of the now famous Walker expedition to the Pacific.
The reports of Jedediah Smith on his trip of 1826 to California and the much talked about adventures of Smith, as discussed by the mountain men, seem to have been decisive factors which influenced Bonneville to authorize this ambitious undertaking. The fact that a scant 4,000 pounds of beaver was all he had to show for his campaign of the past year also may have contributed to his determination to take another fling at exploration, trapping, and the trade. Walker’s California party consisted of fifty men, with four horses each, a year’s supply of food, ammunition, and trade goods. Zenas Leonard and George Nidever, two free trappers who had joined the Bonneville crowd at the Green River rendezvous, were selected 5 as members of the Walker party. Both were to become conspicuous in California history by virtue of their writings.
Because Walker was the first white man to lead a party of explorers to the brink of Yosemite’s cliffs, he is given a first place in Yosemite history. It is worthwhile to record here some of the appraisals of Walker, the man, made by his contemporaries and companions.
Zenas Leonard, clerk of the Walker party, wrote, “Mr. Walker was a man well calculated to undertake a business of this kind [the California expedition]. He was well hardened to the hardships of the wilderness—understood the character of the Indians very well ... was kind and affable to his men, but at the same time at liberty to command without giving offence ... and to explore unknown regions was his chief delight.”
Washington Irving said of Walker, “About six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in spirit, though mild in manners. He had resided for many years in Missouri, on the frontier; had been among the earliest adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to trap beaver, and was taken by the Spaniards. Being liberated, he engaged with the Spaniards and Sioux Indians in a war against the Pawnees; then returned to Missouri, and had acted by turns as sheriff, trader, trapper, until he was enlisted as a leader by Captain Bonneville.”
Hubert Howe Bancroft, the historian, estimated, “Captain Joe Walker was one of the bravest and most skillful of the mountain men; none was better acquainted than he with the geography or the native tribes of the Great Basin; and he was withal less boastful and pretentious than most of his class.”
Walker’s biographer, Douglas S. Watson, referring to Bonneville’s effort to blame the financial failure of his western enterprises upon a scapegoat, stated, “Whatever may have been Bonneville’s purpose in besmirching Walker in which Irving so willingly lent himself, he has hardly succeeded, for where one person today knows the name Bonneville, thousands 6 regard Captain Joseph Reddeford Walker as one of the foremost of western explorers, worthy to be grouped with Jedediah Strong Smith and Ewing Young as the trilogy responsible for the march of this nation to the shores of the Pacific; the true pathfinders.”
Walker’s perseverance in completing his California journey grew out of a solemn determination to make a personal contribution to the expansion of the United States westward to the Pacific. His cavalcade crossed the Great Basin west of Great Salt Lake via the valley of the Humboldt and, passing south by Carson Lake and the Bridgeport Valley, struck westward into the Sierra Nevada. The exact course they took across the Sierra has been a matter of conjecture; some students have attempted to identify it with the Truckee route, and others have maintained that no ascent was made until the party reached the stream now known as Walker River. It seems probable that they climbed the eastern flank of the Sierra by one of the southern tributaries of the East Walker River. Once over the crest of the range, they traveled west along the divide between the Tuolumne and the Merced rivers directly into the heart of the present Yosemite National Park.
In Leonard’s narrative is found the following very significant comment regarding the crossing:
We travelled a few miles every day, still on top of the mountain, and our course continually obstructed with snow hills and rocks. Here we began to encounter in our path many small streams which would shoot out from under these high snow-banks, and after running a short distance in deep chasms which they have through the ages cut in the rocks, precipitate themselves from one lofty precipice to another, until they are exhausted in rain below. Some of these precipices appeared to us to be more than a mile high. Some of the men thought that if we could succeed in descending one of these precipices to the bottom, we might thus work our way into the valley below—but on making several attempts we found it utterly impossible for a man to descend, to say nothing of our 7 horses. We were then obliged to keep along the top of the dividing ridge between two of these chasms which seemed to lead pretty near in the direction we were going—which was west,—in passing over the mountain, supposing it to run north and south.
Walker’s tombstone, in Martinez, California, bears the inscription, “Camped at Yosemite Nov. 13, 1833.” Leonard’s description of their route belies the idea of his having camped in Yosemite Valley, and the date is obviously an error as there is reliable evidence that Walker had reached the San Joaquin plain before this date. L. H. Bunnell in his Discovery of the Yosemite records the following regarding Walker’s route and his Yosemite camp sites:
The topography of the country over which the Mono Trail ran, and which was followed by Capt. Walker, did not admit of his seeing the valley proper. The depression indicating the valley, and its magnificent surroundings, could alone have been discovered, and in Capt. Walker’s conversations with me at various times while encamped between Coulterville and the Yosemite, he was manly enough to say so. Upon one occasion I told Capt. Walker that Ten-ie-ya had said that, “A small party of white men once crossed the mountains on the north side, but were so guided as not to see the Valley proper.” With a smile the Captain said, “That was my party, but I was not deceived, for the lay of the land showed there was a valley below; but we had become nearly barefooted, our animals poor, and ourselves on the verge of starvation; so we followed down the ridge to Bull Creek, where, killing a deer, we went into camp.”
Francis Farquhar, in his article, “Walker’s Discovery of Yosemite,” analyzes the problem of Walker’s route through the Yosemite region and shows clearly that the Walker party was not guided by Indians. He concludes quite rightly that Bunnell was not justified in depriving Walker of the distinction of discovering Yosemite Valley. Douglas S. Watson, in his volume, West Wind: The Life of Joseph Reddeford Walker, offers further evidence to this end.
It requires no great stretch of the imagination to visualize scouts along the flanks of the Walker party coming out upon the brink of Yosemite Valley and looking down in wonder upon the plunging waters of Yosemite Falls and, perhaps, venturing to the edge of the Hetch Hetchy. In any case we have in the 1839 account by Leonard the first authentic printed reference to the Yosemite region. Another passage from this narrative must be quoted here:
In the last two days travelling we have found some trees of the Redwood species, incredibly large—some of which would measure from 16 to 18 fathom round the trunk at the height of a man’s head from the ground.
This is the first published mention of the Big Trees of the Sierra. If we accept Bunnell’s contention that the Walker party camped at Bull Creek (Hazel Green), we will also agree that the party followed the old Mono Trail of the Indians. This route would have taken them near the Merced Grove of Big Trees. There is probably no way of determining definitely whether the Merced Grove, the Tuolumne Grove, or both, were seen by Walker’s men, but this incident so casually mentioned is clearly the discovery of the famous Big Trees, and here for the first time is a scholarly record of observations made in the present Yosemite National Park. We may accept Leonard’s writings as the earliest document in Yosemite history and the Walker party as the discoverer of both the Yosemite Valley and the Sequoia gigantea.
By Schwartz Mariposa in the ’Fifties
Following the significant work of the early overland fur traders there came a decade of immigration of bona fide California settlers. The same forces that led the pioneer across the Alleghenies, thence to the Mississippi, and from the Mississippi into Texas, explain the coming of American settlers into California. Hard times in the East stimulated land hunger, and California publicity agents spread their propaganda at an opportune time. Long before railroads, commercial clubs, and real estate interests began to advertise the charms of California, its advantages were widely heralded by the venturesome Americans who had visited and sensed the possibilities of the province. The press of the nation took up the story, and the people of the United States were taught to look upon California as a land of infinite promise, abounding in agricultural and commercial possibilities, full of game, rich in timber, possessed of perfect climate, and feebly held by an effeminate people quite lacking in enterprise and disorganized among themselves.
The tide of emigration resulting from this painting of word pictures began its surge in 1841 with the organization of the Bidwell-Bartleson party. Other parties followed in quick succession, and many of the pioneer fur hunters of the preceding decade found themselves in demand as guides. The settlers came on horseback, in ox wagon, or on foot, and with the men came wives and children. They entered the state by way of the Gila and the Colorado, the Sacramento, the Walker, the Malheur and the Pit, and the Truckee. Some journeyed to the 10 Mono region east of Yosemite and either struggled over difficult Sonora Pass just north of the present park or tediously made their way south to Owens River and then over Walker Pass. The Sierra Nevada experienced a new period of exploration, and California took a marked step toward the climax of interest in her offerings.
This pre-Mexican War, pre-gold-rush immigration takes a prominent place in the history of the state, and the tragedy and success of its participants provide a story of engrossing interest. They had forced their slow way across the continent to find a permanent home beside the western sea, and their arrival presaged the overthrow of Mexican rule in California. The Mexican, Castro, stated before an assembly in Monterey: “These Americans are so contriving that some day they will build ladders to touch the sky, and once in the heavens they will change the whole face of the universe and even the color of the stars.”
In one of the parties of settlers was a man of no signal traits, who, by a chance discovery, was to set the whole world agog. This was James W. Marshall, an employee of John A. Sutter of the Sacramento. On January 24, 1848, he found gold in a millrace belonging to Sutter. About a week later the inevitable took place. California became a part of the United States.
The news of the gold discovery spread like wildfire, and by the close of 1848 every settlement and city in America and many cities of foreign lands were affected by the California fever. Gold seekers swarmed into the newly acquired territory by land and by sea. The overland routes of the fur trader and the pioneer settler found such a use as the world had never seen. From the Missouri frontier to Fort Laramie the procession of Argonauts passed in an unbroken stream for months. Some 35,000 people traversed the Western wilderness and 230 American vessels reached California ports in 1849. The western slope of the Sierra from the San Joaquin on the south to 11 the Trinity on the north was suddenly populous with the gold-mad horde. On May 29, the Californian of Yerba Buena issued a notice to the effect that its further publication, for the present, would cease because its employees and patrons were going to the mines. On July 15 its editor returned and published an account of his personal experiences as a gold seeker. He wrote: “The country from the Ajuba [Yuba] to the San Joaquin, a distance of about 120 miles, and from the base toward the summit of the mountains ... about seventy miles, has been explored and gold found on every part.”
By 1849 the Mariposa hills were occupied by the miners, and the claims to become famous as the “Southern Mines” were being located. Jamestown, Sonora, Columbia, Murphys, Chinese Camp, Big Oak Flat, Snelling, and Mariposa, all adjacent to the Yosemite region, came to life in a day. Stockton was the immediate base of supply for these camps.
The history of Mariposa is replete with fascinating episodes. May Stanislas Corcoran, a daughter of Mariposa, has supplied the Yosemite Museum with a manuscript entitled “Mariposa, the Land of Hidden Gold,” which comes from her own accomplished pen. From it the following brief account is abstracted as an introduction to the beginnings of human affairs in the Mariposa hills.
In 1850, Mariposa County occupied much of the state from Tuolumne County southward. A State Senate Committee on County Subdivision, headed by P. H. de la Guerra, determined its bounds, and a Select Committee on Names, M. G. Vallejo, Chairman, gave it its name—a name which was first applied by Moraga’s party in 1806 to Mariposa Creek.[1] Gradually through the years, the original expansive unit was reduced by the creation of other counties—Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern, and parts of Inyo and Mono counties.
Agua Fria was at first the county seat, but even in the beginning the town of Mariposa was the center of the scene of activity. Four mail routes of the Pony Express converged upon it. Prior to the arrival of Americans, the Spanish Californians had scarcely penetrated the Sierra in the county, but these uplands were well populated with Indians. One of the strongest tribes, the Ah-wah-nee-chees, lived in the Deep Grassy Valley (Yosemite) during the summer months and occupied villages along the Mariposa and Chowchilla rivers in the winter.
Mariposa proved to be the southernmost of the important southern mines. Of the people who were drawn to it during the days of the gold rush, many were from the Southern States. They brought “libraries ... horses from Kentucky ... silk hats, chivalry, colonels, and culture from Virginia; and from most of the states that later became Confederate, lawyers, doctors, writers, even painters—miners all.... Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, and Europe also sent representatives, and there were Mexican War veterans, such as Jarvis Streeter, Commodore Stockton, Colonel Fremont, and Capt. Wm. Howard.” By Christmas, 1849, more than three thousand inhabitants occupied the town of Mariposa, which extended from Chicken Gulch to Mormon Bar.
In February, 1851, a remarkable vein of gold was discovered in the Mariposa diggings, first designated as the “Johnson vein of Mariposa,” and extensive works were developed from Ridley’s Ferry (Bagby) to Mount Ophir. These properties were acquired by a company having headquarters in Paris, France, which became known as “The French Company.”
The Frémont Grant, also known as the Rancho Las Mariposas, was a vast estate of 44,386 acres of grazing land in the Mariposa hills, which Colonel J. C. Frémont acquired by virtue of a purchase made in 1847 from J. B. Alvarado. It was one of several so-called “floating grants.” After gold was discovered in the Mariposa region in 1848, Frémont “floated” his rancho far from the original claim to cover mineral lands including properties already in the possession of miners. The center of Frémont’s activities was Bear Valley, thirteen miles northwest of Mariposa. Lengthy litigations in the face of hostile public sentiment piled up court costs and lawyer fees. However, the United States courts confirmed Frémont’s claims, and other claimants, including the French Company, lost many valuable holdings. Tremendous investments were made in stamp mills, tunnels, shafts, and the other appurtenances related to the mining towns as well as to the mines which Frémont attempted to develop.
In spite of its phenomenal but spotty productiveness, the Frémont Grant brought bankruptcy to its owner and was finally sold at sheriff sale. The town of Mariposa, which was on Frémont’s Rancho, became the county seat in 1854, and the present court house was built that year. The seats and the bar in the courtroom continue in use today, and the documents and files of the mining days still claim their places in the ancient vault. They constitute some of the priceless reminders of a dramatic period in the early history of the Yosemite region. In these records may be traced the transfer of the ownership of the Mariposa Grant from Frémont to a group of Wall Street capitalists. These new owners employed Frederick Law Olmsted as superintendent of the estate. He arrived in the Sierra in the fall of 1863 to assume his duties at Bear Valley. The next year he was made chairman of the first board of Yosemite Valley commissioners, so actively linking the history of the Mariposa estate with the history of the Yosemite Grant. Olmsted 14 continued his connection with the Mariposa Grant until Aug. 31, 1865, at which time he returned to New York and proceeded to distinguish himself as the “father” of the profession of landscape architecture.
His son, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., born July 24, 1870, has continued in the Olmsted tradition. As an authority on parks, municipal improvements, city planning and landscape architecture, and the preservation of the American scene he has exerted a leadership comparable to his father’s pioneering. He has entered the Yosemite picture as National Park Service collaborator in planning and as a member of the Yosemite Advisory Board, to which organization he was appointed in 1928.
One of the few members of the small army of early miners in the Mariposa region who left a personal record of his experiences was L. H. Bunnell. His writings provide most valuable references on the history of the beginning of things in the Yosemite region. He was present in the Mariposa hills in 1849, and from his book, Discovery of the Yosemite, we learn that Americans were scattered throughout the lower mountains in that year. Adventurous traders had established trading posts in the wilderness in order that they might reap a harvest from the miners and Indians.
James D. Savage, the most conspicuous figure in early Yosemite history, whose life story, if told in full, would constitute a valuable contribution to Californiana, was one of these traders. In 1849 he maintained a store at the mouth of the South Fork of the Merced, only a few miles from the gates of Yosemite Valley. Now half a million people each year hurry by this spot in automobiles; yet no monument, no marker, no sign, indicates that the site is one of the most significant, historically, of all localities in the region. It was here that the first episode in the drama of Yosemite Indian troubles took place. The story of the white man’s occupancy of the valley actually begins at the mouth of this canyon in the Mariposa hills.
The entire story of very early events in the Yosemite region is pervaded by the spirit of one individual. In spite of the fact that no historian has chronicled the events of his brief but exciting career, the name of James D. Savage is legendary throughout the region of the Southern Mines. It has been the ambition of more than one writer of California history to pin down the fables of this pioneer and to establish his true life story on stable supports of authentic source. Scattered through the literature of the gold days are sketchy accounts of his exploits, and rarely narratives of firsthand experiences with his affairs may be found. Before relating Savage definitely to Yosemite itself we shall do well to consider his personal history.
During the beginning years of the gold excitement, his fame spread throughout the camps and to the ports upon which the mines depended for supplies. Savage was the subject of continual gossip, conjecture, and acclaim. His career was short, but it was crowded with thrilling happenings and terminated with violence in a just cause. Throughout it, Savage was brave—a man born to lead.
Because he played a leading role in the discovery of Yosemite Valley, national park officials have been energetic in their attempt to complete his life story and give it adequate representation in the Yosemite Museum. For several years, as historical material had been accumulating there, and details of most events in the Yosemite drama unfolded and took their proper place in the exhibits, Savage still remained a mystery.
At last there came a Yosemite visitor who was descended from the grandfather of James D. Savage. This lady, Ida Savage Bolles, after learning of the local interest in her relative, communicated with yet another relative, who today resides in the same Middle Western state from which “Jim” Savage came. The result was that Mrs. Louise Savage Ireland took up the challenge and devoted many months to the determining of the California pioneer’s ancestry. To her we acknowledge indebtedness for her persevering search, which involved considerable travel and correspondence. Not only did she reveal the ancestry of Jim Savage, but she located a “delightful old lady” who, as a girl, knew Jim of California fame. This unexpected biographical material provides firsthand information about the youth of James D. Savage such as has not been obtained from any living Californian who knew him in his halcyon days.
The following story of the life of the first white man to enter Yosemite Valley, though incomplete, is much more comprehensive than anything that has previously appeared in print, and is, we believe, gathered from sources[2] wholly dependable.
James D. Savage was one of six children born to Peter Savage and Doritha Shaunce. Henry C. Pratt of Virginia, Illinois, a second cousin, writes, “My mother, Emily Savage, born in 17 1817, and her cousin, James Savage, were near the same age.” This is the best approximation of his age contained in the biographical material accumulated by Mrs. Ireland. The parent, Peter Savage, went by ox cart and raft from Cayuga County, New York, to Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois, in 1822. Sixteen years later Peter’s family removed to Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois.
Mrs. Ireland in her quest met Mrs. Sarah Seton Porter of Princeton, who at the time of the interview in 1928 was ninety-eight years old. Mrs. Porter knew James D. Savage as a youth. She recalls that
Jim Savage was grown when his father, Peter, brought the family to Princeton from Morgan County. Jim was smart as a whip, shrewd, apt in picking up languages, such as German and French—for both tongues were spoken here, the two races having settlements in and about Princeton. He was vigorous and strong, had blue eyes and a magnificent physique, loved all kinds of sports engaged in in his day, was tactful, likable, and interesting....
Sometimes Jim would come to church, but, oh, he was such a wag of a youth. More often than not, he would remain outside, and when he knew time had come for prayer, he’d flick the knees of his horse and make him kneel, too, and then wink at us inside. We couldn’t laugh of course, but we always watched for this trick of Jim’s. He got such a lot of fun out of doing it.
Savage took a wife, Eliza, and settled in Peru, Illinois. A daughter was born to this union. He and his brother, Morgan, were caught in the wave of California fever that affected many of the border settlements in the ’forties and they joined one of the overland parties in 1846. Lydia Savage Healy, another second cousin, expresses the opinion that the brothers joined Frémont’s third expedition. However, since it is known that Savage’s wife and child made the start, it is evident that they were with one of the parties of emigrants who, that year, made the journey. Mrs. Porter, then Sarah Seton, with two brothers and a sister drove from Princeton to Peru to bid them farewell.
On this journey, “suffering and discouragement went hand in hand.” The wife and child did not survive the trip. Only the physically fit endured the hardships, and among these were Savage and his brother. By what route they entered California is not known, but S. P. Elias reports that Savage
volunteered beneath the Bear flag and fought through the war against the Mexicans. A member of Frémont’s battalion, he was with Frémont both in Oregon and in California. After peace and before the discovery of gold, and shortly after the disbanding of Frémont’s battalion, he went to the south, settled among the Indians, and through José and Jésus, two of the most powerful chiefs in the valley of the San Joaquin, he established an intimacy with the principal tribes. By his indomitable energy, capability of endurance, and personal prowess he acquired a complete mastery over them to such an extent that he was elected chief of several of the tribes. He obtained great influence over the Indians of the lowlands and led them successfully against their mountain enemies, conquering a peace wherever he forayed.
In any event, when Frémont and Pico put their signatures to the Cahuenga peace treaty on January 13, 1847, the Mexican War, so far as California was concerned, was at an end. Frémont’s battalion was disbanded, and we may believe, with Elias, that James D. Savage then established his intimacy with the principal Indian tribes of the San Joaquin.
His aptitude for “picking up languages” apparently came to the fore, for he mastered the Indian dialect and extended his influence until it amounted to something of a barbaric despotism. The Indians acknowledged his authority, and he, no doubt, improved their condition. In the wars with the mountain tribes Savage’s tactics won them victories, and he brought about progress, generally.
Prior to the gold rush, his territory was seldom visited by whites, but early in 1848, hardly a year subsequent to his conquest of the Indians, there poured in that flood of miners which transformed the entire picture. Savage adapted himself 19 to it forthwith, and soon his name was on the lips of everyone. When he let it be known among his Indian followers that he would like to acquire a lot of the yellow metal, the squaws set to work and turned the product of their labors into the lap of the white chief. W E. Wilde writes that Savage was associated with the Rev. James Woods in 1848 and that he and his Indians were working the gravel deposits at what became known as Big Oak Flat. It was here that a white Texan stabbed Luturio, one of the Indian leaders, and the Texan in turn was killed by the Indians. Savage, knowing the potentialities of enraged Indians, pacified them and withdrew with them to other localities.
George H. Tinkham next throws a spotlight on Savage at Jamestown in May (?) 1849. Cornelius Sullivan related to Tinkham that
under a brushwood tent, supported by upright poles, sat James D. Savage, measuring and pouring gold dust into the candle boxes by his side. Five hundred or more naked Indians, with belts of cloth bound around their waists or suspended from their heads brought the dust to Savage, and in return for it received a bright piece of cloth or some beads.
Just how much gold dust Savage acquired was never reported, but that it was an enormous amount is not to be questioned. For some two years his army of Indian followers busied themselves in gleaning the creeks and ravines of the foothills, and considering the facility with which gold could be gathered it is small wonder that he was reputed to have barrels full of it.
We learn from L. H. Bunnell, one of Savage’s intimate acquaintances of long standing, that in 1849-1850 Savage had established his trading post at the mouth of the South Fork of the Merced, not more than fifteen miles below Yosemite Valley, and on the line of the present Merced-Yosemite highway.
At this point, engaged in gold mining, he had employed a party of native Indians. Early in the season of 1850 his trading-post and mining camp were attacked by a band of the Yosemite Indians. This 20 tribe, or band, claimed the territory in that vicinity, and attempted to drive Savage off. Their real object, however, was plunder. They were considered treacherous and dangerous, and were very troublesome to the miners generally.
Savage and his Indian miners repulsed the attack and drove off the marauders, but from this occurrence he no longer deemed this location desirable. Being fully aware of the murderous propensities of his assailants, he removed to Mariposa Creek, not far from the junction of the Agua Fria, and near to the site of the old stone fort. Soon after, he established a branch post on the Fresno, where the mining prospects became most encouraging, as the high water subsided in that stream. This branch station was placed in charge of a man by the name of Greeley.
This event on the South Fork constitutes the initial step in the hostilities that were to result in Savage’s renown as the discoverer of Yosemite Valley. Since he had remained so close to the remarkable canyon for some months prior to the Indian attack, and because the threatening Indians frequently boasted of a “deep valley in which one Indian is more than ten white men,” Bunnell once asked Savage whether he had ever entered the mysterious place. Savage’s words were: “Last year while I was located at the mouth of the South Fork of the Merced, I was attacked by the Yosemites, but with the Indian miners I had in my employ, drove them off, and followed some of them up the Merced River into a canyon, which I supposed led to their stronghold, as the Indians then with me said it was not a safe place to go into. From the appearance of this rocky gorge I had no difficulty in believing them. Fearing an ambush, I did not follow them. It was on this account that I changed my location to Mariposa Creek. I would like to get into the den of the thieving murderers. If ever I have a chance I will smoke out the Grizzly Bears [the Yosemites] from their holes, where they are thought to be so secure.”
Savage built up an exceedingly prosperous business at his trading posts on the Fresno and on Mariposa Creek. He stocked 21 his stores with merchandise from San Francisco Bay and exchanged the goods at enormous profits for the gold brought in by the Indians. An ounce of gold bought a can of oysters, five pounds of flour, or a pound of bacon; a shirt required five ounces, and a pair of boots or a hat brought a full pound of the precious metal. His customers included white prospectors as well as his subservient Indians, for the white men would agree to his exacting terms in preference to leaving their diggings to make a trip for supplies to the growing village of Mariposa.
The Indians never questioned the rate of exchange, for to them it seemed that their white chief was working miracles in providing quantities of desirable food and prized raiment in return for something that was to be had for the taking. To guarantee a continuance of cordial relations with his Indian friends, and to cement the alliance of several tribes, Savage had taken wives from among the young squaws of different tribes. Two of these were called Eekino and Homut. It is not known which tribes were represented in his household, but the wives are reported to have totaled five. If their bridal contract was recognized by all their tribesmen, it is not difficult to understand how Savage’s supporters numbered five hundred.
The Mariposa Creek store retinue of whites was thrown into a state of some agitation one fall day in 1850 when one of Savage’s wives confided the information that the mountain Indians were combining to wipe the whites from the hills. Confirmation of her rumor was obtained from some of the friendly bucks who had long followed Savage. These Indians declared that they had learned that the mountain tribe, the Yosemites, were ready to descend upon Savage again for the purpose of plunder and that they were maneuvering to secure the combined forces of other tribes.
Savage did not misunderstand the threat, as did some others of the white men. Hoping to impress the Indians with the wonders, 22 numbers, and power of the whites, he conceived the idea of taking some of them to that milling base of supply, San Francisco. It is probable, too, that he planned to put some of his great store of accumulated gold in safekeeping on the same trip. Accordingly, he announced that he was going to “the Bay” for a new stock of goods and invited José Juarez, a chief of influence with the Chowchillas and Chukchansies, to accompany him. José accepted the invitation. With them went some of Savage’s dependable Indian friends, including a wife or two.
It was the occasion of this trip that provided the crowning touch for Savage’s reputation among the whites of all the gold camps. The story of the affair spread to as many localities as were represented in San Francisco’s picturesque population at the time of the visit, and legends of Jim Savage’s barrel of gold are handed down to this day. How large the barrel may have been it is now impossible to ascertain, but certainly a fabulous fortune traveled with the strange party.
They made their headquarters at the Revere House and became the sensation of the hour.[3] The Indians arrayed themselves in gaudy finery and gorged themselves with costly viands and considerable liquor. To the great distress of Savage, José maintained himself in a state of drunkenness throughout most of their stay. In order to prevent disturbances Savage locked him up on one occasion and when he was somewhat sobered remonstrated with him. José flew into an excited rage, became abusive with his tongue, and finally disclosed his secret of the war against the whites. Savage knocked him down.
The party remained to witness the celebration of the admission of California into the Union on October 29, 1850. Savage deposited his gold in exchange for goods to be delivered as needed, gilded his already colorful visit with enough gambling 23 and reckless spending to stagger the residents, and gathered his retinue for the return journey.
José had maintained a silence and dignity ever after the violent quarrel with his chief.
No sooner had they reached the foothill territory from which they had traveled a fortnight before than they were greeted with news of Indian threats. As the Fresno station maintained by Savage seemed to be in immediate danger, the party went there at once. Numerous Indians were about, but all seemed quiet. However, the white agents employed by Savage revealed that the Indians were no longer trading.
Savage thereupon invited all Indians present to meet with him and proceeded at once to conduct a peaceful confab before his store. Addressing them he said:
“I know that some of the Indians do not wish to be friends with the white men and that they are trying to unite the different tribes for the purpose of a war. It is better for the Indians and white men to be friends. If the Indians make war on the white men, every tribe will be exterminated; not one will be left. I have just been where the white men are more numerous than the wasps and ants; and if war is made and the Americans are aroused to anger, every Indian engaged in the war will be killed before the whites will be satisfied.”
Having made himself clearly understood in the Indian language he turned to his fellow traveler, José, for confirmation of his statements regarding the power of the whites. José stepped forward and delivered himself of the following brief but energetic oration:
“Our brother has told his Indian relatives much that is truth; we have seen many people; the white men are very numerous; but the white men we saw on our visit are of many tribes; they are not like the tribe that dig gold in the mountains.” He then gave an absurd description of what he had seen while below, and continued: “Those white tribes will not come to the mountains. 24 They will not help the gold diggers if the Indians make war against them. If the gold diggers go to the white tribes in the big village, they give their gold for strong water and games; when they have no more gold, the white tribes drive the gold diggers back to the mountains with clubs. They strike them down [referring to the police], as your white relative struck me while I was with him. The white tribes will not go to war with the Indians in the mountains. They cannot bring their big ships and big guns to us; we have no cause to fear them. They will not injure us.”
His climax came as a bold argument for the immediate declaration of war upon the whites.
Chief José Rey of the Chowchillas then contributed his plea for immediate hostilities, and Savage withdrew before the two hostile chiefs. Upon his return to the Mariposa Station, his appeals for immediate preparation for war were given small hearing by the whites. A few were inclined to scoff.
Close on the heels of the warnings, however, came news of an attack on the Fresno store. All the whites except the messenger who had brought the news were killed. The Mariposa Indian War was on.
Savage had gone to Horse Shoe Bend in the Merced Canyon to solicit aid. He had hoped to find a more attentive audience there than among the county officials at Agua Fria. In his absence his Mariposa store was burned, its three white attendants were killed, and his wives were carried off by the assailants.
Cassady, one of the rival traders who had scoffed at Savage’s first news of impending disaster, was surprised in his establishment and met quick death. Three other murderous attacks took place in the immediate vicinity, and the whites finally leaped to the defense of their holdings.
James Burney, the county sheriff, took a place at the head of a body of volunteers who had banded for mutual protection. On January 6, 1851, James D. Savage accompanied this party 25 in an attack made upon an Indian encampment of several hundred squaws and bucks under the leadership of José Rey. This was the first organized movement of the whites against the Indians of the Mariposa Hills.
By this time Governor McDougal had issued a proclamation calling for volunteers, and the Mariposa Battalion came into existence. Savage was made major in full command. Three companies, under John J. Kuykendall, John Boling, and William Dill, were organized and drilled near Savage’s ruined Mariposa store.[4] The affairs of this punitive body of men are dealt with in another chapter. Let it here suffice to say that its activities were especially directed against the mountain tribe of “Grizzlies,” and that on March 25, 1851, Savage and his men entered the mysterious stronghold, Yosemite Valley.
In 1928 it was my privilege to interview Maria Lebrado, one of the last members of the Yosemite tribe who experienced subjection by the whites. I eagerly sought ethnological and historical data, which was forthcoming in gratifying abundance. Purposely I had avoided questioning the aged squaw about Major Savage; but presently she asked, in jumbled English and Spanish, if I knew about the “Captain” of the white soldiers. She called him “Chowwis,” and described him as a blond chief whose light hair fell upon his shoulders and whose beard hung halfway to his waist. She had been much impressed by his commanding blue eyes and declared that his shirts were always red. To this member of the mountain tribe of Yosemite the Major was recalled as something of a thorn in her flesh. That he was a beloved leader of the foothill tribes she agreed, but hastened to explain that those Indians, too, were enemies of her people. Maria is the only person I have met who had seen Savage.
For five months Savage commanded the movements of the 26 Mariposa Battalion. Its various units were active in the Sierra Summit region above Yosemite, at the headwaters of the Chowchilla, and on the upper reaches of the San Joaquin. In every encounter the Indians were defeated and they finally sued for peace. The prowess of Savage as a mountaineer and military leader is borne out in a letter, published in Alta California on June 12, 1851, in which the battalion’s sergeant major describes at length for the adjutant a foray at the headwaters of the San Joaquin:
... I am aware that you have been high up and deep in the mountains and snow yourself, but I believe this trip ranks all others. The Major himself has seen cañons and snow peaks this trip which he never saw before. It is astonishing what this man can endure. Traveling on day and night, through snow and over the mountains, without food, is not considered fatigue to him, and as you are well aware the boys will follow him as long as he leaves a sign.
The same Alta carries a resolution, signed by men in Dill’s and Boling’s companies, affirming in great detail their high confidence in Savage.
In addition to his activities with the battalion in the field, Major Savage functioned conspicuously in aiding the United States Indian Commissioners in preparing a peace treaty. He maintained a friendly attitude toward the oppressed Indians and, had the government made good its promises, or had the appropriations not been absorbed elsewhere, the tribes of the Sierra would have been more adequately provided for. The treaty, signed April 29, 1851, does not carry the “signatures” of Tenaya of the Yosemites or of the leader of the Chowchillas.
On July 1, 1851, the Mariposa Battalion was mustered out. Major Savage resumed his trading operations in a store on the Fresno River near Coarse Gold. In compliance with the treaty, a reservation for the Indians was set aside on the Fresno, and another on the Kings River. In the fall of 1851 the Fresno store was the polling place for a large number of voters for county 27 officers. That winter Savage built Fort Bishop, near the Fresno reservation, and prepared to carry on a prosperous trade. He spoke as follows on this subject to L. H. Bunnell:
If I can make good my losses by the Indians out of the Indians, I am going to do it. I was the best friend the Indians had, and they would have destroyed me. Now that they once more call me “Chief,” they shall build me up. I will be just to them, as I have been merciful, for, after all, they are but poor ignorant beings, but my losses must be made good.
During the first months of 1852, Major Savage conducted a substantial, if not a phenomenal, business with the miners of the Fresno and surrounding territory, and with the Indians at the agency. No Indian hostilities were in evidence, but a policy of excluding them from the store proper was adhered to. The goods which they bought with their gold dust were handed out to them through small openings left in the walls. These openings were securely fastened at night.
Not infrequently the Indians were subjected to abusive treatment at the hands of certain whites. The mistreatment was enough to provoke an uprising, but with a few exceptions they remained on the reservations. An important light on subsequent events in Savage’s life is brought out in this statement by L. H. Bunnell:
As far as I was able to learn at the time, a few persons envied them the possession of their Kings River reservation and determined to “squat” upon it, after they should have been driven off. This “border element” was made use of by an unprincipled schemer, who it was understood was willing to accept office, when a division of Mariposa County should have been made, or when a vacancy of any kind should occur. But population was required, and the best lands had been reserved for the savages. A few hangers-on, at the agencies, that had been discharged for want of employment and other reasons, made claims upon the Kings River reservation; the Indians came to warn them off, when they were at once fired upon, and it was reported that several were killed.
Further details of the deplorable act committed by the would-be “squatters” are provided by the following news item which appeared in the Alta California of July 7, 1852:
Anticipated Indian Difficulties on King’s River
By Mr. Stelle, who came express to Stockton on the 5th inst., we have received the annexed correspondence from
San Joaquin, (Evening,) July 2, 1852.
Editors Alta California:—A few days ago, the Indians on King’s River warned Campbell, Poole & Co., ferrymen, twenty miles from here, to leave, showing at the same time their papers from the Indian Commissioners. The Indians then left, and threatened to kill the ferrymen if on their reservation when they returned. Mr. Campbell has been collecting volunteers, many have joined him. Major Harvey left this evening with some eighteen or twenty men. A fine chance for the boys to have a frolic, locate some land, and be well paid by Uncle Sam.
These agitations and murders were denounced by Major Savage in unsparing terms. Although the citizens of Mariposa were at the time unable to learn the details of the affair at Kings River, which was a distant settlement, the great mass of the people were satisfied that wrong had been done to the Indians; however, there had been a decided opposition by citizens generally to the establishment of two agencies in the county, and the selection of the best agricultural lands for reservations. Mariposa then included nearly the whole San Joaquin Valley south of the Tuolumne.
The opponents to the recommendations of the commissioners claimed that “The government of the United States has no right to select the territory of a sovereign State to establish reservations for the Indians, nor for any other purpose, without the consent of the State!” The state legislature of 1851-1852 instructed the senators and representatives in congress to use their influence to have the Indians removed beyond the limits of the state.
W. W. Elliott, in his History of Fresno County (1881), reveals further details: “Sometime previous to August 16, 1852, one Major Harvey, the first county Judge of Tulare County, and Wm. J. Campbell, either hired or incited a lot of men, who rushed into one of the rancherias on Kings River and succeeded in killing a number of old squaws.”
Elliott’s assertions are supported by the following news item from the San Francisco Daily Herald, August 21, 1852:
Among other acts by white men calculated to excite the Indians, a ferry was established over the San Joaquin, within an Indian reservation, above Fort Miller, some miles above Savage’s. The Indians, no doubt, considered this an encroachment; and from an idea that the ferry stopped fish from ascending the river, some straggling Indian, acting without authority from chiefs or council, spoke of this notion about the fish at the ferry, and saying that the ferry was within their lands, added that it would have to be broken up. The proprietor of the ferry, assuming this as a threatened hostility, or making a pretence of it, assembled a few willing friends, who, armed with rifles, appeared suddenly among some Indian families while most of the men were many miles off, peaceably at work at Savage’s, without dreaming of danger, and without justifiable provocation the white men fired upon the families, killing two women, as it is stated, and some children, and wounding several others.
With such conditions prevailing on the Kings, it is small wonder that numerous Kings Agency Indians traveled to the Fresno in order to trade with Savage. Needless to say, this aroused the further ire of the traders on the Kings. The white malcontents continued their agitation, and the wronged Indians of the Kings wailed to Savage of their troubles. Consistently with his earlier acts, wherein the public good was involved, Major Savage attempted to pacify the Indians. He also denounced the “squatters” with all the emphasis of his personality and high standing. He asserted that they should be punished under the laws which they had violated and presented the case to the Indian Commissioners.
Harvey and the trader Campbell made common cause of denouncing Major Savage in return. Word was sent to the Major that they dared him to set foot in Kings River region. Upon its receipt, Savage mounted his horse and traveled to the Kings River Agency.
The events that occurred upon his arrival have been variously described by half a dozen writers. Elliott’s description, which agrees essentially with Bunnell’s, is as follows:
On the 16th day of August, 1852, Savage paid a visit to the Kings River Reservation, but previously to this Harvey declared that if Savage ever came there he would not return alive. Arriving at the reservation early in the forenoon, Savage found there Harvey and Judge Marvin, and a quarrel at once ensued between Savage and Harvey, the latter demanding of Savage a retraction of the language he had used regarding Harvey, whereupon Savage slapped Harvey across the face with his open hand, and while doing so, his pistol fell out of his shirt bosom and was picked up by Marvin. Harvey then stepped up to Marvin and said: “Marvin you have disarmed me; you have my pistol.” “No” said Marvin, “this is Major Savage’s pistol,” whereupon Harvey, finding Savage unarmed, commenced firing his own pistol, shooting five balls into Savage, who fell, and died almost instantly. Marvin was standing by all this time, with Savage’s pistol in his hands, too cowardly or scared to interfere and prevent the murder. At this time Harvey was County Judge of Tulare County, and one Joel H. Brooks, who had been in the employment of Savage for several years, and who had received at his hands nothing but kindness and favors, was appointed by Harvey, Justice of the Peace, for the sole purpose of investigating Harvey’s case for the killing of Savage. Of course Harvey was acquitted by Brooks—was not even held to answer before the Grand Jury. Harvey finally left, in mortal fear of the Indians, for he imagined that every Indian was seeking his life to avenge the murder of Savage. Afterwards, Harvey died of paralysis.
In 1926 the late Boutwell Dunlap unearthed 169 pages of depositions in manuscript form, taken in a law case of 1858 in which the death of Savage was made an issue. The incidents related by the witness under oath are redolent of the old wild 31 days. This testimony comes from the same Brooks who as magistrate had acquitted Harvey. It is quoted as follows:
Twenty-four hours after the Indians had ordered Campbell to leave, Harvey and his company had a fight with the Indians, killing some and whipping the balance. Savage was then an Indian agent appointed by Wozencroft. Savage and Wozencroft made a great fuss about the American people abusing the Indians and succeeded in getting the Commanding General of the U.S. forces on the Pacific to send up a couple of companies of troops to Tulare County, to take up Major Harvey and the men that were under his command and that had assisted him in this horrible murder of “the poor innocent savages.”
The circumstances which led to Savage’s death grew out of this difficulty. The troops had crossed Kings River. This was some time in August 1852 in the morning. Major Savage and Judge John G. Marvin rode up to the door of Campbell’s trading-house. Savage called for Harvey. Harvey stepped to the door. Savage remarked, “I understand, Major Harvey, that you say I am no gentleman.” Harvey replies, “I have frequently made that statement.” Savage remarked, to Harvey, “There is a good horse, saddle, bridle, spurs and leggings which belong to me. I fetched them, for the purpose of letting you have them to leave this country with.” Harvey replied, “I have got a fine mule and I will leave the country on my own animal, when I want to leave it.” Savage called for breakfast. Savage and Marvin ate breakfast by themselves in a brush house outside the store. After they had got through their breakfast, Savage tied up his hair, rolled up his sleeves, took his six-shooter out of its scabbard and placed it in front of him under the waistband of his pantaloons. He then walked into Campbell’s store and asked Major Harvey if he could not induce him to call him a gentleman. Harvey told him that he had made up his mind and had expressed his opinion in regard to that, and did not think he would alter it. He knocked Harvey down and stamped upon him a little. They were separated by some gentlemen in the house, and Harvey got up. Savage says, “To what conclusion have you come in regard to my gentlemancy?” Harvey replies, “I think you are a damned scoundrel.” Savage knocked Harvey down again. They were again separated by gentlemen present. As Harvey straightened himself onto his feet, he presented a six-shooter and shot Major Savage through 32 the heart. Savage fell without saying anything. It was supposed that Harvey shot him twice after he was dead, every ball taking effect in his heart. That is all I know about the fight. I gained this information by taking the testimony as magistrate of those who saw it.
What may have become of the court records of the so-called trial is unknown, but a scrap of testimony by the proprietor of the house in which the killing took place was preserved by the San Francisco Daily Herald, September 3, 1852, as follows:
The People of the State of California vs. Walter H. Harvey, for the killing of James D. Savage, on the 16th day of August, 1852, contrary to the laws of the State of California, &c.
Mr. Edmunds sworn, says—“Yesterday morning Major Savage came into my house and asked Major Harvey if he had said he was no gentleman. Major Harvey replied he had said it. Major Savage struck Major Harvey on the side of the head and knocked him down on some sacks of flour, and then proceeded to kick and beat him. Judge Marvin and some one else interfered, and Major Savage was taken off of Major Harvey. Major Savage still had hold of Major Harvey when Major Harvey kicked him. Major Savage then struck Major Harvey on the cheek, and knocked him down the second time, and used him, the same as before. By some means I cannot say, Major Savage was again taken off, and they separated. Major Savage was in the act of attacking him again, when Major Harvey draw his pistol and shot him.”
Question by the Court—Did Major Harvey shoot more than once?
Answer—I think he did; I found four holes in him.
Question—Did Major Savage knock Major Harvey down before he drew his pistol?
Answer—The prisoner had been knocked down by Major Savage twice before he drew his pistol, or made any attempt to shoot him.
Mr. Gonele sworn—corroborates the evidence of Mr. Edmunds. Mr. Knider sworn, also does the same.
This is all the testimony given in as to the fight, Major Fitzgerald, U.S.A., sworn, testified to some facts which induced him to think Major Savage not a gentleman.
The Court, upon this testimony, discharged Major Harvey without requiring bail.
So passed the leading figure in early Yosemite history. In this day of greater appreciation of individual heroism, sacrifice, and pioneer accomplishment in public service, how one covets unprejudiced narratives of such lives as was that of James D. Savage! Bunnell comments feelingly on “his many noble qualities, his manly courage, his generous hospitality, his unyielding devotion to friends, and his kindness to immigrant strangers.” A writer in the Daily Herald of September 4, 1852, contributes more details of events that followed the murder.
Effect of Major Savage’s Death upon the Indians
We have received a letter dated August 31st. on the Indian Reservation, Upper San Joaquin, giving some further particulars of the murder of Major James Savage and the effect produced thereby upon the Indians. The writer has resided among them upwards of two years, understood their language and their habits, and for a long time assisted Major Savage in managing them. His opinions therefore are entitled to weight. The following extracts will show the probable effect this murder will have on the prospects of the southern section of the State:
“You have doubtless ere this heard of the death, or rather murder, of Major Savage upon King’s River. It has produced considerable sensation throughout the country and is deeply regretted, for the country and the government have lost the services of a man whom it will not be easy to replace. He could do more to keep the Indians in subjection than all the forces that Uncle Sam could send here. The Indians were terribly excited at his death. Some of them reached the scene of the tragedy soon after it occurred. They threw themselves upon his body, uttering the most terrific cries, bathing their hands and faces in his blood, and even stooping and drinking it, as it gushed from his wounds. It was with difficulty his remains could be interred. The Chiefs clung to his body, and swore they would die with their father.
“The night he was buried the Indians built large fires, around which they danced, singing the while the mournful death chaunt, until the hills around rang with the sound. I have never seen such profound manifestations of grief. The young men, as they whirled wildly and distractedly around in the dance, shouted the name of 34 their ‘father’ that was gone; while the squaws sat rocking their bodies to and fro, chaunting their mournful dirges, until the very blood within one curdled with horror at the scene.
“I have not the slightest doubt that there will be a general outbreak this winter. Just as soon as the rainy season sets in we shall have the beginning of one of the most protracted and expensive wars the people of California have ever been engaged in. The Indians are quiet now, but are evidently contemplating some hostile movement. They told me, a few days since, that their ‘father’ was gone and they would not live with the whites any longer.
“I have studied the character of these Indians, as you know, for more than two years, and have acquired my experience in managing them under Savage himself. I do not speak lightly nor unadvisedly, therefore, when I assert that no more disastrous event could have occurred to the interests of this State, than the murder of the gallant Major Savage.”
It is possible that more details of Savage’s biography may be brought to light, and it is with that hope, coupled with the desire to give his memory just due, that this material is presented for public perusal.
On the Fresno River, near the site of his old trading post, rest the bones of the “white chief.” In 1855, Dr. Leach, who had been associated with Savage in trading with the Indians, journeyed to the Kings River, disinterred the remains, and transferred them to their present resting place. A ten-foot shaft of Connecticut granite, bearing the simple inscription, “Maj. Jas. D. Savage,” marks the spot. On July 4, 1929, the little city of Madera, California, honored the memory of Savage by placing an inscribed plaque on a city gate. These memorials, presumably, are the only public reminders of the importance of James D. Savage in the history of the state.
The story of Major Savage may be concluded with a reference to his family ties. As has been related, Californians were, until 1928, wholly mystified about his origin. Through the researches of Louise Savage Ireland we are made to sense the human side of his saga and are brought to an understanding 35 of his intimate family connections and his faithfulness to blood ties. L. H. Savage of El Paso, Texas, writes that his father, John W. Savage, first cousin of James D. Savage, made a vain attempt to join the Major in California. Returning miners in 1850 told the Illinois Savages that “Jim” invited them to come to California, where he would make them rich. John, then a boy of nineteen years, financed by older members of the family, shipped for the Golden State and sailed around the Horn. Almost a year elapsed before he reached San Francisco. There he learned that his noted relative had met death six months before.
What became of any wealth that the Major may have amassed remains a mystery. The Indians he struggled to protect and the lands he tried to save for them long ago passed out of the reckoning. By way of explanation we quote from Hutchings’ In the Heart of the Sierras:
The reservation on the Fresno gradually became unpopular on this account [because the Indians craved their mountain homes], but mainly from bad management; was afterwards abolished by the Government; and, finally, its lands and buildings were gobbled up by sharp-sighted, if not unprincipled men, who, like many others of that class, became rich out of the acquisition.
One cannot but wonder what counteracting influences James D. Savage would have exercised in the Fresno Agency business had he been permitted to live.
By March of 1851 the Indian Commissioners McKee, Barbour, and Woozencraft were actively assembling representatives of the numerous Sierra Indian tribes and driving sharp bargains with them to quitclaim their lands. On March 19, 1851, the commissioners in their camp (Camp Frémont) in the Mariposa region reached an agreement with six tribes and proceeded to establish a reservation for them. Their report refers to one tribe, the “Yosemetos,” who were expected at this confab but failed to appear. The friendly Indians who signed the treaty reported that this mountain tribe had no intentions of coming in. It was, therefore, decided to send Major Savage and a part of his Mariposa Battalion after them.
On the evening of March 19, the day on which the Camp Frémont treaty was signed, Major Savage set out with the companies of Captains Boling and Dill. Captain Kuykendall’s company had traveled to the region of the San Joaquin and Kings rivers, in which locality the commissioners planned to negotiate another treaty. The force under the command of Major Savage followed a route very near that which is now known as the Wawona Road to Yosemite Valley.
On the South Fork of the Merced, at what is now called Wawona, a Nuchu camp was surprised and captured. Messengers sent ahead from this camp returned with the assurance that the Yosemite tribe would come in and give themselves up. Old Chief Tenaya of the Yosemites did come into camp, but, after waiting three days for the others, Major Savage became 37 impatient and set out with the battalion to enter the much-talked-of Yosemite retreat. When they had covered about half the distance to the valley, seventy-two Indians were met plodding through the snow. Not convinced that this band constituted the entire tribe, Savage sent them to his camp on the South Fork while he pushed on to the valley. His route again was that followed by the present Wawona road.
On March 25, 1851, the party went into camp near Bridalveil Fall. That night around the campfire a suitable name for the remarkable valley was discussed. Lafayette H. Bunnell, a young man upon whom the surroundings and events had made a deeper impression than upon any of the others, urged that it be named Yosemite, after the natives who had been driven out. This name was agreed upon. Although the whites knew the name of the tribe, they were apparently unaware that the Indians had another name, Ahwahnee, for their Deep Grassy Valley.
The next morning the camp was moved to the mouth of Indian Canyon, and the day was spent in exploring the valley. Only one Indian was found, an ancient squaw, too feeble to escape. Parties penetrated Tenaya Canyon above Mirror Lake, ascended the Merced Canyon beyond Nevada Fall, and explored both to the north and to the south of the river on the valley floor. No more Indians were discovered, and on the third day the party withdrew from the valley. The Indians who had been gathered while the party was on the way to the valley escaped from their guard while en route to the Indian Commissioner’s camp on the Fresno; so this first expedition accomplished nothing in the way of subduing the Yosemites.
In May, 1851, Major Savage sent Captain John Boling and his company back to Yosemite to surprise the elusive inhabitants and to whip them well. Boling followed the same route taken previously and arrived in Yosemite on May 9. He made his first camp near the site of the present Sentinel Bridge. Chief 38 Tenaya and a few of his followers were captured, but the majority of the Yosemites eluded their pursuers. It was during this stay in Yosemite that the first letter from the valley was dispatched. On May 15, 1851, Captain Boling wrote to Major Savage of his affairs, and the letter was published in the Alta California, June 12, 1851. It follows:
On reaching this valley, which we did on the 9th inst., I selected for our encampment the most secluded place that I could find, lest our arrival might be discovered by the Indians. Spies were immediately despatched in different directions, some of which crossed the river to examine for signs on the opposite side. Trails were soon found, leading up and down the river, which had been made since the last rain. On the morning of the 10th we took up the line of march for the upper end of the valley, and having traveled about five miles we discovered five Indians running up the river on the north side. All of my command, except a sufficient number to take care of the pack animals, put spurs to their animals, swam the river and caught them before they could get into the mountains. One of them proved to be the son of the old Yosemety chief. I informed them if they would come down from the mountains and go with me to the U. S. Indian Commissioners, they would not be hurt; but if they would not, I would remain in their neighborhood as long as there was a fresh track to be found; informing him at the same time that all the Indians except his father’s people and the Chouchillas had treated.... He then informed me that ... if I would let him loose, with another Indian, he would bring in his father and all his people by twelve o’clock the next day. I then gave them plenty to eat and started him and his companion out. We watched the others close, intending to hold them as hostages until the despatch-bearers returned. They appeared well satisfied and we were not suspicious of them, in consequence of which one of them escaped. We commenced searching for him, which alarmed the other two still in custody, and they attempted to make their escape. The boys took after them and finding they could not catch them, fired and killed them both. This circumstance, connected with the fact of the two whom we had sent out not returning, satisfied me that they had no intention of coming in. My command then set out to search for the Rancheria. The party which went up the left toward Can-yarthia [?] found the rancheria 39 at the head of a little valley, and from the signs it appeared that the Indians had left but a few minutes. The boys pursued them up the mountain on the north side of the river, and when they had got near the top, helping each other from rock to rock on account of the abruptness of the mountains; the first intimation they had of the Indians being near was a shower of huge rocks which came tumbling down the mountain, threatening instant destruction. Several of the men were knocked down, and some of them rolled and fell some distance before they could recover, wounding and bruising them generally. One man’s gun was knocked out of his hand and fell seventy feet before it stopped, whilst another man’s hat was knocked off his head without hurting him. The men immediately took shelter behind large rocks, from which they could get an occasional shot, which soon forced the Indians to retreat, and by pressing them close they caught the old Yo-semity chief, whom we yet hold as a prisoner. In this skirmish they killed one Indian and wounded several others.
You are aware that I know this old fellow well enough to look out well for him, lest by some stratagem he makes his escape. I shall aim to use him to the best advantage in pursuing his people. I send down a few of my command with the pack animals for provisions; and I am satisfied if you will send me ten or twelve of old Ponwatchez’ best men I could catch the women and children and thereby force the men to come in. The Indians I have with me have acted in good faith and agree with me in this opinion.
On May 21, some members of the invading party discovered the fresh trail of a small party of Indians traveling in the direction of the Mono country. Immediate pursuit was made, and on May 22 the Yosemites were discovered encamped on the shores of Tenaya Lake in a spot much of which was snow-covered. They were completely surprised and surrendered without a struggle. This was the first expedition made into the Yosemite high country from the west, and it was on this occasion that the name Lake Tenaya was applied by Bunnell. The old Indian chief, on being told of how his name was to be perpetuated, sullenly remonstrated that the lake already had a name, “Py-we-ack”—Lake of the Shining Rocks.
The Indians were on this second occasion successfully escorted to the Fresno reservation. Tenaya and his band, however, refused to adapt themselves to the conditions under which they were forced to live. They begged repeatedly to be permitted to return to the mountains and to the acorn food of their ancestors. At last, on his solemn promise to behave, Tenaya was permitted to go back to Yosemite with members of his family. In a short time his old followers quietly slipped away from the reservation and joined him. No attempt was made to bring them back.
During the winter of 1851-52, no complaints against the Yosemites were registered, but in May of 1852 a party of eight prospectors made their way into the valley, where two of them were killed by the Indians. A remarkable manuscript, prepared by Stephen F. Grover, a member of this party, was obtained by Mrs. A. E. Chandler, of Santa Cruz, who in 1901 mailed it to Galen Clark. Upon Clark’s death it was turned over to the pioneer Yosemite photographer, George Fiske. When Mr. Fiske died, the papers were given to National Park Service officials for safekeeping in the Yosemite Museum. Grover’s reminiscences are apparently authentically presented and divulge much that was not recorded elsewhere. Those familiar with Yosemite history as it has been accepted since the appearance of Bunnell’s Discovery of Yosemite will recognize a number of incidents that are at variance with previous records.
Grover’s Narrative—A Reminiscence
On the 27th of April, 1852, a party of miners, consisting of Messrs. Grover, Babcock, Peabody, Tudor, Sherburn, Rose, Aich, and an Englishman whose name I cannot now recall, left Coarse Gold Gulch in Mariposa County, on an expedition prospecting for gold in the wilds of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We followed up Coarse Gold Gulch into the Sierras, traveling five days, and took the Indian trail through the Mariposa Big Tree Grove, and were the first white men to enter there. Then we followed the South Fork of the Merced River, traveling on Indian trails the entire time.
41On reaching the hills above Yosemite Valley, our party camped for the night, and questioned the expediency of descending into the Valley at all. Our party were all opposed to the project except Sherburn, Tudor, and Rose. They over-persuaded the rest and fairly forced us against our will, and we finally followed the old Mariposa Indian trail on the morning of the 2nd of May, and entering the Valley on the East side of the Merced River, camped on a little opening, near a bend in the River free from any brush whatever, and staked out our pack mules by the river. I, being the youngest of the party, a mere boy of twenty-two years, and not feeling usually well that morning, remained in camp with Aich and the Englishman to prepare dinner, while the others went up the Valley, some prospecting, and others hunting for game. We had no fear of the Indians, as they had been peaceable, and no outbreaks having occurred, the whites traveled fearlessly wherever they wished to go. Thus, we had no apprehension of trouble. To my astonishment and horror I heard our men attacked, and amid firing, screams, and confusion, here came Peabody, who reached camp first, wounded by an arrow in his arm and another in the back of his neck, and one through his clothes, just grazing the skin of his stomach, wetting his rifle and ammunition in crossing the river as he ran to reach camp. Babcock soon followed, and as both men had plunged through the stream that flows from the Bridal Veil Falls in making their escape, they were drenched to the skin.
On reaching us, Aich immediately began picking the wet powder from Babcock’s rifle, while I with my rifle stood guard and kept the savages at bay the best I could. (The other men, with the exception of Sherburn, Tudor, and Rose, came rushing into camp in wild excitement.) Rose, a Frenchman, was the first to fall, and from the opposite side of the stream where he fell, apparently with his death wound, he screamed to us, “’T is no use to try to save ourselves, we have all got to die.” He was the only one of our company that could speak Indian and we depended upon him for an interpreter. Sherburn and Tudor were killed in their first encounter, Tudor being killed with an ax in the hands of a savage, which was taken along with the party for cutting wood. The Indians gathered around as near as they dared to come, whooping and yelling, and constantly firing arrows at us. We feared they would pick up the rifles dropped by our companions in their flight and turn them against us, but they did not know how to use them. As we were very hard pressed, 42 and as the number of Indians steadily increased, we tried to escape by the old Mariposa trail, the one by which we entered the Valley, one of our number catching up a sack of a few pounds of flour and another a tin cup and some of our outer clothing and fled as best we could with the savages in hot pursuit. We had proceeded but a short distance when we were attacked in front by the savages who had cut off our retreat. Death staring at us on almost every hand, and seeing no means of escape, we fled to the bluff, I losing my pistol as I ran. We were in a shower of arrows all the while, and the Indians were closing in upon us very fast; the valley seemed alive with them—on rocks, and behind trees, bristling like Demons, shrieking their war whoops, and exulting in our apparently easy capture. We fired back at them to keep them off while we tried to make our way forward hugging the bluff as closely as possible. Our way was soon blocked by the Indians who headed us off with a shower of arrows (two going through my clothing, one through my hat which I lost), when from above the rocks began to fall on us and in our despair we clung to the face of the bluff, and scrambling up we found a little place in the turn of the wall, a shelf-like projection, where, after infinite labor, we succeeded in gathering ourselves, secure from the falling rocks, at least, which were being thrown by Indians under the orders from their Chief. The arrows still whistled among us thick and fast, and I fully believe—could I visit that spot even now after the lapse of all these years—I could still pick up some of those flint arrow points in the shelf of the rock and in the face of the bluff where we were huddled together.
We could see the old Chief Tenieya way up in the Valley in an open space with fully one hundred and fifty Indians around him, to whom he gave his orders, which were passed to another Chief just below us, and these two directed those around them and shouted orders to those on the top of the bluff who were rolling the rocks over on us. Fully believing ourselves doomed men, we never relaxed our vigilance, but with the two rifles we still kept them at bay, determined to sell our lives as dearly as possible. I recall, with wonder, how every event of my life up to that time passed through my mind, incident after incident, with lightning rapidity, and with wonderful precision.
We were crowded together beneath this little projecting rock (two rifles were fortunately retained in our little party, one in the hands of Aich and one in my own), every nerve strung to its highest 43 tension, and being wounded myself with an arrow through my sleeve that cut my arm and another through my hat, when all of a sudden the Chief just below us, about fifty yards distant, suddenly threw up his hands and with a terrible yell fell over backwards with a bullet through his body. Immediately, the firing of arrows ceased and the savages were thrown into confusion, while notes of alarm were sounded and answered far up the Valley and from the high bluffs above us. They began to withdraw and we could hear the twigs crackle as they crept away.
It was now getting dusk and we had been since early morning without food or rest. Not knowing what to expect we remained where we were, suffering from our wounds and tortured with fear till the moon went down about midnight; then trembling in every limb, we ventured to creep forth, not daring to attempt the old trail again; we crept along and around the course of the bluff and worked our way up through the snow, from point to point, often feeling the utter impossibility of climbing farther, but with an energy born of despair, we would try again, helping the wounded more helpless than ourselves, and by daylight we reached the top of the bluff. A wonderful hope of escape animated us though surrounded as we were, and we could but realize how small our chances were for evading the savages who were sure to be sent on our trail. Having had nothing to eat since the morning before, we breakfasted by stirring some of our flour in the tip cup, with snow, and passing it around among us, in full sight of the smoke of the Indian camps and signal fires all over the Valley.
Our feelings toward the “Noble Red Man” at this time can better be imagined than described.
Starting out warily and carefully, expecting at every step to feel the stings of the whizzing arrows of our deadly foes, we kept near and in the most dense underbrush, creeping slowly and painfully along as best we could, those who were best able carrying the extra garments of the wounded and helping them along; fully realizing the probability of the arrow tips with which we were wounded having been dipped in poison before being sent on their message of death. In this manner we toiled on, a suffering and saddened band of once hopeful prospectors.
Suddenly a deer bounded in sight. Some objected to our shooting as the report of our rifle might betray us—but said I, as well die by our foes as by starvation, and dropping on one knee with never a 44 steadier nerve or truer aim, the first crack of my rifle brought him down. Hope revived in our hearts, and quickly skinning our prize we roasted pieces of venison on long sticks thrust in the flame and smoke, and with no seasoning whatever it was the sweetest morsel I ever tasted. Hastily stripping the flesh from the hind quarters of the deer, Aich and myself, being the only ones able to carry the extra burden, shouldered the meat and we again took up our line of travel. In this manner we toiled on and crossed the Mariposa Trail, and passed down the south fork of the Merced River, constantly fearing pursuit. As night came on we prepared camp by cutting crotched stakes which we drove in the ground and putting a pole across enclosed it with brush, making a pretty secure hiding place for the night; we crept under and lay close together. Although expecting an attack we were so exhausted and tired that we soon slept.
An incident of the night occurs to me: One of the men on reaching out his foot quickly, struck one of the poles, and down came the whole structure upon us. Thinking that our foes were upon us, our frightened crowd sprang out and made for the more dense brush, but as quiet followed we realized our mistake and gathering together again we passed the remainder of the night in sleepless apprehension.
When morning came we started again, following up the river, and passed one of our camping places. We traveled as far as we could in that direction, and prepared for our next night to camp and slept in a big hollow tree, still fearing pursuit. We passed the night undisturbed and in the morning started again on our journey, keeping in the shelter of the brush, and crossed the foot of the Falls, a little above Crane Flat—so named by us, as one of our party shot a large crane there while going over, but it is now known as Wawona. We still traveled in the back ground, passing through Big Tree Grove again, but not until we gained the ridge above Chowchilla did we feel any surety of ever seeing our friends again.
Traveling on thus for five days, we at last reached Coarse Gold Gulch once more, barefooted and ragged but more glad than I can express. An excited crowd soon gathered around us and while listening to our hair-breadth escapes, our sufferings and perils, and while vowing vengeance on the treacherous savages, an Indian was seen quickly coming down the mountain trail, gaily dressed in war paint and feathers, evidently a spy on our track, and not three hours behind us. A party of miners watched him as he passed by the settlement. E. Whitney Grover, my brother, and a German cautiously followed him. The haughty Red Man was made to bite the dust before many minutes had passed.
Joseph R. Walker
By Joseph Dixon Maria Lebrado
Captain John Boling
Lafayette H. Bunnell
By J. T. Boysen A Freight Outfit
By Gustav Fagersteen Early Tourists in the Saddle
45My brother Whitney Grover quickly formed a company of twenty-five men, who were piloted by Aich, and started for the Valley to bury our unfortunate companions. They found only Sherburn and Tudor, after a five days march, and met with no hostility from the Indians. They buried them where they lay, with such land marks as were at hand at that time. I have often called to mind the fact that the two men, Sherburn and Tudor, the only ones of our party who were killed on that eventful morning, were seen reading their Bibles while in camp the morning before starting into the Valley. They were both good men and we mourned their loss sincerely.
After we had been home six days, Rose, who was a partner of Sherburn and Tudor in a mine about five miles west of Coarse Gold Gulch, where there was a small mining camp, appeared in the neighborhood and reported the attack and said the whole party was killed, and that he alone escaped. On being questioned, he said he hid behind the Waterfall and lived by chewing the leather strap which held his rifle across his shoulders. This sounded strange to us as he had his rifle and plenty of ammunition and game was abundant. Afterward hearing of our return to Coarse Gold Gulch camp, he never came to see us as would have been natural, but shortly disappeared. We thought his actions and words very strange and we remembered how he urged us to enter the Valley, and at the time of the attack was the first one to fall, right amongst the savages, apparently with his death wound, and now he appears without a scratch, telling his version of the affair and disappearing without seeing any of us. We all believed he was not the honest man and friend we took him to be. He took possession of the gold mine in which he held a one-third interest with Sherburn and Tudor, and sold it.
Years afterward, in traveling at a distance and amongst strangers, I heard this story of our adventures repeated, as told by Aich, and he represented himself as the only man of the party who was not in the least frightened. I told them that “I was most thoroughly frightened, and Aich looked just as I felt.”
Stephen F. Grover
Santa Cruz, California
The commander of the regular army garrison at Fort Miller was notified of these events, and a detachment of the 2d Infantry under Lieutenant Tredwell Moore was dispatched in June, 1852. Five Indians were captured in the Yosemite Valley, all of whom were found to possess articles of clothing belonging to the murdered men. These Indians were summarily shot. Tenaya’s scouts undoubtedly witnessed this prompt pronouncement of judgment, and the members of the tribe fled with all speed to their Piute allies at Mono Lake.
The soldiers pursued the fleeing Indians by way of Tenaya Lake and Bloody Canyon. They found no trace of the Yosemites and could elicit no information from the Piutes. The party explored the region north and south of Bloody Canyon and found some promising mineral deposits. In August they returned to Tuolumne Soda Springs and then made their way back to Mariposa by way of the old Mono Trail that passed south of Yosemite Valley.
Upon arrival at Mariposa they exhibited samples of their ore discoveries. This created the usual excitement, and Lee Vining with a party of companions hastened to visit the region to prospect for gold. Leevining Canyon, through which the Tioga Road now passes, was named for the leader of this party.
Tenaya and his refugee band remained with the Mono Indians until late in the summer of 1853, when they again ventured into their old haunts in the Yosemite Valley. Shortly after they had reëstablished themselves in their old home, a party of young Yosemites made a raid on the camp of their former hosts and stole a band of horses which the Monos had recently driven up from southern California. The thieves brought the animals to Yosemite by a very roundabout route through a pass at the head of the San Joaquin, hoping by this means to escape detection. However, the Monos at once discovered the ruse and organized a war party to wreak vengeance upon their ungrateful guests. Surprising the Yosemites while they were feasting 47 gluttonously upon the stolen horses, they almost annihilated Tenaya’s band with stones before a rally could be effected. Eight of the Yosemite braves escaped the slaughter and fled down the Merced Canyon. The old men and women who escaped death were given their liberty, but the young women and children were made captive and taken to Mono Lake.
The story of this last act in the elimination of the troublesome Yosemites was made known to Bunnell by surviving members of the tribe.
In 1928, when I talked with Maria, a member of the original Yosemite tribe, her version of the massacre differed widely from the story told by Bunnell. Through her daughter she stoutly assured me that no Indians died in Yosemite Valley except those killed by whites and those who were ill. I asked her how Tenaya died and where. She explained that while the Yosemites were at Mono Lake they engaged in hand games with the Monos. These games are stirring affairs among the Indians. A. L. Kroeber states, “It is impossible to have seen a California Indian warmed to his work in this game when played for stakes—provided its aim and method are understood—and any longer justly to designate him mentally sluggish and emotionally apathetic, as is the wont. It is a game in which not sticks and luck, but the tensest of wills, the keenest perceptions and the supplest of muscular responses are matched.... Seen in this light, the contortions, gesticulations, noises, and excitement of the native are not the mere uncontrolledness of an overgrown child, but the outward reflexes of a powerfully surcharged intensity.”
According to Maria, it was in the heat of such a game that a quarrel developed between Tenaya and his Mono allies. In the fight that followed, Tenaya and five of his Yosemite braves were stoned to death. At least, this stoning feature agrees with former accounts of the killing. Horse stealing and a gluttonous feast in Yosemite Valley do not figure in Maria’s story. She insists 48 that Tom “Hutchings,” the Yosemite Indian befriended by J. M. Hutchings, attended to the burning of the bodies and packed the charred remains upon his own back from Mono Lake to Hites Cove. There a great “cry” was held for two weeks; the remaining Yosemite Indians and all their friends bewailed the loss of Chief Tenaya and the four tribesmen.
A number of parties of miners, emboldened by the news of the disbanding of the Yosemites, visited the valley in the fall of 1853. During 1854 no white men are known to have entered Yosemite Valley.
By 1855 several accounts written by members of the three punitive expeditions that had entered Yosemite had been published in San Francisco papers. The difficulties of overcoming hostile Indians in the search for gold were far more prominent in the minds of these writers than the scenic wonders of the new-found valley. Nevertheless, the mention of a thousand-foot waterfall in one of these published letters awakened James M. Hutchings, then publishing the California Magazine, to the possibilities that Yosemite presented. Hutchings organized the first tourist party in June, 1855, and with two of the original Yosemites as guides proceeded from Mariposa over the old Indian trail via Wawona and Inspiration Point to the valley. Thomas Ayres, an artist, was a member of the party and during this visit he made the first sketches ever made in Yosemite. Ten of these original pencil drawings are now preserved in the Yosemite Museum.
In 1853, James Alden, then a commander in the United States Navy, came to California on a commission to settle the boundary between Mexico and California. He remained until 1860. Some time between 1856 and 1860 he visited Yosemite Valley. Probably on his return to San Francisco he came upon Ayres’s work, which appealed to him as the best mementos of his Yosemite experience, and he procured ten originals and one lithograph. Mrs. Ernest W. Bowditch, Mrs. C. W. Hubbard, 49 and Mrs. A. H. Eustis, descendants of Admiral Alden and heirs to these priceless drawings, have presented them to the Yosemite Museum, which stands near the spot where some of them were made.
In the years that have elapsed since these drawings were created, they have journeyed on pack mules, sailed the seas in old United States men-of-war, jolted about in covered wagons, and at last made a transcontinental journey to come again to the valley that gave them birth.
Hutchings and his first sight-seers “spent five glorious days in luxurious scenic banqueting” in the newly discovered valley and then followed their Indian guides over the return trail to Mariposa. Upon their arrival in that mountain city, they were besieged with eager questioners, among whom was L. A. Holmes, the editor of the Mariposa Gazette, which had recently been established. Mr. Holmes begged that his paper be given opportunity to publish the first account from the pen of Mr. Hutchings. His request was complied with, and in the Gazette of July 12, 1855, appears the first printed description of Yosemite Valley, prepared by one uninfluenced by Indian troubles or gold fever.
Journalists the country over copied the description, and so started the Hutchings Yosemite publicity, which was to continue through a period of forty-seven years. Parties from Mariposa and other mining camps, and from San Francisco, interested by Hutchings’ oral and printed accounts, organized, secured the same Indian guides, and inaugurated tourist travel to the Yosemite wonder spot.
Milton and Houston Mann, who had accompanied one of these sight-seeing expeditions, were so imbued with the possibilities of serving the hordes of visitors soon to come that they set to work immediately to construct a horse toll trail from the South Fork of the Merced to the Yosemite Valley. Galen Clark, who also had been a member of one of the 1855 parties, was prompted to establish a camp on the South Fork where 51 travelers could be accommodated. This camp was situated on the Mann Brothers’ Trail and later became known as Clark’s Station. It is known as Wawona now. The Mann brothers finished their trail in 1856.
Old Indian trails were followed by much of the Mariposa-Yosemite Valley route. The toll was collected at White and Hatch’s, approximately twelve miles from Mariposa. At Clark’s Station (Wawona), the trail detached itself from the Indian route and ascended Alder Creek to its headwaters. Here it crossed to the Bridalveil Creek drainage and passed through several fine meadows, gradually ascending to the highest point on the route above Old Inspiration Point on the south rim of Yosemite Valley. From this point it dropped sharply to the floor of the valley near the foot of Bridalveil Fall. The present-day Alder Creek and Pohono trails traverse much of the old route.
Several years after the pioneer trail was built, sheep camps were established on two of the lush meadows through which it passed. They were known as Westfall’s and Ostrander’s. The rough shelters existing here were frequently used by tired travelers who preferred to make an overnight stop on the trail rather than exhaust themselves in completing the saddle trip to the valley in one day. Usually, however, Westfall’s or Ostrander’s were convenient lunch stops for the saddle parties.
In 1869, Charles Peregoy built a hotel, “The Mountain View House,” at what had been known as Westfall Meadow and with the help of his wife operated a much-praised hospice every summer until 1875, when the coming of the stage road between Wawona and Yosemite Valley did away with the greater part of the travel on the trail.
The Mann Brothers’ Trail, which was some fifty miles in length, was purchased by Mariposa County and made available to public use without charge before construction of the stage road from Mariposa had been completed.
In 1856, the year that witnessed the completion of the 52 Mariposa-Yosemite Valley Trail, L. H. Bunnell, George W. Coulter, and others united in the construction of the “Coulterville Free Trail.” Very little, if any, of this route followed existing Indian trails. The Coulterville Trail started at Bull Creek, to which point a wagon road already had been constructed, and passed through Deer Flat, Hazel Green, Crane Flat, and Tamarack Flat to the point now known as Gentry, and thence to the valley. Its total length was forty-eight miles, of which seventeen miles could be traveled in a carriage.
A second pioneer horse trail on the north side of the Merced began at the village of Big Oak Flat, six miles north of Coulterville, and followed a route north of the Coulterville Free Trail through Garrote to Harden’s Ranch on the South Fork of the Tuolumne River, thence to its junction with the Coulterville Trail between Crane Flat and Tamarack Flat.
Sections of all of these early routes passed over high terrain where deep snow persisted well into the spring. Early fall snow storms in these vicinities sometimes contributed to the hazards of travel. The trails found use during a relatively short season. The Merced Canyon offered opportunity to establish a route at lower elevation, but the difficulties of construction in the narrow gorge deterred all would-be builders until a short time prior to the wagon-road era. The Hite’s Cove route, which came into use in the early ’seventies, partly answered the need for a snow-free canyon trail. Hite’s Cove, where the John Hite Mine was located in 1861, is on the South Fork of the Merced some distance above its confluence with the Merced River. A wagon road eighteen miles in length made it accessible from Mariposa. Tourists using this route stopped overnight in Hite’s Cove and then traveled twenty miles in the saddle up the Merced Canyon to the valley.
Another means of reaching the valley on horseback via the Merced Canyon was developed soon after wagon roads had been built. Some Yosemite visitors, perhaps because of the poor 53 condition of the roads at certain seasons, elected to leave the Coulterville stage route at Dudley’s, from where they went to Jenkins Hill on the rim of the steep walls of the Merced gorge. Here a horse trail enabled them to descend to the bottom of the canyon, thence up the Merced to the valley. This thirty-mile saddle trip involved an overnight stop at Hennesey’s, situated a short distance below the present El Portal.
Travel in the saddle, of course, was regarded by the California pioneer with few qualms. Likewise, the conveyance of freight on the backs of mules was looked upon as commonplace, and the success attained by those early packers is, in this day and age, wonderful to contemplate. In Hutchings’ California Magazine for December, 1859, appears a most interesting essay on the business of packing as then practiced among the mountaineers of the gold camps.
Pack animals and packers have not yet passed from the Yosemite scene, for much of the back country is, and always will be, we hope, accessible by trail only. Government trail gangs are dependent for weeks at a time upon the supplies brought to them upon the backs of mules. Likewise, those who avail themselves of High Sierra Camp facilities are served by pack trains. Present-day packing differs in no essential way from the mode of the ’fifties, except that it is often done by Indians instead of the old-time Mexican mulatero.
What one visitor of the pre-wagon days thought of the saddle trip into Yosemite Valley may be gathered from J. H. Beadle in his Undeveloped West. Beadle visited the Sierra in 1871 and approached the valley from the north.
Thirty-seven miles from Garrote bring us to Tamarack Flat, the highest point on the road, the end of staging, and no wonder. The remaining five miles down into the valley must be made on horseback.
While transferring baggage—very little is allowed—to pack mules, the guide and driver amuse us with accounts of former tourists, 54 particularly of Anna Dickinson, who rode astride into the valley, and thereby demonstrated her right to vote, drink “cocktails,” bear arms, and work the roads, without regard to age, sex, or previous condition of servitude. They tell us with great glee of Olive Logan, who, when told she must ride thus into the valley, tried practising on the back of the coach seats, and when laughed at for her pains, took her revenge by savagely abusing everything on the road. When Mrs. Cady Stanton was here a few weeks since, she found it impossible to fit herself to the saddle, averring she had not been in one for thirty years. Our accomplished guide, Mr. F. A. Brightman, saddled seven different mules for her (she admits the fact in her report), and still she would not risk it, and “while the guides laughed behind their horses, and even the mules winked knowingly and shook their long ears comically, still she stood a spectacle for men and donkeys.” In vain the skillful Brightman assured her he had piloted five thousand persons down that fearful incline, and not an accident. She would not be persuaded, and walked the entire distance, equal to twenty miles on level ground. And shall this much-enduring woman still be denied a voice in the government of the country? Perish the thought. With all these anecdotes I began to feel nervous myself, for I am but an indifferent rider, and when I observed the careful strapping and saw that my horse was enveloped in a perfect network of girths, cruppers and circingles, I inquired diffidently, “Is there no danger that this horse will turn a somerset with me over some steep point?” “Oh, no, sir,” rejoined the cheerful Brightman, “he is bitterly opposed to it.”
We turn again to the left into a sort of stairway in the mountain side, and cautiously tread the stony defile downward; at places over loose boulders, at others around or over the points of shelving rock, where one false step would send horse and rider a mangled mass two thousand feet below, and more rarely over ground covered with bushes and grade moderate enough to afford a brief rest. It is impossible to repress fear. Every nerve is tense; the muscles involuntarily make ready for a spring, and even the bravest lean timorously toward the mountain side and away from the cliff, with foot loose in stirrup and eye alert, ready for a spring in case of peril. The thought is vain; should the horse go, the rider would infallibly go with him. And the poor brutes seem to fully realize their danger and ours, as with wary steps and tremulous ears, emitting almost human signs, with more than brute caution they deliberately place 55 one foot before the other, calculating seemingly at each step the desperate chances and intensely conscious of our mutual peril. Mutual danger creates mutual sympathy—everything animal, everything that can feel pain, is naturally cowardly—and while we feel a strange animal kinship with our horses, they seem to express a half-human earnestness to assure us that their interest is our interest, and their self-preservative instinct in full accord with our intellectual dread. We learn with wonder that of all the five thousand who have made this perilous passage not one has been injured—if injured be the word, for the only injury here would be certain death. One false step and we are gone bounding over rocks, ricocheting from cliffs, till all semblance of humanity is lost upon the flat rock below. Such a route would be impossible to any but those mountain-trained mustangs, to whom a broken stone staircase seems as safe as an ordinary macadamized road.
At length we reach a point where the most hardy generally dismount and walk—two hundred feet descent in five hundred feet progress. Indeed half the route will average the descent of an ordinary staircase. Then comes a passage of only moderate descent and terror, then another and more terrible stairway—a descent of four hundred feet in a thousand. I will not walk before and lead my horse, as does our guide, but trail my long rope halter and keep him before,—always careful to keep on the upper side of him, springing from rock to rock, and hugging the cliff with all the ardor of a young lover. For now I am scared. All pretense of pride is gone, and just the last thing I intend to risk is for that horse to stumble, and in falling strike me over that fearful cliff. At last comes a gentler slope, then a crystal spring, dense grove and grass-covered plat, and we are down into the valley. Gladly we take the stage, and are whirled along in the gathering twilight.
The vehicle that whirled Beadle over the flat of the valley floor was brought to Yosemite before roads were constructed and is now exhibited at the Yosemite Museum as “the first wagon in Yosemite Valley.”
The arrival of visitors prompted the building of shelters. The first habitation to be constructed by white men in Yosemite was a rough shack put up in 1855 by a party of surveyors, of which Bunnell was a member. A company had been organized 56 to bring water from the foot of the valley into the dry diggings of the Mariposa estate. It was supposed that a claim in the valley would doubly secure the water privileges.
The first permanent structure was built in 1856 by Walworth and Hite. It was constructed of pine boards that were rived out by hand, and occupied the site of the 1851 camp of Boling’s party (near the foot of the present Four-Mile Trail to Glacier Point). It was known as the Lower Hotel until 1869, when it was pulled down, and Black’s Hotel was constructed on the spot.
In the spring of 1857, Beardsley and Hite put up a canvas-covered house in the old village. The next year this was replaced by a wooden structure, the planks for which had been whipsawed by hand. J. M. Hutchings was again in the valley in 1859, and his California Magazine for December of that year tells of the first photographs to be made in Yosemite. C. L. Weed, a pioneer photographer apparently working for R. H. Vance, packed a great instrument and its bulky equipment through the mountains to the Yosemite scenes. Photography was just then taking its place in American life. Mr. Weed’s first Yosemite subject was this Upper Hotel of Beardsley and Hite. Hutchings and Weed decided on this occasion that they must visit the fall now called Illilouette, and Hutchings wrote:
The reader would have laughed could he have seen us ready for the start. Mr. Beardsley, who had volunteered to carry the camera, had it inverted and strapped at his back, when it looked more like an Italian “hurdy gurdy” than a photographic instrument, and he like the “grinder.” Another carried the stereoscopic instrument and the lunch; another, the plate-holders and gun, etcetera; and as the bushes had previously somewhat damaged our broadcloth unmentionables, we presented a very queer and picturesque appearance truly.
Hutchings published a woodcut made from the first photograph of the Yosemite hostelry in November of 1859; his book, 57 In the Heart of the Sierras, again alludes to his presence in the valley when this first photograph was taken. Naturally, students of California history have been interested in learning more about the work of Weed, but in spite of serious attempts to procure more information on this photographer of 1859, nothing was brought to light. It was then something of a thrill to me to find myself in possession of an original print from the earliest Yosemite negative. That the print is genuine seems to be a fact, and the incidents relative to its discovery are worth the telling here.
Its donor, Arthur Rosenblatt, resided as a small boy within a few blocks of the Hutchings San Francisco home on Pine Street. Mr. Rosenblatt and his brothers played with the Hutchings children. In 1880 the Hutchings home was destroyed by fire. The small boys of the neighborhood searched the debris for objects worth saving, and Irving and Wallace Rosenblatt salvaged a pack of large water-stained photographs. Arthur Rosenblatt with forethought mounted these pictures in an old scrapbook. He has cherished them through the years that have passed. In June, 1929, he visited the Yosemite Museum and was interested in the historical exhibits. In his study of the displayed materials, he came upon a photographic copy of the old drawing of the “Hutchings House,” which has been taken from In the Heart of the Sierras. He recognized its subject as identical with one of the old photographs which he had preserved since 1880. He made his find known to the park naturalist, and immediately phoned to his San Francisco home and requested that the scrapbook be mailed at once to the Yosemite Museum. Upon its receipt, the old hotel photograph was segregated from the others, and comparisons were made with the drawing in the old Hutchings book and with the building itself. The print is obviously from the original Weed negative.
Hutchings’ visit of 1859 apparently convinced him of the desirability of residing in Yosemite Valley. During the next few 58 years he spared no effort in making its wonders known to the world through his California Magazine. The spirited etchings of Yosemite wonders that were reproduced in the magazine from Weed’s photos and from Ayres’s drawings did much to convince travelers of the magnificence of Yosemite scenery. The stream of tourists who entered the valley grew apace in spite of the hardships to be endured on the long journey in the saddle. Horace Greeley was one of those who braved the discomforts in 1859 and gave his description of the place to hundreds of thousands in the East. Greeley, foolishly, determined to make the 57-mile saddle trip via the Mariposa route in one day. He arrived at the Upper Hotel in Yosemite Valley at 1:00 A.M., more dead than alive, yet shortly afterward he wrote, “I know no single wonder of Nature on earth which can claim a superiority over the Yosemite.” His visit was made at a season when Yosemite Falls contained but little water, and he dubbed them a “humbug,” but his hearty praise of the general wonders played a significant part in turning the interest of Easterners upon the new mecca of scenic beauty.
In 1864 J. M. Hutchings came to the Upper Hotel (Cedar Cottage) in the role of proprietor. The mirth and discomfiture engendered among Hutchings’ guests by the cheesecloth partitions between bedrooms prompted him to build a sawmill near the foot of Yosemite Falls in order to produce sufficient lumber to “hard finish” his hostelry. It was in this mill that John Muir found employment for a time. The hotel was embellished with lean-tos and porches, and an addition was constructed at the rear in which was completely enclosed the trunk of a large growing cedar tree. Hutchings built a great fireplace in this sitting room and proceeded to make the novel gathering place famous as the “Big Tree Room.”
A winter spent in the frigid shade of the south wall of Yosemite Valley convinced the Hutchings family that their “Big Tree Room” was not a pleasant winter habitation. They built anew 59 and moved into the warm sunshine of the north side of the valley. With their own hands members of the family constructed a snug cabin among giant black oaks near the foot of Yosemite Falls and there spent the remainder of their Yosemite days.
Papers, letters, and photographs relating to the Yosemite experiences of the Hutchings family have been preserved by J. M. Hutchings’ daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Hutchings Mills, and by the family of his wife, the Walkingtons of England. Materials generously donated from these sources take important places in the collections of the Yosemite Museum and have greatly aided in the preparation of this volume.
J. M. Hutchings invested heavily in the construction of the Sentinel group of buildings and continued to be identified with the Yosemite as publicity agent, hotel proprietor, resident, official guardian, and unofficial champion until 1902. In that year, he met his death on the zigzags of the Big Oak Flat Road. In the 1902 register of the hotel, which was once the Hutchings House, is the following entry made by Mrs. Hutchings, the second wife of J. M. Hutchings:
November 8, 1902
Today leaving Yo Semite and all I love best.
Emily A. Hutchings
Thinking that some who come here may wish to know a little about the sad tragedy of Mr. J. Hutchings’ death, I would like to write a few words.
Because I had never seen Yo Semite in the autumn, my dear husband brought me here for a short holiday, on our way to San Francisco. We started from the Calaveras Big Trees and came via Parrots Ferry, and its beautiful gorge—the wonderful old mining center of Columbia, and its hitherto only surface-skimmed Gold Fields—Sonora and its good approaches, in its oiled and well graded roads—and thence to Chaffee and Chamberlains and to Crockers and their hearty hospitality. It has been a very pleasant experience, to see many friends on the way—most of them honored “Old Timers,” who have been the thews and sinews of the State, and who still hold their own in the rugged strength, which has brought them through to 1902.
60From Crockers, we started on the last day of our journey [Oct. 31, 1902], continuing through the glorious Forests of the Sierras, the autumnal tints of which this year, have been of unusual grandeur—these beauties all being intensified in Yo Semite.
Coming down the Grade we were impressed beyond expression, and, when we reached the point where El Capitan first presents itself, my Husband said, “It is like Heaven.”
There was no apparent danger near but one of the horses took fright (probably a wild animal was at hand) and dashed away. When the Angel of Death reached Mr. Hutchings a few moments later—under the massive towering heights of that sun-illumined Cliff—“He” found him in the full vigour of life and high energetic purpose—but his grief-stricken wife prayed in vain that the ebbing tide would stay.
From the moment the sad accident was known, the greatest sympathy and kindness were shown, loving hands gave reverent aid—and on Sunday, Nov. 2, 1902, my dear husband was borne from the Big Tree Room and its time honored memories. The residents of the Valley and many of the Indians, who had long known him, followed. We laid him to rest, surrounded by nature in Her most glorious garb, and under the peaks and domes he had loved so well and had explored so fearlessly.
Emily A. Hutchings
Nov. 8, 1902
In 1941 and for several years thereafter, Yosemite Valley was visited by Cosie Hutchings Mills, daughter of J. M. Hutchings, born October 5, 1867, the second white child born in the valley. Elizabeth H. Godfrey, of the Yosemite Museum, obtained from Mrs. Mills both written and oral statements regarding the pioneer experiences of the Hutchings family in Yosemite. The interviews with Mrs. Mills were recorded by Mrs. Godfrey. Her manuscript, “Chronicles of Cosie Hutchings Mills,” and Mrs. Mills’ written reminiscences are preserved in the Yosemite Museum.
By C. L. Weed, 1859 First Yosemite Photograph—“Upper Hotel”
The Big Tree Room
By J. T. Boysen The Big Oak Flat Route
By J. T. Boysen The First Automobile—July, 1900
Early Yosemite Buses
Old Tioga Road
New Tioga Road
For twenty-three years after the coming of the first sightseers, Yosemite Valley was accessible only by horse trail. The twelve thousand tourists, who frantically clung to their Yosemite-bound steeds during this period, included many Easterners and Europeans not accustomed to mountain trails. They had departed surcharged with enthusiasm but sometimes were caustic in their expressions regarding their mode of conveyance and the crudity of the facilities found at their disposal both en route and in the valley. Not a few of the comments made by visitors found their way into print. Yosemite bibliography is not limited to items printed in English. The entire world sent representatives to the valley during that first period of travel, and foreign literature carried the story of Yosemite wonders quite as did American publications. The reader may form some opinion of what the printed word has done for Yosemite, if he will scan the titles which are given in the bibliography appended to this volume. In addition to these, of course, are hundreds of books and articles to which no reference has been made in the present work.
The merchants of the towns along the routes of approach, as well as the businessmen within the valley itself, felt the need of providing more adequately for the greater numbers that might be brought to their attractions. Foremost among the provisions, naturally, was the construction of wagon roads.
To Dr. John T. McLean, the president of the Coulterville and Yosemite Turnpike Company, belongs the honor of first making 62 the Yosemite Valley accessible to wheeled vehicles. The Coulterville Company was formed in 1859. It had extended its road to Crane Flat, and, at the insistence of Dr. McLean, arranged with the Yosemite commissioners to build and maintain a toll road to the floor of Yosemite Valley. The commissioners had agreed that this company should have exclusive rights on the north side of Yosemite Valley; that is, no other company was to build a road into the valley from the north for a period of ten years. Under this agreement, the Coulterville Road was projected in 1870 and completed to the Merced River in 1874. The following paragraph from a letter sent by Dr. McLean to the president of the Yosemite National Park Commission, 1899, gives interesting information on the discovery[5] of the Merced Grove of Big Trees, as well as a statement regarding the opening of the Coulterville Road:
While making a survey for this road a grove of big trees was discovered, its existence not having been previously known except to Indians before these explorations for the building of this road were prosecuted. It was determined to carry the road directly through this grove, which was named the Merced Grove by me because of its nearness to the Merced River. In order to carry the proposed road through this new-found grove of Sequoia gigantea it was necessary, in order to secure the best grades and shortest distances to Yosemite, to leave the road already built at Hazel Green instead of at Crane Flat six miles farther east. It was thought the greater length of road required to start from Hazel Green and build through the Merced Grove would be compensated by the advantage the road would have of passing through this grove of over 50 Sequoias on the way to Yosemite. The additional cost in construction of the road by reason of this new departure from Hazel Green instead of from Crane Flat was about $10,000. The work of construction was vigorously prosecuted, and on June 17, 1874, the Yosemite was first opened to travel by wheeled vehicles over this road, on that day a number of stage coaches and passenger and freight teams passing over it to the level of the valley.
The Big Oak Flat and Yosemite Turnpike Company applied to extend their road to Yosemite Valley after the commissioners had conveyed exclusive rights to the Coulterville Road. The commissioners refused to violate their agreement with McLean’s company, but the Big Oak Flat Company secured the passage of an act by the state legislature, which granted the privilege asked. In July, 1874, the Big Oak Flat Road was completed to the floor of Yosemite. Needless to say, this second road functioned to the everlasting detriment of the Coulterville route.
In the fall of 1874, Washburn, Chapman, Coffman and Company of Mariposa sought the right to extend their Mariposa Road to Yosemite Valley. The commissioners granted their request on the same terms as given to the Coulterville Company. On July 22, 1875, amid much celebrating, the Mariposa Road was completed to the valley floor.
The easier mode of travel introduced by this road construction, coupled with the increased publicity from the pen and brush of enthusiasts, made for a substantial increase in the number of Yosemite visitors. In keeping with this wagon-road building was the steady extension of the Central Pacific Railroad. Stockton, Modesto, Copperopolis, Berenda, Merced, and Madera were, in turn, the terminals. Seven routes to Yosemite made bids for the tourist travel. The Milton and Calaveras route permitted of railroad conveyance to Milton. Those who were induced to take the Berenda-Grants Springs route took the train to Raymond. The Madera-Fresno Flats route afforded railroad-coach transportation to Madera. The Modesto-Coulterville route meant leaving the rails at Modesto. The Merced-Coulterville route involved staging from Merced. The Mariposa route also required detraining at Merced, but the stage route followed took travelers through Hornitos and Mariposa. Those tourists who chose the Milton-Big Oak Flat route left the train at Copperopolis and traveled in 64 the stage to Chinese Camp, Priests, and into the valley on the Big Oak Flat Road. Dodgers, pamphlets, and guidebooks furnished by the competing towns and stage companies produced a confusion to say the least.
The conveyances were of two types. At the height of the season, when travel was heavy and roads dry, the Standard Concord Coach was employed. At other times, a vehicle commonly termed a “mud wagon” was put to use. During this era of horse-drawn vehicles, the trains of pack mules were, of course, replaced by great freight wagons. Today, in driving over the old wagon roads, one is led to wonder how passenger vehicles succeeded in passing the great freight outfits.
Some years ago, in searching through the objects left in a deserted house in the ghost town, Bodie, I came upon a manuscript describing staging as it was practiced in that famous mining camp. What the unknown author has to say about the business there applies to neighboring mountain regions, and is a reminder of a phase of life of the ’eighties.
The stage coach is to California what the modern express train is to Indiana, and people unaccustomed to mountain life can form but little conception of the vast amount of transportation carried on by means of coaches and freight wagons.
Even though California may truly be termed the “Eden” of America, yet there is not a county in the state but has more or less traffic for the stage coach, and in the northern and eastern part of the state, especially, there is an entire network of well-graded roads, resembling Eastern pikes. These roads are mostly owned by corporations and, consequently, are toll roads.
Over these are run the fast stages drawn by from two to ten large horses, and the great freight wagons drawn by from fourteen to twenty mules.
The stage lines have divisions, as do railroads, and at the end of each division there is a change of horses, thus giving the greatest possible means for quick conveyance. Over each line there are generally two stages per day, one each way. These carry passengers, mail, and all express traffic. At each town is a Wells Fargo 65 office, and business is carried on in a similar manner to that of railroad express offices. Telegraph lines are in use along the most important roads.
The stage lines have time cards similar to railroads, and in case a stage is a few minutes late, it causes as much anxiety as does the delay of an O. & M. express. A crowd is always waiting at the express office; some are there for business, others through some curiosity and to size up the passengers.
A stage from a mining town usually contains a bar of gold bullion worth $25,000, which is being shipped to the mint. Bullion is shipped from each mine once a month, but people always know when this precious metal is aboard by the appearance of a fat, burly officer perched beside the stage-driver, with two or three double-barreled shotguns. He, of course, is serving as a kind of scarecrow to the would-be stage robbers.
The average fare for riding on a stage is 15 cents per mile.
The manner in which freight is transported is quite odd, especially to a “Hoosier.” Wagons of the largest size are used. Some of these measure twelve feet from the ground to the top of the wagon bed; then bows and canvas are placed over this, making a total height of fifteen feet, at least. Usually three or four of these wagons are coupled together, like so many cars, and then drawn by from fourteen to twenty large mules. All these are handled by a single driver. A team of this kind travels, when heavily loaded, about fifteen miles per day, the same being spoken of always as the slow freight. In some mining districts, however, where business is flush, extra stages are put on for freight alone. These are termed the fast freights. This business involves a large capital, and persons engaged in it are known as forwarding companies. Even the freight or express on goods from New York is sometimes collected a hundred miles from any railroad, and so even to those living in the remote mountain regions, this is about as convenient, and they seem to enjoy life as well as if living in a railroad town.
The city of Bodie has its entire freight and passenger traffic carried as mentioned above. A short time ago its population was 10,000; there were three daily papers and free mail delivery, and all the improvements necessary to any modern town or city.
The prospect of a holdup always added to the thrill of staging. Yosemite literature is not replete with road agent episodes, 66 but highwaymen did occasionally appear along the routes to the valley. “Black Bart,” whose fame as a gentleman stage robber was world-wide during the early ’eighties, met his downfall in the Yosemite region on his twenty-eighth robbery.
Black Bart was a very unusual bandit. He took no human lives. In fact, he never fired a weapon in any of his exploits. He carried an unloaded shotgun and bluffed, successfully, twenty-seven times. His forays began in 1877, and his returns were such that he was enabled to reside in San Francisco as a respected and rather dapper citizen. His absence from the city on the occasions of his robberies was accounted for through his story of visiting mines in which he held interests. His desire to be well dressed and his penchant for clean linen proved his undoing. It was a laundry mark on a handkerchief which brought about his capture after his twenty-eighth robbery.
Not all the holdups along Yosemite roads took place in the distant past. D. J. Foley’s Yosemite Tourist for July 10, 1906, carries the following account of a robbery that brings the melodramatic influence of highwaymen into the very end of the period of stage coach days. It was entitled “Five Stages Held Up by the Lone Highwayman of the Chowchilla, An Event Full of Excitement and Interest,” and reads:
This is the story of a plain, ordinary “hold-up” of the Raymond-Wawona-Yosemite stages; and the time was Saturday afternoon at ten minutes of four. The place was about six miles this side of Ahwahnee, upon the side of the Chowchilla Mountain, about a mile and a half this side of where a similar, but less important, event took place last August.
The point, carefully selected by the bold robber was an ideal one. The road here is in the form of the letter S, flattened out, and he selected the upper part of the letter, about all of the other parts being visible.
The first stage was in charge of Will Palmer, one of the new drivers. Puffing and sweating, the team of four were rounding the turn in the road, when Walter Brode, who, with Mrs. F. J. House, 67 occupied the front seat, yelled: “Hold up!” For up the road a hundred or more feet away he saw the fellow jump out from behind some brush and, with his old 44 Winchester up to his shoulder, he was advancing toward them. And in tones, musical and soft but determined, he said:
“Throw out that box!”
The driver was not aware of the presence of the express box, but it was there and Mr. Seth Hart threw it out like a gentleman.
“Get out of that stage,” came the cool, determined command, supplemented with that ugly-looking 44.
And out they got.
Then he requested one of the ladies, Miss Bowen, to “pass the hat around,” which she did under protest.
The other stage was then about due and so he moved down the road a bit to a point where he could keep them well “covered,” and yet not be seen by the approaching stage. In the meantime all their hands were up, for that big “44” was pointed their way.
Around the turn came the second stage with “Josh” Wrenn as driver. No especial importance was attributed to the unusual sight, believing it to be a joke. But the illusion was quickly dispelled when out rang that soft and musical command: “Get out of the stage,” and out they got, the vicious-looking “44” being much in evidence. He lined them up with the others and then ordered a boy of about fifteen to “pass the hat around.” The boy was badly scared, and justly, too, and was about to comply with the request, when up spoke C. E. McStay, a well-known business man of Los Angeles, who very kindly offered to take the boy’s place. To this the robber consented, not suspecting the “job” that was so quickly put up on him. For “job” it was, and one, too, that saved the passengers many dollars and valuables. “I quickly thought of and settled this proposition,” said Mr. McStay. “If that boy passes the hat and searches us, for this is what he was ordered to do, he will not use any discretion, and we will all be heavy losers; whereas, if I can do that honor I shall take but little, unless I have to.” All this and more, too, was thought out by Mr. McStay in less time than it takes to write this, and so he acted at once, and to him is due the credit of the “buncoing” that followed; for this mild-mannered, soft-voiced Lone Highwayman of the Chowchilla was most thoroughly “buncoed” in this change of “hat passers,” and he suspected it even before the first stage was ordered to “move on.” But that’s another story.
68And so in the fullness of his nerve—it’s the real California-Los Angeles kind, too, Mr. McStay became the apparent Chief Assistant of the Lone Highwayman of the Chowchilla.
The third stage drove up in due time with the experience of the second stage duplicated. The fourth wagon had a load of ladies, and he did not order them to get out. Tho thus honored it was from this wagon that he secured most of his coin. The passengers of the fifth wagon “lined up” with the others. On this stage, in charge of the driver, Ed Gordon, was a sack, for the Sugar Pine Mills, with over $500 in it. From the zig-zag below they saw the crowd “lined up” and they, suspecting the cause, helped the driver to hide the sack under the cushion of the seat.
During the forty-year period which rightly may be considered as the stagecoach era, a combination of influences were at work. Politics sadly affected the management of the state grant (brought into existence in 1864), and sheep threatened the upper country not under the jurisdiction of the Yosemite commissioners. A national park came into existence which physically encompassed the state park and figuratively engulfed the state management.
Improvements grew apace. New hotels and public camp grounds were created; trails were built; the road system was improved and enlarged; electricity developed; and a climax reached with the construction of a railroad almost to the very gates of the valley. In 1907 the Yosemite Valley Railroad changed the entire aspect of stagecoach days by bringing its coaches to El Portal.
With the advent of this new transportation, the long stage ride was no longer necessary, but great fleets of horsedrawn vehicles were still employed to convey visitors from the railhead to Yosemite Valley. The various stage companies continued to operate, but except for the Big Tree routes, their traffic was greatly reduced. The Yosemite Valley Railroad menaced the business of staging, but a far more ominous threat had already appeared on the scene. Motor-driven vehicles were 69 proving to be a success. The automobile was introduced to Yosemite more than a decade prior to the time when its official entry was permitted by park regulations. The first car to climb the Yosemite grades was a Stanley Steamer, and its driver was A. E. Holmes of San Jose. In a letter to J. V. Lloyd, Mr. Holmes testifies as follows:
This trip was made in the month of July [1900] by way of Madera and Raymond in a Stanley Steamer car that was manufactured just outside of the city of Boston. I was accompanied on this trip by my brother, F. H. Holmes.
At that time Boysen took our photographs in the Valley; one at the foot of Yosemite Falls, and another near Mirror Lake.
The body that is shown in the photograph is not the original body that came with the car, but one that was made just for the trip into the Yosemite.
To what extent noisy automobiles were regarded as a menace may be sensed upon considering the following “Instruction” posted about the park and published with Rules and Regulations during the later years of the stagecoach era:
(4) Bicycles.—The greatest care must be exercised by persons using bicycles. On meeting a team the rider must stop and stand at side of road between the bicycle and the team—the outer side of the road if on a grade or curve. In passing a team from the rear, the rider should learn from the driver if his horses are liable to frighten, in which case the driver should halt, and the rider dismount and walk past, keeping between the bicycle and the team....
(9) Miscellaneous.—Automobiles and motor cycles are not permitted in the park.
What the railroad did to the stagecoach, the automobile, aided by storm, did to the railroad. On December 11, 1937, as a result of prolonged and heavy warm rains which melted the early snow cover at elevations as high as 10,000 feet, a flood developed in the basins of Yosemite and Tenaya creeks, and to a lesser degree in the other Yosemite watersheds. The notch at the top of Yosemite Falls was filled almost to the brim with 70 muddy water that was estimated to leap 150 feet away from the cliff at the top. In the valley itself Yosemite Creek was half a mile wide, and the Merced River overflowed its banks on a similar rampage. Flood scars were clearly visible in the chutes of the valley walls nine years later. In the Merced Canyon far below the valley several miles of both the All-Year Highway and the Yosemite Valley Railway were destroyed.
The expense of replacing miles of twisted rails and missing roadbed, the loss of passenger traffic to automobile travel, and finally the loss of freight revenue when the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company sold its major holdings, combined to put the railway out of business. In 1945, wrecking crews took up the track, and another pioneer railroad disappeared.
The influx of travelers even in the days of horse trails and the stagecoach brought a demand to know more of the valley and the region as a whole. Maps were needed, and the desires of travelers for dependable information brought survey parties into the park. The first of these, the Geological Survey of California, was in Yosemite in the years 1863-1867. Josiah Dwight Whitney was director of the survey, and William H. Brewer, his principal assistant. A guidebook based upon their investigations was published in 1868. Most of the mapping was done by Clarence King, Charles F. Hoffmann, and James T. Gardiner. King was later to become the first director of the United States Geological Survey and to write a dramatized account of his adventures in Yosemite and the Sierra as one of the important contributions to the literature of the range, Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. Later mountaineers have not always been able to find terrain hazards he described but they have enjoyed his story, admittedly written for an armchair audience, and have made due allowance for an aspect of greater severity that existed in the Sierra of his day.
A party of the Wheeler Survey, under George Montague Wheeler, in general charge of the Geographical Surveys west of the 100th Meridian, was in Yosemite in the late ’seventies and early ’eighties and in 1883 produced a large-scale topographic map of Yosemite Valley and vicinity. Lieut. M. M. Macomb was responsible for the Yosemite work.
During July and August, of 1890, Professor George Davidson 72 of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, together with his assistants, occupied the summit of Mount Conness for the purpose of closing a link in the main triangulation which connected with the transcontinental surveys.
Large instruments and much equipment had to be transported to the summit of the mountain by pack animals and upon the shoulders of men.
Astronomical observations were made at night, and during the daylight hours horizontal angles were measured on distant peaks in the Coast Ranges from which heliotropes were constantly showing toward Mount Conness. A small square wooden observatory, 8 by 8 feet, housed the 20-inch theodolite mounted upon a concrete pier. Sixteen twisted-wire cables fastened the observatory to the granite mountain top and kept it from being blown away.
The officers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey party under Professor Davidson were J. J. Gilbert, Isaac Winston, Fremont Morse, and Frank W. Edmonds.
As a result of his own travels and surveys in the region, J. N. LeConte prepared a map of the Sierra adjacent to Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy valleys, which was published by the Sierra Club in 1893, and army officers in charge of park administration did much important map making in the 1890’s. The United States Geological Survey began its mapping of the region embraced within the present park in 1891 and completed the surveys in 1909. R. B. Marshall and H. E. L. Feusier surveyed the Yosemite, Dardanelles, and Mount Lyell sheets; A. H. Sylvester and George R. Davis, the Bridgeport Quadrangle. Operating as they did with limited funds, their efforts spread over a vast territory, and confronted with a short season, they inevitably made some errors on their maps. In correct editions of these maps some ridges, lakes, and canyons have been moved, but today’s travelers may still find lakes and glaciers which are not on the map, and may find a few of these features on the map 73 but not on the ground. It is not the errors of Sierra mapmakers, however, but the measure of success they achieved, which is remarkable. In the higher reaches of the Sierra today it is extremely difficult to discover, after a particularly heavy winter, which snow field conceals a lake and which covers merely a meadow or an expanse of ice. Nor is the Sierra itself utterly static. At least two small lakes which formed behind dams of glacial moraine have disappeared recently when the dams were undermined.
Perhaps the ultimate in Yosemite mapping, from the geomorphologist’s point of view, is the Yosemite Valley Sheet, prepared by the United States Geological Survey in coöperation with the State of California. The map is of large scale, and the topography, the work of François E. Matthes, is extremely accurate, giving it something of the quality of a relief map on a plane surface. Even the overhangs of the cliffs are depicted. The 1946 edition of this sheet falls short in that detail has been lost through the overprinting of topographical shading.
Considered for their practical guidance to the user of Yosemite trails, the U. S. Geological Survey maps of the back country are most important. The 700-odd miles of maintained trails which make much of the park accessible to the hiker and rider appear upon these topographical maps in true relationship to the physical features through which they pass. A useful guidebook covering the routes in and around Yosemite Valley, as well as many of the park trails south of the Tuolumne River, is the Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley, by Virginia and Ansel Adams. In this volume road and trail diagrams are stylized to impart, simply and directly, information on distances, altitudes, and relative positions. Walter A. Starr, Jr.’s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region includes a section (Part I) on the trails of the Yosemite National Park region, and the map which accompanies it relates the high country trails to the road systems of both the east and west 74 slopes. This guide, published by the Sierra Club, is kept up-to-date through the production of frequent editions.
Before the story of trail building within the national park is presented, it is worthwhile to review briefly the history of the approach routes outside the present limits of the park—the trails followed by the Indian fighters and miners.
Most of the early routes of the white man across the Yosemite Sierra and out of the valley itself followed Indian trails. The discovery of arrow points and knife blades on the slopes of some of the higher Yosemite peaks indicates that the Miwok Indians entered the high, rough country in pursuit of game. Their regularly established trade with the Monos also is a matter of record. Indian Canyon and the Vernal and Nevada falls gorge of the Merced provided two much used routes out of the valley to the east, and the Old Inspiration Point-Wawona-Fresno Flats-Coarse Gold route gave access to the foothill country to the west. There were other ancient routes on the valley walls accessible to an able-bodied Indian; however, except in emergency they probably found little use.
Walker, west-bound in 1833, followed the Miwok-Mono trail on the divide between the Merced and Tuolumne watersheds, having reached this divide, in all likelihood, via the maze of canyons formed by the tributaries of the East Walker River and the feeder streams of the Tuolumne River. White men in pursuit of eastward-fleeing Indians in 1851 penetrated to the Tenaya Lake basin, and one party in 1852 crossed to the east side via Bloody Canyon, as already described. This party returned to the San Joaquin on a branch of the Mono Trail which crossed Cathedral Pass, thence into Little Yosemite Valley, Mono Meadows, Peregoy Meadows, and Wawona. In all these travels definite trails of the aborigines could be followed even though many parts of the routes were buried in snow.
In the foothill region west of the park ancient Indian paths enabled gold seekers to reach much of the terrain in which they were interested. Barrett and Gifford (1933, p. 128) report that a Mr. Woods discovered gold on Woods Creek near the present Jamestown, Tuolumne County, in June, 1848, several months before the general rush of miners into the territory of the Southern Miwok. In this locality Indian trails connected the several rancherias near the present town, Sonora, with similar Indian villages on the Merced. In the Tuolumne country, also, a primitive transmountain route gave access via Sonora Pass to the favored locality now known as Bridgeport Valley. The wagon road which was opened here very early in the gold-rush period followed closely the route of the Indians. That there were prehistoric lanes of travel in the high mountains which connected the Sonora Pass and Mono (Bloody Canyon) routes seems likely but no record of such north-south trails of the Indians has been handed down, other than the statements made by Walker and Leonard regarding their route from the Walker River country to the Tuolumne-Merced divide.
The country south of the Merced drainage system was popular, both with the Miwok and the Chukchansi, a group of the Yokuts Indians. Kroeber (1925, pp. 446, 481-482, 526) has recorded the distribution of ancient Miwok villages on the South Fork of the Merced, on Mariposa Creek, and on the Chowchilla and Fresno rivers. The primitive trails which connected these villages provided a network of lanes through the hills well known to J. D. Savage and his contemporary forty-niners who frequented the hills and stream courses north of the San Joaquin River. These Indian trails became the first routes followed by the miner and his pack outfits. A few were “improved” by their first white users to become fairly good horse trails and later some of them were transformed into wagon roads. Today the old routes are not easily distinguished from the more recent logging roads which lace back and forth everywhere 76 through the pine country south of the park, but the investigative motorist who will check against the maps made prior to the period of logging at the turn of the century may identify the old routes and follow them in exploring the country surrounding Wawona, Mariposa, Miami, Nipinnawasee, Hites Cove, Fish Camp, Bear Valley, Hornitos, and several other historic and prehistoric sites in the Mariposa region.
The Chukchansi, northernmost of the Yokuts, occupied the country south of the Fresno River and at times crossed that stream and overlapped upon the lands of the Miwok. Prior to the Yosemite Indian War with the whites, 1850-1852, they seem to have been on friendly terms with the Miwok. Chukchansi villages close to the border of Miwok territory existed at Fresno Flats (near the present Oakhurst, Madera County), Coarse Gold, Magnet, and on the San Joaquin near Hutchins. As was true of the Miwok villages, primitive trails connected these rancherias and extended into the country of the Chukaimina on the south and into the Mono territory to the east. In this part of the Sierra, the Monos claimed a goodly part of the west slope, including the present Bass Lake region and the higher country drained by the San Joaquin and Kings rivers. At the time of the Yosemite Indian War, these west-slope Piutes (Monos) were allied with the Chowchillas and Chukchansi. The intricate trail system of the densely populated belts, characterized by the Digger pine (Upper Sonoran Zone) and the oaks and ponderosa pine (Transition Zone), fed westward into major routes to the great San Joaquin Valley and eastward to high passes on the crest of the Sierra. Of these last-mentioned routes, those across Sonora Pass, Bond Pass, Buckeye Pass, Bloody Canyon, Agnew Pass, Mammoth Pass, Mono Pass (headwaters of the South Fork of the San Joaquin River), Pine Creek Pass, and Piute Pass were especially important to the Indians of the Yosemite region. At least some of these passes were traversed by horses before the advent of the white man.
By George Fiske On the First Trail to the Top of Vernal Fall
By Mode Wineman John Conway, a Pioneer Trail Builder
Mount Conness and the Observatory Camp
James T. Gardiner and Clarence King, early mappers
Professor Davidson (right) and the Conness Observatory
More than a few of the Indians of the Yosemite region had, prior to the gold rush, lived in the Spanish mission towns along the coast. Adam Johnston, Indian agent at the time of the Yosemite Indian War, stated of the Chowchilla and Chukchansi, “The most of them are wild, though they have among them many who have been educated at the missions, and who have fled from their real or supposed oppressors to the mountains. These speak the Spanish language as well as their native tongue.” (Russell, 1931, p. 172.) As might be expected, the mountain tribes maintained their long-established contact with the Indian population of the lower valleys, and numerous routes led from the rancherias of the hill tribes out upon the San Joaquin Valley and to the coast.
As we have seen, the first penetration of the Yosemite Valley by white men was the result of miners’ activities in the Mariposa hills. In reaching the hills and in entering the valley, the white prospectors of the gold-rush period followed well-defined trails long used by Indians. Within a few years after the close of hostilities with the Sierra tribes, the events described in the chapter on early mining excitements east of Yosemite took place. Here, also, the primitive paths of the Indian opened the way. The sheepherder, contemporary with the miner of the high country, also followed the trails of the Indian, and his flocks, together with the cattleman’s herds, did their part in “grading” the routes and making them conspicuous.
When Yosemite National Park was created in 1890, the U. S. Army took over the administration of the federal area which almost surrounded the state reservation. To aid patrolling in the park, a full program of exploration and mapping was launched. Capt. Alexander Rodgers, Col. Harry G. Benson, Major W. W. Forsyth, and Lts. N. F. McClure and Milton F. Davis made particularly important contribution to the work.
The existing fine system of trails so important to protection and enjoyment of Yosemite National Park had its inception in the plan of the U. S. Army. Almost at once after assuming responsibility for the care of the park, commanding officers initiated construction of trails, and at this juncture the location of primitive Indian trails was no longer a prime consideration in defining routes. The story of trail building by the U. S. Army will be told in a later part of this chapter.
It was inevitable that in the exploration for trails and passes, certain peaks should be climbed. The first recorded ascents of Yosemite’s peaks are attributed to members of the various survey parties. Perhaps the first was the ascent of Mount Hoffmann in 1863 by Whitney, Brewer, and Hoffmann. King climbed it in 1864 and with Gardiner climbed Mount Conness that same year, following with an ascent of Mount Clark, not without adventure, in 1866. Muir climbed Mounts Dana and Hoffmann, and far more difficult Cathedral Peak, three years later. Probably the first Yosemite ascent for the challenge of it by a casual tourist was that of Mount Lyell, highest peak in the park, in 1871. According to Hutchings:
Members of the State Geological Survey Corps having considered it impossible to reach the summit of this lofty peak, the writer was astonished to learn from Mr. A. T. Tileston [John Boies Tileston] of Boston, after his return to the Valley from a jaunt of health and pleasure in the High Sierra, that he had personally proven it to be possible by making the ascent. Incredible as it seemed at the time, three of us found Mr. Tileston’s card upon it some ten days afterward.
Mr. Tileston, writing to his wife from Clark and Moore’s after the climb on Mount Lyell, explained that he ascended nearly to the snow line on August 28, 1871, and next morning “climbed the mountain and reached the top of the highest pinnacle (‘inaccessible, according to the State Geological Survey’) before eight.” (Tileston, 1922, pp. 89-90.)
John Muir reached the summit of Mount Lyell later that year. Muir undoubtedly climbed in part as a response to the challenge of summits but could hardly be considered a casual tourist.
Four years later another summit, of which Whitney had said, it “never has been, and never will be trodden by human foot,” was ascended by a man climbing merely for the fun of it. In 1875, George G. Anderson, continuing where John Conway, a valley resident, had been stopped by difficulty and danger, tackled the climb of Half Dome with ideas of his own. According to Muir:
Anderson began with Conway’s old rope, which had been left in place, and resolutely drilled his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five or six feet apart, and making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to climb a few feet without the rope, which he would pass and begin drilling again, and thus the whole work was accomplished in less than a week.
Anderson’s climb was the beginning of a search for routes to prominent heights in Yosemite that continues today. The fame of Yosemite’s wonders was spreading through the world, and the advent of stage roads brought a multitude of visitors who preferred to see the region without having to drill to do so. It was imperative that officials in charge of the state reservation improve and multiply the faint Indian trails in order that eager visitors might reach the valley rim and the High Sierra beyond.
Because appropriations made by the state legislature for the use of the Yosemite Valley Commission were too small to enable that executive body to undertake a program of trail building, toll privileges were granted to certain responsible individuals in return for the construction of some of the much-needed trails. Albert Snow, John Conway, James McCauley, 80 Washburn and McCready, and James Hutchings were prominent in this contractual arrangement with the Yosemite commissioners.
Two trails antedate the regime of the Yosemite Valley Commissioners—the trail to Mirror Lake and the Vernal Fall Trail. No record exists identifying the builders of these pioneer trails. Albert Snow, 1870, built a horse trail from “Register Rock” on the Vernal Fall Trail, via Clark Point, to his “La Casa Nevada” on the flat between Vernal and Nevada falls. In 1871, John Conway, working for McCauley, started construction of the Four Mile Trail from the base of Sentinel Rock to Glacier Point. The project was completed in 1872. The old Mono Trail of the Indians between Little Yosemite and Glacier Point was followed by Washburn and McCready when they constructed their toll route here in 1872. In 1874, James Hutchings met the cost of a horse trail up Indian Canyon, which by 1877 already had fallen into such disrepair as to make it accessible only to hikers. The disintegration progressed rapidly, and the “improved” aboriginal route to the north rim found use during a comparatively few years of Yosemite tourist travel. Geographically and topographically it has much to commend it; in the current master plan of Yosemite National Park it is carried as the trail proposal calculated “to provide the best all-year access to the upper country on the north side of the valley.” Early action is expected which will place it on the map again. The Yosemite Falls Trail, started by John Conway in 1873 and completed to the north rim in 1877, was carried by its builder and owner still higher to the summit of Eagle Peak, highest of the Three Brothers. John Conway’s homemade surveying instruments used in trail building are preserved in the Yosemite Museum.
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Present-day Trail Work—Oiling the Eleven-Mile Trail
Gabriel Sovulewski in 1897
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Mount Maclure and Its Glacier
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Measuring the Mount Lyell Glacier
By 1882 the State Legislature initiated a program of purchasing and maintaining the Yosemite trails which had been privately built and operated on a toll basis. The Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point was first on the docket. A number of the other toll trails reverted to the state at this time through the expiration of leases. In 1886 rights to all remaining trails and to those portions of the Coulterville and Big Oak Flat roads within the boundary of the Yosemite Grant were purchased by the state and made free to the public.
At the time Yosemite National Park was established a great part of the northern section of the reservation was quite unknown except to cattlemen, sheepmen, and a few prospectors and trappers. As previously mentioned, the U. S. Army officers responsible for the administration of the national park at this time opened a new era in High Sierra trail development. From 1891 to 1914 a succession of officers, with a number of troops of cavalry, worked with diligence and with great ingenuity in locating trails, in contracting for their construction, and in counteracting the forces of exploiters who looked upon this great mountain domain as their own. At that time the back country trails were limited to the Tioga Road, which had deteriorated to the status of a horse trail; a trail along the southern boundary from Wawona to Crescent and Johnson lakes and Chiquito Pass, thence to Devils Postpile; the old Indian route from Wawona to Tuolumne Meadows via Cathedral Pass; two trails to Hetch Hetchy and Lake Eleanor from Hog Ranch, near the present Mather Ranger Station; and a trail from Tuolumne Meadows to Mount Conness. This dearth of marked routes was corrected quickly. Regular patrol routes for protective purposes were established, and the soldiers located, marked, and supervised the construction of the trails needed in policing the area. The large “T” blazed on the trees along the routes of the cavalrymen remain as evidences of the Army’s activities and are still familiar signs in much of the Yosemite back country.
By the time of the return of the Yosemite Grant and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to Federal administration in 82 1906, the Army had worked wonders in providing a system of trails. C. Frank Brockman (1943, p. 96) summarizes the story as follows:
The original trail system of 1891 had been extended to include a trail up Little Yosemite Valley to Merced Lake, Vogelsang Pass and thence down Rafferty Creek to Tuolumne Meadows, a route that is familiar to all High Sierra hikers of the present day. The Isberg Pass trail to the east boundary of the park had been marked and Fernandez Pass, farther to the south, had also been rendered accessible by a trail that branched from the original trail along the southern boundary. The present trail from Tuolumne Meadows up the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne to Donohue Pass also dates from this period. From Tuolumne Meadows a trail also reached out into the remote northern portion of the park to the vicinity of Glen Aulin, thence up Alkali Creek to Cold, Virginia, and Matterhorn canyons. From the latter point this route continued westward to Smedberg Lake, down Rogers Canyon, eventually passing through Pleasant Valley and over Rancheria Mountain to Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Ten Lakes area was accessible by means of a trail originating on the Tioga Road near White Wolf, and from Hetch Hetchy Valley trails radiated to Tiltill Mountain, Miguel Meadow, Lake Eleanor, Vernon Lake, and up Moraine Ridge to a point near what is today known as the “Golden Stairs,” overlooking the lower portion of Jack Main Canyon. A route approximating the present Forsythe trail from Little Yosemite around the southern shoulder of Clouds Rest to Tenaya Lake had been established, and from Tenaya Lake the point now known as Glen Aulin could be reached by the McGee Lake trail. The routes taken by these early trails were essentially the same as those of the present day and points mentioned will be familiar to all who enjoy roaming about the Yosemite back country.
When the National Park Service came into existence in 1916, the broad design of the trail system was essentially as it is at present. The more important trails constructed during the last years of Army administration and in the first years of the National Park Service regime include the Tenaya zigzags built in 1911; the Glen Aulin-Pate Valley route, 1917-1925; the 83 Babcock Lake Trail; the Yosemite Creek-Ten Lakes Trail; the Ledge Trail to Glacier Point, 1918; the Harden Lake-Pate Valley Trail, 1919; Pate Valley-Pleasant Valley Trail, 1920; and the Ottoway Lakes-Washburn Lake Trail in 1941.
Gabriel Sovulewski, who for more than thirty years supervised the construction of Yosemite trails, once outlined for me the amazing story of the evolution of the trail system from Indian routes and sheep trails (Sovulewski, 1928, pp. 25-28). Mr. Sovulewski stated, “Most of these improvements were made on my suggestion, and sometimes at my insistence, yet it is necessary to bear in mind that the credit is not all due to me, even though I did work hard. I share the credit with all superintendents under whom I have served. They gave me freedom to do the work which I have enjoyed immensely.”
Col. H. C. Benson, one of the superintendents referred to by Mr. Sovulewski, wrote in 1924:
The successful working out of the trails and the continuation of developing them is due largely to the loyalty and hard work of Mr. Gabriel Sovulewski. Too much credit can not be given to this man for the development of Yosemite National Park. (Brockman, 1943, p. 102.)
A fitting climax to the High Sierra trails in Yosemite National Park is found in that portion of the trail system which has been designated the John Muir Trail. Beginning at the LeConte Lodge in Yosemite Valley, this route follows the Merced River Trail to Little Yosemite, thence along the ancient Indian route over Cathedral Pass to Tuolumne Meadows, up the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne to Donohue Pass (where the trail leaves the national park), along the east slope to Island Pass, then back to the headwaters of westward-flowing streams to Devils Postpile and Reds Meadow on the San Joaquin, south to Mono Creek and other tributaries of the South Fork of the San Joaquin, into Kings Canyon National Park at Evolution Valley, 84 over Muir Pass to the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Kings, over Mather Pass in the South Fork of the Kings, over Pinchot Pass, Glen Pass, and into Sequoia National Park at Foresters Pass, thence south to Mount Whitney. At Whitney Pass the route descends the east slope until it connects with a spur of the El Camino Sierra at Whitney Portal above the town of Lone Pine. Along the route are 148 peaks more than 13,000 feet in height. The Sierra crest, itself, is more than 13,000 feet above the sea for eight and one-half miles adjacent to Mount Whitney. The trail traverses one of the most extensive areas yet remaining practically free from automobile roads.
In Sequoia National Park, the High Sierra Trail from Giant Forest to Mount Whitney enters the John Muir Trail on Wallace Creek, a tributary of the Kern. Thus does the John Muir Trail connect the national parks of the Sierra, traversing in some 260 miles most of the grandest regions of the High Sierra.
The National Park Service, the Forest Service, and the State of California have coöperated in making the John Muir Trail a reality. The phenomenal route had its inception during the 1914 Sierra Club Outing, when it was suggested to officers of the club that the State of California might well appropriate funds with which to develop trails in the High Sierra. Upon the death of John Muir, president of the club, appropriation bills were introduced for the purpose of creating a memorial trail. The first appropriation of $10,000 enabled the state engineer, Wilbur F. McClure, to explore a practical route along the crest of the Sierra from Yosemite to Mount Whitney. McClure made two trips into the Sierra and then conferred with the Sierra Club and officers of the U. S. Forest Service before designating the route. During the next twenty years several state appropriations were forthcoming, and the federal agencies most concerned, the Forest Service and the National Park Service, entered into the program of locating and building the trail. The earlier explorations of Muir, Solomons, LeConte, and 85 numerous state and federal survey parties contributed to the success of the undertaking. The maps of the Geological Survey greatly facilitated the work.
While Stephen T. Mather was still Assistant Secretary of the Interior and before the National Park Service was created, the “Mather Mountain Party of 1916” assembled in Yosemite Valley preparatory to an inspection of the John Muir Trail. This expedition received the support of the Geological Survey. Frank B. Ewing, at that time an employee of the Geological Survey, was chief guide and general manager. As an employee of the National Park Service, he has remained in Yosemite National Park ever since that early march along the John Muir Trail and has been a principal party to the National Park Service trail developments previously described. The section of the John Muir Trail in Yosemite National Park was born and has matured under Ewing’s personal supervision. Mr. Mather’s expedition of 1916 helped to crystallize ideas regarding the Muir Trail and established it in the official minds and master plans of the new National Park Service and the U. S. Forest Service. Robert Sterling Yard, a member of the Mather party and later editor for the new bureau, wrote a sparkling account of the expedition (Yard, 1918). The route at that time was the same within Yosemite National Park as it is today, but the physical condition of the trail has improved mightily. The Mather party traveled the John Muir Trail to Evolution Valley, beyond which the trail was described as impassable to horses. From there the party moved westward to the North Fork of the Kings, then south to the Tehipite Valley, Kanawyers on the South Fork, and yet further southward to the Giant Forest. Today the Giant Forest is more accessible from the John Muir Trail via the High Sierra Trail.
In promoting the development of the John Muir Trail and in fostering the use of High Sierra trails, generally, the Sierra Club has ever been preëminent among the advocates of mountaineering. 86 Among its members are many individuals who have contributed to the shaping of National Park Service policies. This club, which was organized about the same time that Yosemite National Park was created, defined its purposes: “To explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them; to enlist the support and coöperation of the people and the Government in preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada.” For nearly half a century the Sierra Club has centered its attention upon the security and well-being of the natural attributes of Yosemite and has worked to make those attributes known and appreciated. The national parks, national forests, and state parks, generally, have benefited greatly by the continuous interest of the club, and the trail and road systems of Yosemite National Park, especially, have received its study.
With the completion of an all-year highway into Yosemite Valley and the realignment of portions of the Big Oak Flat and Tioga roads, the accessibility of Yosemite National Park to the motorist reached its peak, and since that time serious thought has been given to modification of the road system. The Commonwealth Club, in a comprehensive report entitled, “Should We Stop Building New Roads into California’s High Mountains?” concluded that accessibility had already reached, if it had not passed, a desirable maximum, on the basis of a stand for the preservation of mountain wilderness values made by many Sportsmen’s organizations and the Sierra Club. The National Park Service gave consideration, in its Yosemite Master Plan, to the abandonment and obliteration of certain roads which were either superseded by highways or which could be relocated to reduce any detrimental effects upon the mountain landscape. Col. C. G. Thomson led in establishing this trend.
Studies were made by the park administration, the concessionaire, and various organizations outside of the park of means by which present-day visitors, who were now arriving by automobile in hurried throngs numbering as many as 30,000 persons on a single holiday week end, might enjoy the park to some degree at least in the manner that the pioneers had enjoyed it. Improvement of the trails, of outlying facilities, education in the means of trail travel, and the development of an all-season program that would help to spread the peak of travel into a plateau, were steps taken and which are being taken in the attempt to halt the tendency of the public to make of Yosemite Valley an urban “resort.”
High Sierra camps were developed, as described elsewhere in this book. They were visited by travelers afoot or in the saddle, and “foot-burners” and pack outfits visited the remote regions of the park, where no improvements upon nature are permitted other than those which a man can carry in—and carry back out again when he leaves. The numbers of people who are attracted to the back country have increased mightily, but the congestion of crowds in Yosemite Valley is still great. This fact in itself constitutes a reason for increasing the effort to introduce visitors to the wonders of the wild high country.
David R. Brower, an officer of the Sierra Club and an ardent proponent of rock-climbing as a sport, and an accomplished skier, has reviewed the development of these forms of recreation in Yosemite. He has kindly agreed to my use of the following portion of an enlightening account, most of which has not previously appeared in print:
“To a few people—fortunately, perhaps, a very few—even a trail detracts a little from the feeling of ‘roughing it.’ Too clearly, the foot of man, or of mule, has trod there before them. Consequently, those who would get especially close to nature have become skilled in woodcraft so as to take care of themselves and have then struck off not only from the highways 88 and roads, but also from the horse trails and footpaths. Muir and Anderson were pioneers in this form of recreation. A few have carried on where they left off. Routes were found through trailless Tenaya Canyon to the high country above; Muir Gorge, in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, presented an obstacle where the waters of that river were confined in a narrow, vertical-walled box canyon, but it has proved not to be an obstacle to good swimmers in periods of low water. Muir discovered Fern Ledge and crossed it along the tremendous face of the Yosemite Falls cliff, until he was under the upper fall itself. Charles Michael, years later, and William Kat, to this day, followed Muir’s footsteps and made new ones of their own on other Yosemite byways, such as the Gunsight to the top of Bridalveil Fall, Mount Starr King, the Lower Brother. For the most part these men, and others of similar bent, climbed alone. Michael was almost to regret it when, on an ascent of Piute Point, he fell a few feet, broke his leg, and was just able to drag himself back to the valley—to climb again when the break had knitted.
“These pioneers of the byways were limited, not by lack of enterprise, but by lack of modern equipment and the technique for its use; both of these required assets came to Yosemite in 1933. A year before that a Rock-Climbing Section was formed in the Sierra Club, and its members brought Alpine technique, which they had practiced and improved in local metropolitan rock parks, to Yosemite. Skillfully using rope and piton technique, and developing their balance climbing to a point where they are able to ascend Half Dome without recourse to any artificial aids, much less cableways, members of this and similar sections, men and women alike, have pioneered many new routes on the valley walls, some extremely difficult. The present total of routes to the rim, exclusive of the trails, is forty-five. Spires and pinnacles not accessible by other means were especially challenging. The higher and lower Cathedral Spires were climbed in 1934 by the party of Jules M. Eichorn, Richard M. Leonard, and Bestor Robinson. The routes for this and other climbs are described in the Yosemite Valley section of a comprehensive ‘Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra,’ being published serially by the Sierra Club.
By D. R. Brower Ski Mountaineering Party near Mount Starr King
By D. R. Brower Climbing on the Three Brothers
By R. M. Leonard Descending Lower Cathedral Spire
“Construed at present as the ultimate in technical rock-climbing was the ascent, September 2, 1946, of the Lost Arrow by the party of Jack Arnold, Robin Hansen, Fritz Lippmann, and Anton Nelson. The party used more than a thousand feet of rope and many pounds of mountaineer’s hardware. They first managed to throw a light line over the summit. Two men remained in support at the rim. The other two went down a rope to the notch separating the pinnacle from the valley wall, and with expert technique were able to climb 100 feet of the rock’s outer face, nearly 3,000 sheer feet above the valley floor, until they could reach the lower end of the line. With this they pulled rope over the summit. Another 100 feet of climbing on that rope, with help from the men on the rim, brought them to the top on the evening of the third day. On the crowded, rounded summit they drilled small holes for two expansion bolts, anchored ropes to them, and in the moonlight worked across the gap to the rim on the airy, swinging ropes.
“Needless to say, such climbs as this should not be undertaken without the necessary background of experience. Foolhardy attempts by the overoptimistic to take short cuts or cross-country routes into unknown hazards all too often result in arduous and dangerous rescue operations by park rangers. The National Park Service requires, in Yosemite and in other ‘mountaineering’ parks, that persons desiring to climb off the trail register first at park headquarters, where, as a matter of the visitor’s own protection, he can be advised whether he has the adequate equipment or skill for his proposed undertaking, and where he announces his destination so that rangers will know where to look for him in case of trouble.
“If trails or cross-country routes have afforded the summer visitor a fuller knowledge of Yosemite National Park and its hidden wild places, certainly the improvement of access to various park areas in winter has also increased the enjoyment of the superlative scenery for which Yosemite was set aside as a national park in the first place.
“In the first days of winter sports in Yosemite, snowballing, tobogganing, skating, and sliding down small hills on toe-strapped skis was enough for the winter visitor. Snow, to Californians at least, was novelty enough in itself. But the surge of interest in skiing as a sport of skill that arrived after World War I, the resulting vast improvement in ski equipment and apparel, and the winter accessibility brought about by use of snow-removal equipment, inevitably stimulated skiers to demand greatly improved facilities for skiing. The National Park Service, required by law to be custodians of outstanding scenic resources for all the people, in all seasons, for present and future enjoyment, very properly ‘made haste slowly.’ Other areas, administered by agencies whose obligations were less exacting, developed facilities far more rapidly, and the pressure on the National Park Service, in Yosemite and elsewhere, was greatly increased.
“Ski development in Yosemite involved serious scenic, economic, and geographic considerations. The development should not damage the scenic values for which the park was created. It should, nevertheless, be so situated that the skier could enjoy that scenery without going far beyond the areas in which utilities were available; otherwise, the facilities would be used primarily by persons who wanted only to ski and not to enjoy the Yosemite scene. Such persons could be better accommodated elsewhere. The area developed for skiing should not be so close to the valley rim as to be dangerous. From the concessionaire’s standpoint, the development should make use of, and not duplicate, hotel facilities already available; otherwise, 91 it would not be worth the financial risk. Where the Park Service was concerned, economically, it should be close enough to the valley not to require excessive road maintenance and snow removal and should not be too difficult to administer, for the Park Service, after all, could only spend what Congress appropriated in the annual budget. As for the man who skied in Yosemite for the sake of skiing, his wants were simple. In the aggregate, he wanted high and low cost accommodations built at an elevation where the best snow lay the longest and the slopes were most open; he wanted satisfactory uphill transportation to enable him to spend most of his time and energy sliding down; he wanted cleared runs and marked trails, outlying huts for touring, and excellent ski instruction patterned after the best European ski schools. He wanted ski competition scheduled, and long courses on which to race. He, moreover, wanted all this in a quantity that would take care of four thousand or more skiers on a week end, without overcrowding the facilities or overburdening his purse.
“What could the National Park Service do? The development at Badger Pass was the result. The ski house, upski, rope tows, Constam lift, the runs of various types, the ski school, the cleared roads and parking area, the ranger ski patrol, the marked touring trails, and the touring hut at Ostrander Lake are all part of a development that is compatible with the national park concept. Improvements will inevitably follow. In the development so far, full enjoyment has been provided for the tens of thousands of skiers who, although they like improvements, would still prefer that the administrators of the national parks continue to make haste slowly in any attempt to improve upon the natural scene.”
The early public interest manifested in the scenic beauties of Yosemite prompted a few far-sighted local men of the mountains to prepare for the influx of travelers that they felt was bound to occur. J. M. Hutchings had no more than related his experiences of his first visit in 1855 before Milton and Huston Mann undertook the improvement of the old Mariposa Indian trail leading to the valley. The next year Bunnell developed a trail from the north side of the gorge. The first visitors were from the camps of the Southern Mines, chiefly, but there were a few from San Francisco and interior towns, as well. During those first years of travel the few visitors expected to “rough it”; they were men and women accustomed to the wilds, and comforts were hardly required. Yet those pioneer hotelkeepers who had provided crude shelters found that their establishments were patronized. Hotelkeeping takes a place very near the beginning of the Yosemite story.
The valley was then public domain. Although unsurveyed, it was generally conceded that homesteads within it might be claimed by whosoever persevered in establishing rights. The prospect of great activity in developing Frémont’s “Mariposa Estate” caused certain citizens of Mariposa to turn their attention to Yosemite Valley as the source of a much-needed water supply. Bunnell reveals that commercial interests had designs upon the valley as early as 1855. A survey of the valley and the canyon below was made in that year by L. H. Bunnell and George K. Peterson with the idea of making a reservoir.
The Cosmopolitan, 1870-1932
The Lower Hotel, 1856-1869
The first house to be constructed there was built in 1856 by the company interested in this water project. Bunnell states: “It was of white cedar ‘puncheons,’ plank split out of logs. The builders of it supposed that a claim in the valley would doubly secure the water privileges. We made this building our headquarters, covering the roof with our tents.”
The first permanent hotel structure was also started that year. It became known as the “Lower Hotel.” During the next decade it and the Upper Hotel found no competitors. At the close of the ’sixties, however, the hotel business of Yosemite Valley flashed rather prominently in the commerce of the state.
A volume might be written on the efforts of honest proprietors to serve the early tourist; on the scheming of less scrupulous claimants to capitalize on their Yosemite holdings; on the humorous reaction of unsuspecting visitors within the early hostelries; and, finally, on the story of later-day developments which now care for the throng that, annually, partakes of Yosemite offerings. The full history of Yosemite hotels is eminently worth the telling, but the present work will be content in pointing to interesting recorded incidents in the story.
Messrs. Walworth and Hite were the first to venture in serving the Yosemite public. Hite was a member of that family whose fortune was made from the golden treasure of a mine at Hite’s Cove. Walworth seems to have left no record of his affairs or connections. The partners selected a site opposite Yosemite Falls, very near the area that had been occupied by Captain Boling’s camp in 1851, and set up their hotel of planks split from pine logs. The building, started in 1856, was not completed until the next year, and in the meantime a second establishment was started near the present Sentinel Bridge, so the first became, quite naturally, the “Lower Hotel.” Cunningham 94 and Beardsley, the same Beardsley who packed Weed’s camera in 1859, elected to finish construction of the Lower Hotel, and they employed Mr. and Mrs. John H. Neal to run it for them. J. C. Holbrook, the first to preach a sermon in Yosemite, writes of his stop with Mrs. Neal in 1859: “I secured a bed, such as it was, for my wife, in a rough board shanty occupied by a family that had arrived a few days before to keep a sort of tavern, the woman being the only one within fifty or sixty miles of the place. For myself, a bed of shavings and a blanket under the branches of some trees formed my resting place.”
A London parson in his To San Francisco and Back, of the late ’sixties, offers the following description of his visit to this earliest of Yosemite hotels:
There are in it [the valley] two hotels, as they call themselves, but the accommodation is very rough. When G—— and I were shown to our bedroom the first night we found that it consisted of a quarter of a shed screened off by split planks, which rose about eight or ten feet from the ground, and enabled us to hear everything that went on in the other “rooms,” which were simply stalls in the same shed. Ours had no window, but we could see the stars through the roof. The door, opening out into the forest, was fastened with cow-hinges of skin with the hair on, and a little leather strap which hooked on to a nail. We boasted a rough, gaping floor, but several of the other bedrooms were only strewed with branches of arbor vitae. As a grizzly bear had lately been seen wandering about a few hundred yards from our “hotel,” we took the precaution of putting our revolvers under our pillows. I dare say this was needless as the bears have mostly retired to the upper part of the valley, a few miles off, but it gave a finish to our toilet which had the charm of novelty. Next morning, however, seeing the keeper of the ranch with his six-shooter in his hand, and noticing that it was heavily loaded, I asked him why he used so much powder. “Oh,” said he, “I’ve loaded it for bears.”
At first G—— and I were the only visitors at this house, but several were at the other one about half a mile off, and more were soon expected.
Cunningham, A. G. Black, P. Longhurst, and G. F. Leidig all took their turn at operating the crude establishment. It was under the management of Black when Clarence King arrived on his pioneer trip with the Geological Survey of California, and one Longhurst apparently even then anticipated future proprietorship by engaging in guiding its guests about the valley. King describes Longhurst as “a weather-beaten round-the-worlder, whose function in the party was to tell yarns, sing songs, and feed the inner man.” His account, in Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, continues:
We had chosen, as the head-quarters of the survey, two little cabins under the pine-trees near Black’s Hotel. [Black was then owner of the Lower Hotel.] They were central; they offered us a shelter; and from their doors, which opened almost upon the Merced itself, we obtained a most delightful sunrise view of the Yosemite.
Next morning, in spite of early outcries from Longhurst, and a warning solo of his performed with spoon and fry-pan, we lay in our comfortable blankets pretending to enjoy the effect of sunrise light upon the Yosemite cliff and fall, all of us unwilling to own that we were tired out and needed rest. Breakfast had waited an hour or more when we got a little weary of beds and yielded to the temptation of appetite.
A family of Indians, consisting of two huge girls and their parents, sat silently waiting for us to commence, and, after we had begun, watched every mouthful from the moment we got it successfully impaled upon the camp forks, a cloud darkening their faces as it disappeared forever down our throats.
But we quite lost our spectators when Longhurst came upon the boards as a flapjack-frier, a rôle to which he bent his whole intelligence, and with entire success. Scorning such vulgar accomplishment as turning the cake over in mid-air, he slung it boldly up, turning it three times, ostentatiously greasing the pan with a fine centrifugal movement, and catching the flapjack as it fluttered down, and spanked it upon the hot coals with a touch at once graceful and masterly.
I failed to enjoy these products, feeling as if I were breakfasting in sacrilege upon works of art. Not so our Indian friends, who 96 wrestled affectionately for frequent unfortunate cakes which would dodge Longhurst and fall into the ashes.
In 1869 A. G. Black tore down the Lower Hotel and on its site constructed the rambling building which became known as “Black’s.”
Prior to their interest in the Lower Hotel, S. M. Cunningham and Buck Beardsley had essayed to start a store and tent shelter on the later site of the Cedar Cottage. Cunningham, of later Big Tree fame, dropped this venture; so Beardsley united with G. Hite and in the fall of 1857 began the preparation of the timbers which made the frame of the Cedar Cottage. Mechanical sawmills had not yet been brought so far into the wilderness, and the partners whipsawed and hewed every plank, rafter, and joist in the building. It was ready for occupancy in May, 1859.
The proprietors of the Upper Hotel fared none too well in the returns forthcoming from guests. Ownership changed hands a number of times, and business dwindled to a point of absolute suspension. In 1864 it was possible for J. M. Hutchings to purchase the building and the land claim adjoining for a very nominal price. At this time the proposed state park was being widely talked of, and, as a matter of fact, Hutchings stepped into the ownership of the Upper Hotel property but a few months before the Yosemite Valley was removed from the public domain and granted to the state to be “inalienable for all time.” Mr. Hutchings was, and is to this day, sharply criticized by some citizens for his presumption in purchasing public lands that had not been officially surveyed. Whatever may have been his legal claim, it must be admitted that his was the moral right to expect compensation for the expenditure of thousands of dollars for physical improvements made upon his Yosemite property.
By George Fiske Mill Built by John Muir in 1869
Glacier Point Mountain House, 1878 to date
By Thomas Hill Sentinel Hotel (left background), 1867 to 1938
By D. R. Brower The Ahwahnee Hotel, 1927 to date
By Ansel Adams Saddle Trip on a High Sierra Trail
By Ansel Adams Merced Lake High Sierra Camp, 1916 to date
Hutchings brought his family to the Upper Hotel in 1864 and assumed a proprietorship that awakened lengthy comments from many of his journalistic guests. Being well educated, a great lover of nature, a journalist himself, and blessed with a generous share of sentiment, it can be understood why some of his guests felt that “there are better things which he could do better.” Testimonies agree that if he was not a huge success as a resort manager, his rich fund of information and hospitable enthusiasm more than compensated for his defects.
Charles Loring Brace visited Yosemite a few years after Hutchings became a local character there. He stopped at the Hutchings House and later wrote about his experience:
One of the jokes current in the Valley is to carefully warn the traveler, before coming to this hotel, “not to leave his bed-room door unlocked, as there are thieves about!” On retiring to his room for the night, he discovers to his amazement, that his door is a sheet, and his partition from the adjoining sleeping-chamber also a cotton cloth. The curtain-lectures and bed-room conversations conducted under these circumstances, it may be judged, are discreet. The house, however, is clean, and the table excellent; and Hutchings himself, enough of a character alone to make up for innumerable deficiencies. He is one of the original pioneers of the Valley, and at the same time is a man of considerable literary abilities, and a poet. He has written a very creditable guidebook on the Canyon. No one could have a finer appreciation of the points of beauty, and the most characteristic scenes of the Valley. He is a “Guide” in the highest sense, and loves the wonderful region which he shows yearly to strangers from every quarter of the world. But, unfortunately, he is also hotel-keeper, waiter, and cook—employments requiring a good deal of close, practical attention, as earthly life is arranged. Thus we come down, very hungry, to a delicious breakfast of fresh trout, venison, and great pans of garden strawberries; but, unfortunately, there are no knives and forks. A romantic young lady asks, in an unlucky moment, about the best point of view for the Yosemite Fall. “Madam, there is but one; you must get close to the Upper Fall, just above the mist of the lower, and there you will see a horizontal rainbow beneath your feet, and the most exquisite—”
Here a strong-minded lady, whose politeness is at an end, “But here, Hutchings, we have no knives and forks!” “Oh, beg a thousand pardons, madam!” and he rushes off; but meeting his wife on 98 the way, she gives him coffee for the English party, and he forgets us entirely, and we get up good-naturedly and search out the implements ourselves. Again, from an amiable lady, “Please, Mr. Hutchings, another cup of coffee!” “Certainly, Madam!” When the English lady from Calcutta asks him about some wild flowers, he goes off in a botanical and poetical disquisition, and in his abstraction brings the other lady, with great eagerness, a glass of water. Sometimes sugar is handed you instead of salt for the trout, or cold water is poured into your coffee; but none of the ladies mind, for our landlord is as handsome as he is obliging, and really full of information.
Maria Teresa Longworth, known as Therese Yelverton, Viscountess Avonmore, visited Yosemite in 1870, where she wrote Zanita: A Tale of the Yosemite, published in 1872. She made the Hutchings’ entourage a part of her melodrama, and Florence, eldest daughter of the Hutchingses, was the heroine, “Zanita.” John Muir, of whom in real life the Viscountess was enamored, was the hero, “Kenmuir.” A good analysis of Yelverton’s relationships, actual and fictional, with the Hutchings family and the other pioneer residents of the valley is contained in Linnie Marsh Wolfe’s great book, Son of the Wilderness.
Not all of the Hutchings House features were within its walls. J. D. Caton, who availed himself of the Hutchings hospitality in 1870, “walked over to the foot of the Yosemite Falls and lingered by the way to pick a market basket full of enormous strawberries in Hutchings’ garden.” One of the first acts of the homesteaders was to plant an orchard and cultivate the above-mentioned strawberry patch. The strawberries long ago disappeared, but many of the one hundred and fifty apple trees still thrive and provide fruit for permanent Yosemite residents.
During his regime of ownership, Hutchings added Rock Cottage, Oak Cottage, and River Cottage to his caravansary. In 1874 the state legislature appropriated $60,000 to extinguish all private claims in Yosemite Valley, and the Hutchings interests were adjudged to be entitled to $24,000.
Coulter and Murphy then became the proprietors of the old Hutchings group and in 1876 they built the Sentinel Hotel. Their period of management was brief, and the entire property passed to J. K. Barnard in 1877, who for seventeen years maintained it as the Yosemite Falls Hotel.[6] This unit among the pioneer hostelries was torn down in 1938-1940.
Galen Clark accompanied one of the 1855 Yosemite-bound parties that had been inspired by Hutchings, when that pioneer related his experiences in Mariposa. Upon his first trip to the valley over the old Indian trail from Mariposa, he recognized in the meadows on the South Fork of the Merced a most promising place of abode. His health had been impaired in the gold camps; he had, in fact, been told by a physician that he could live but a short time. The lovely vale of the Nuchu Indians offered solace, and in April of 1857 he settled there on the site of the camp occupied by the Mariposa Battalion in 1851. Nowhere in his writings does Clark intimate that he expected to be overtaken by early death at the time of his homesteading. Rather we may believe that it was with foresight and careful plan that he erected his cabin beside the new trail of the sight-seer and prepared to accommodate those saddle-weary pilgrims who mounted horses at Mariposa and made their first stop with him en route to the new mecca.
His first cabin was crude. A rough pine table surrounded by three-legged stools facilitated his homely service. As the number of visitors increased, Clark enlarged his ranch house. When ten years of his pioneer hotel keeping had passed, Charles Loring Brace was among his visitors. Brace writes:
After fourteen miles—an easy ride—we all reached Clark’s Ranch at a late hour, ready for supper and bed.
100This ranch is a long, rambling, low house, built under enormous sugar-pines, where travelers find excellent quarters and rest in their journey to the Valley. Clark himself is evidently a character; one of those men one frequently meets in California—the modern anchorite—a hater of civilization and a lover of the forest—handsome, thoughtful, interesting, and slovenly. In his cabin were some of the choicest modern books and scientific surveys; the walls were lined with beautiful photographs of the Yosemite; he knew more than any of his guests of the fauna, flora, and geology of the State; he conversed well on any subject, and was at once philosopher, savant, chambermaid, cook, and landlord.
From the scores of books written by early Yosemite visitors, one might extract a great compendium of remarks on Clark and his ranch. The proprietor, like the Grizzly Giant, was impressive. He was invariably remembered by his guests. They wrote of his generous hospitality, his simplicity, kindness, honesty, wit, wisdom, and unselfish devotion to the mountains he loved. Had they known, they might have written that he gave too freely of all his mental and physical assets and that as a businessman he was not a success. The season of 1870 found the ownership of his ranch divided with Edwin Moore.
Moore assumed general management, and Clark’s became known as “Clark and Moore’s.” The ladies of Moore’s family introduced a new element in the hospitality of the place, and for a few years it assumed an aspect of new ambition. Extensive improvements, however, resulted in foreclosure of mortgages, and the firm of Washburn, Coffman, and Chapman secured ownership in 1875 and changed the name to “Wawona.”
A. P. Vivian stopped at Wawona in January, 1878, and wrote:
Although still called a “ranche,” this establishment has long ceased to be mainly concerned with agriculture. Clark himself exists no longer, at any rate in this locality; that individual sold his interests some years ago to Messrs. Washburn, who “run the stage,” and are now the “bosses of the route” between this and Merced. The ranche is now a small but comfortable and roomy inn, and during the tourists’ season is filled to overflowing.
Besides having constructed the twenty-five miles of capital road hence into the Yosemite Valley, Messrs. Washburn are again showing their enterprise by making a road direct to Merced, the object of which is to save thirty miles over the present Mariposa route.
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Badger Pass Ski House
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Ski Patrol at Work
By D. R. Brower Winter in the Yosemite High Sierra: Clark Range
By Ralph Anderson, NPS Snow Gaugers Entering Tuolumne Meadows
The Yosemite Park and Curry Company now owns and operates Wawona. It has become one of the largest and most favorably known family resorts in the Sierra Nevada and retains some of the flavor of its earlier years.
A. G. Black was a pioneer of the Coulterville region. In the late ’fifties, he resided at Bull Creek on the Coulterville trail. Visitors who entered the valley from the north during the first years of tourist travel have left a few records of stops made at the “Black’s” of that place. The “Black’s” of Yosemite Valley did not come into existence until the advent of the ’sixties, when Mrs. Black is reported to have purchased the old Lower Hotel. In 1869 this first structure was torn down, and an elongated shedlike structure built on its site, near the foot of the present Four-Mile Trail to Glacier Point. This was the “Black’s” that for nineteen years served a goodly number of Yosemite tourists. In 1888, after the opening of the Stoneman House, there was among the commissioners “a unanimity of feeling that the old shanties and other architectural bric-a-brac, that had long done service for hotels and stables, and the like, should be torn down.” Black’s Hotel was accordingly removed in the fall of 1888, and the lumber from its sagging walls went into the construction of the “Kenneyville” property, which stood on the present site of the Ahwahnee Hotel.
The family of George F. Leidig arrived in Yosemite Valley in 1866. For a time the old Lower Hotel was in their charge, but, when its owner, A. G. Black, assumed its management personally, 102 the Leidigs secured rights to build for themselves. They selected a site just west of the old establishment and constructed a two-story building to become known as Leidig’s. This was in 1869. Charles T. Leidig, the first white boy to be born in the valley, was born in the spring of that year.
Mrs. Leidig’s ability as a cook was quickly noted by visitors, and, no doubt, the popularity of her table did much to draw patrons. Many are the printed comments in the contemporary publications of her guests. Here is an example:
Leidig’s is the best place in the line of hotels. Mrs. L—— attends to the cooking in person; the results are that the food is well cooked and intelligently served. There is not the variety to be obtained here as in places more accessible to market. After traveling a few months in California, a person is liable to think less of variety and more of quality. At this place the beds are cleanly and wholesome, although consisting of pulu mattresses placed upon slat bedsteads. This house stands in the shadow of Sentinel Rock, and faces the great Yosemite Fall; is surrounded with porches, making a pleasant place to sit and contemplate the magnificence of the commanding scenery. (From Caroline M. Churchill, 1876.)
When A. P. Vivian continued on to Yosemite in January of 1878, he found the Leidig family in the valley and commented as follows on his winter reception:
Our host was glad enough to see us, for tourists are very scarce commodities at this time of the year, and he determined to celebrate our arrival by exploding a dynamite cartridge, that we might at the same time enjoy the grand echoes. These were doubtless extraordinary, but I am free to confess I would rather have gone away without hearing them than have experienced the anxiety of mind, and real risk to body, which preceded the pleasure.
Leidig’s, with Black’s, was torn down after the Stoneman House provided more fitting accommodations. The little chapel which had been built near these old hotels in 1879 was moved to its present site in the Old Village. In 1928 the picturesque 103 old well platform and crane, which had marked the Leidig site, was destroyed. Only a group of locust trees now indicates where this center of pioneer activity existed.
But the wonder—among the buildings of Yosemite—is the “Cosmopolitan,” containing saloon, billiard hall, bathing rooms, and barber-shop, established and kept by Mr. C. E. Smith. Everything in it was transported twenty miles on mules; mirrors full-length, pyramids of elaborate glassware, costly service, the finest of cues and tables, reading-room handsomely furnished and supplied with the latest from Eastern cities, and baths with unexceptionable surroundings, attest the nerve and energy of the projector. It is a perfect gem. The end of the wagon-road was twenty miles away when the enterprise began, and yet such skill was used in mule-packing that not an article was broken. I have not seen a finer place of resort, for its size. The arrangements for living are such that one could spend the summer there delightfully, and we found several tourists who remained for weeks.
The foregoing from J. H. Beadle is but one of scores of enthusiastic outbursts from amazed tourists who wrote of their Yosemite experiences. To say that C. E. Smith figured in early Yosemite affairs is hardly expressive. His baths, his drinks, and the various unexpected comforts provided by his Cosmopolitan left lasting impressions that vied with El Capitan when it came to securing space in books written by visitors. The ladies exclaimed over the cleanliness of the bathtubs; a profusion of towels, fine and coarse; delicate toilet soaps, bay rum, Florida water, arnica, court plaster; needles, thread, and buttons; and late copies of the Alta and the Bulletin for fresh “bustles.” The men found joy in “a running accompaniment of ‘brandy-cocktails,’ ‘gin-slings,’ ‘barber’s poles,’ ‘eye-openers,’ ‘mint-julep,’ ‘Samson with the hair on,’ ‘corpse-revivers,’ ‘rattlesnakes,’ and other potent combinations.”
The Cosmopolitan boasted of a certain Grand Register, a foot in thickness, morocco-bound, and mounted with silver. 104 Within it were the autographs and comments of thousands of visitors both great and lowly. The relic is now a part of the Yosemite Museum collection.[7]
Tommy Hall, the pioneer barber of Yosemite, found sumptuous quarters in the Cosmopolitan. The old building continued to house a barber shop until it was destroyed by fire on December 8, 1932.
For fifteen years after the coming of visitors, the wonders of the Merced Canyon above Happy Isles were accessible only to those hardy mountaineers who could scramble through the boulder-strewn gorge without the advantage of a true trail. In 1869-70 one Albert Snow completed a horse trail from Yosemite Valley to the flat between Vernal and Nevada falls, and there opened a mountain chalet, which was to be known as “La Casa Nevada.” The popularity of the saddle trip to the two great falls of the Merced was immediate, and the pioneer trail builder, John Conway, extended the trail from Snow’s to Little Yosemite Valley the next year. It then was usual for all tourists to ascend the Merced Canyon to La Casa Nevada and Little Yosemite. Some hikers undertook the trip from Little Yosemite to Glacier Point, but another fifteen years were to elapse before Glacier Point was made accessible by a truly good horse trail from Nevada Fall.
Snow’s was opened on April 28, 1870. One of the prized possessions of the Yosemite Museum is a register from this hostelry, which dates from the opening to 1875. Upon its foxed pages appear thousands of registrations and numerous comments of more than passing interest. Among these is a very interesting two-page manuscript by John Muir, describing an 1874 trip to Snow’s via Glacier Point and the Illilouette. P. A. H. Laurence, once editor of the Mariposa Gazette, contributed 105 to its value by inscribing within it an account of his visit to Yosemite Valley in 1855, years before the chalet was built.
A party with N. H. Davis, United States Inspector General, commented upon their destination and added: “This party defers further remarks until some further examinations are made.” Under the date of the original entry is a significant second autograph by a member of the General’s party: “A preliminary examination develops an abundance of mountain dew.”
A great pile of broken containers, which had once held the “mountain dew,” is about the only remnant of La Casa Nevada which may be viewed by present-day visitors, for the chalet was destroyed by fire in the early ’nineties.
Another pioneer hotel is represented in the Yosemite Museum collections by a register.[8] It was known as the Mountain View House and occupied a strategic spot on the old horse trail from Clark’s to Yosemite Valley. Its site is known to present-day visitors as Peregoy Meadows, and the remains of the log building now repose quite as they fell many years ago. The hospitality of its keepers, Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Peregoy, was utilized by those travelers who, coming from Clark’s, took lunch there, or by those who departed from the valley via Glacier Point and made it an overnight stopping place.
The Mountain View House register indicates that guests were entertained as early as the fall of 1869. It was not, however, until the spring of 1870 that the little resort made a bid for patronage. Its capacity for overnight accommodation was sixteen; so it is not surprising that a number of writers of the ’seventies were forced to record, in their published Yosemite memoirs, that they arrived late and sat around the kitchen stove all night. In June of 1872, fifty-six tourists were overtaken 106 by a snowstorm in the neighborhood of Peregoy’s. It is to be surmised that on that night even the little kitchen did not accommodate the overflow.
The construction of the Wawona road in 1875 revised the route of all Yosemite travel south of the Merced. Peregoy’s was left far from the line of travel and no longer functioned in the scheme of Yosemite resorts.
By 1878, the demand for recognition of private camping parties introduced the idea of public camp grounds in Yosemite. Large numbers of visitors were bringing their own conveyances and camping equipment so as to be independent of the hostelries. The commissioners set aside a part of the old Lamon property in the vicinity of the present Ahwahnee Hotel as the grounds upon which to accommodate the new class of visitors. Mr. A. Harris was granted the right to administer to the wants of the campers. He grew fodder for their animals, offered stable facilities, sold provisions, and rented equipment. The Harris Camp Ground was the forerunner of the present-day housekeeping camps and public auto camps, which accommodate, by far, the greater number of Yosemite visitors.
An exceedingly interesting register, kept for the comments of campers of that day, was recently presented to the Yosemite Museum by the descendants of Harris. For ten years Yosemite campers recorded their ideas of Yosemite, its management, and particularly the kindness of Harris, upon its pages. The following is representative:
Yosemite Valley,
Tuesday, July 20th, 1880
We have tented in the Valley and been contented too.
So would like to add a chapter to this bible for review
Of campers who come hither for study or for fun
In this Valley—of God’s building the grandest ’neath the sun.
When you come into the Valley—for information go
To the owner of this Record, and directly he will show
107You where to go, and how to go, and what to see when there
And will sell you all things needful, at prices that are fair.
Like Moses in the wilderness, he’ll furnish food and drink
For all the tribes that come to him—cheaper than you’d think.
His bread is not from Heaven—but San Francisco Bay
And that is next thing to it—so San Franciscans say.
The water that he gives you—running through granite rock
Is the same as that which Moses gave his wonder-stricken flock.
If you ask him where to angle—he’ll tell you—on the sly
Down in the Indian Camp—with silver hook and fly.
In a word this Mr. Harris is a proper kind of man,
And as a friend to campers in the Valley—leads the van.
Wm. B. Lake
Fred W. Lake
San Francisco
E. D. Lake
Nat Webb
Sacramento
If the reader thinks this poetry—don’t judge me by the style,
For ’tis the kind that rhymsters make to peddle by the mile.
W B L
It may be said that from the Harris service grew the idea of camp rental, which was first practiced by the commissioners in 1898 and is now a recognized business of the housekeeping-camps department of the present operators in the park.
After the construction of Snow’s trail to Little Yosemite in 1871, some good mountaineers made the Glacier Point trip via Little Yosemite and the Illilouette basin. Prior to this time, J. M. Hutchings had been guiding parties of hikers to the famous Point over a most hazardous trail, which he had blazed up the Ledge and through the Chimney. Occasional references to a shack at Glacier Point indicate that Peregoy had made some attempt to locate there about the same time that his Mountain View House of Peregoy Meadows was opened for business. However, the real claim for Glacier Point patronage came from one James McCauley, who in 1870-1871 met the expense of building a horse trail from Black’s and Leidig’s over 108 a four-mile route up the 3,200-foot cliff to the famous vantage point. This new route was at first a toll trail. For sixty years it has been climbed and descended by countless thousands of riders and hikers. It has been known as the Four-Mile Trail for more than half a century, and it was not until 1929 that its grades, surveyed and built by John Conway, were changed by more skilled engineers.
It is likely that McCauley, owner of the Four-Mile Trail, made use of the insufficient little building on Glacier Point while his trail was in the making. Few records regarding the “shack” or his later Mountain House are to be found, but Lady C. F. Gordon-Cumming wrote on the tenth of May, 1878: “The snow on the upper trail [Four-Mile] had been cleared by men who are building a rest-house on the summit.” After arriving at Glacier Point, she records: “The cold breeze was so biting that we were thankful to take refuge, with our luncheon-basket, in the newly built wooden house.” Later, “On our way down through the snow-cuttings, we had rather an awkward meeting with a long file of mules heavily laden with furniture—or rather, portions of furniture—for the new house.”
It is believed that the first firefall from Glacier Point was the work of James McCauley in 1871 or 1872. He sold his trail to the state. His Mountain House was operated on a lease basis from the commissioners. One of his visitors of the early ’eighties was Derrick Dodd, who concocted something of a classic in the way of Glacier Point stories. It is too good to pass into oblivion.
DERRICK DODD’S TOUGH STORY
As a part of the usual programme, we experimented as to the time taken by different objects in reaching the bottom of the cliff. An ordinary stone tossed over remained in sight an incredibly long time, but finally vanished somewhere about the middle distance. A handkerchief with a stone tied in the corner, was visible perhaps a thousand feet deeper; but even an empty box, watched by a field-glass, could not be traced to its concussion with the Valley floor. 109 Finally, the landlord appeared on the scene, carrying an antique hen under his arm. This, in spite of the terrified ejaculations and entreaties of the ladies, he deliberately threw over the cliff’s edge. A rooster might have gone thus to his doom in stoic silence, but the sex of this unfortunate bird asserted itself the moment it started on its awful journey into space. With an ear-piercing cackle that gradually grew fainter as it fell, the poor creature shot downward; now beating the air with ineffectual wings, and now frantically clawing at the very wind, that slanted her first this way and then that; thus the hapless fowl shot down, down, until it became a mere fluff of feathers no larger than a quail. Then it dwindled to a wren’s size, disappeared, then again dotted the sight a moment as a pin’s point, and then—it was gone!
After drawing a long breath all round, the women folks pitched into the hen’s owner with redoubled zest. But the genial McCauley shook his head knowingly, and replied:
“Don’t be alarmed about that chicken, ladies. She’s used to it. She goes over that cliff every day during the season.”
And, sure enough, on our road back we met the old hen about half up the trail, calmly picking her way home!
In 1882, the Glacier Point road was built. Traffic to the Mountain House was, of course, doubled by the coming of those who would not walk or ride a horse up steep trails. Glacier Point trails did not fall into disuse, however. On the contrary, attempts were made to make them more attractive. Anderson’s Trail from Happy Isles to Vernal Fall was constructed at great loss to its builder in 1882. The present Eleven-Mile Trail from Nevada Fall to Glacier Point was built in 1885. In spite of the variety of routes offered, it was planned as early as 1887 to provide a passenger lift to the famous vantage-point. The plan progressed as far as the making of a preliminary survey. Accommodations at the point remained unchanged until 1917, when the Glacier Point Hotel was built by the Desmond Park Service Company adjacent to the Mountain House. The two structures function as a unit of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company operation.
The Degnan concession in the “Old Village” is not and never was a hotel or lodge. However, it has catered to Yosemite tourists since 1884 and is the oldest business in the park. John Degnan, an Irishman, built his first Yosemite cabin on the site of the present Degnan store. Soon thereafter, on the occasion of a spring meeting of the Yosemite Valley Commissioners, of which the governor of the state was a member, Mr. Degnan appeared before the managing body to obtain the privilege of building a suitable home. The board listened to his plea, and the Governor observed, “He seems to be the kind of man we want as an all-year resident—one who will take care of the place when it needs care.” Mr. Degnan, in an interview with a National Park Service official in 1941, stated, “After that meeting the Commissioners came over to my cabin, and the Governor then assigned to me the land which I now occupy, extending from the road to the cliff.”
Mrs. Degnan, who was a party to all of Mr. Degnan’s pioneering in Yosemite Valley, met the tourists’ demand for bread. Gradually, her bakery expanded until her ovens could turn out one hundred loaves at a baking. The business and the home grew as did the Degnan family. Mary Ellen Degnan, one of the several children born to Mr. and Mrs. Degnan, now manages the modern store and restaurant which evolved from the pioneer venture.
The record of John Degnan’s activities in Yosemite National Park stands as ample testimony to the accuracy of the governor’s appraisal, “He seems to be the kind of man we want.” He was a respected party to much of the early physical improvement in and about the valley and to the general growth and development of facilities and services.
Mrs. Degnan died Dec. 17, 1940, and Mr. Degnan’s death occurred on Feb. 27, 1943.
The demand for more pretentious accommodations than those afforded by the pioneer hotels of Yosemite was met in 1887, when the state built a four-story structure that would accommodate about 150 guests. The legislature in 1885 appropriated $40,000 to be expended on this building. Another $5,000 was secured for water supply and furniture. A site near the present Camp Curry garage was selected, and the building contract let to Carle, Croly, and Abernethy. Upon its completion J. J. Cook, who had been managing Black’s Hotel, was placed in charge.
The bulky structure was not beautiful architecturally, and the first few years of its existence demonstrated that its design was faulty. In 1896 the Stoneman House burned to the ground.
Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Curry originated an idea in tourist service which rather revolutionized the scheme of hostelry operation in Yosemite and other national parks. The Currys came to Yosemite in 1899. They were teachers who had turned their summer vacations into profitable management of Western camping tours in such localities as Yellowstone National Park. Their first venture in Yosemite involved use of seven tents and employment of one paid woman cook. The services of several college students were secured in return for summer expenses. The site chosen for that first camp is the area occupied by Camp Curry.
Success of the hotel-camp plan was immediately apparent. The first year 292 people registered at the resort. However, success was not attained without striving. The camp was dependent upon freight-wagon service requiring two weeks to make the round trip to Merced. Sometimes even this service failed.
Informal hospitality has always characterized Camp Curry. 112 Popular campfire entertainments have been a feature from the beginning. In one of the first summers in Yosemite, D. A. Curry revived the firefall,[9] which it is presumed originated with James McCauley, of the Mountain House. Employees from Camp Curry were occasionally sent to Glacier Point to build a fire and push it off for a special party. This was done more and more frequently, until it became a nightly occurrence. Mr. Curry’s “Hello,” his “All’s well,” and “Farewell,” delivered with remarkable volume, won for him the appellation, “The Stentor of Yosemite.”
The coming of the Yosemite Valley Railroad in 1907 gave a powerful new impetus to the growth of Camp Curry. Automobile travel, of course, provided the climax. In 1915 the camp provided accommodations for one thousand visitors. Today, it maintains nearly 500 tents and 200 bungalow and cabin rooms.
The successful operations of the Curry business induced would-be competition. Camp Yosemite, later known as Camp Lost Arrow, was started in 1901 near the foot of Yosemite Falls. It continued to function until 1915. Camp Ahwahnee, at the foot of the Four-Mile Trail, was established in 1908 and continued for seven years. The Desmond Park Service Company secured a twenty-year concession to operate camps, stores, and transportation service in 1915. This company purchased the assets of the Sentinel Hotel, Camp Lost Arrow, and Camp Ahwahnee. The two camps were discontinued, and a new venture made in the present Yosemite Lodge. The Desmond Company prevailed until 1920, when reorganization took place, and it became the Yosemite National Park Company.
The Curry Camping Company maintained its substantial position through all of the years of varying fortunes of its less substantial contemporaries. In 1925, the Yosemite Park and Curry Company was formed by the consolidation of the Curry 113 Company and the Yosemite National Park Company. The new organization has contracted with the government to perform all services demanded by the public in the park. Some 1,250 people are employed during the summer months, and the investment in tourist facilities totals $5,500,000.
David A. Curry did not live to witness the realization of all his plans. However, prior to his death in 1917, the march of progress had so advanced as to make evident the place of leadership the Curry operation was to maintain. “Mother” Curry, as “Manager Emeritus,” still devotes personal attention to the business of the pioneer hotel-camp but the active management is in the hands of persons trained by her and her daughter, Mary Curry Tresidder. Her son-in-law, Dr. Donald B. Tresidder, until 1943 actively managed the operations and still retains the presidency of the extensive Yosemite Park and Curry Company, which has grown from the modest start made in 1899.
The Yosemite National Park Company in 1920 established a tent camp in the upper section of the Mariposa Grove, which consisted of a rustic central building constructed around the base of the tree, Montana, and a group of cabins and tents. The camp persisted in this form until 1932, when it was razed by the Yosemite Park and Curry Company, and a new lodge was built near Sunset Point in the Grove. In its design the new building reflects the charm of pioneer structures of the Sierra Nevada.
In 1923, Superintendent Lewis advocated the creation of a service that would enable the hiker to enjoy the wonders of the Yosemite high country and yet be free from the irksome load of blankets and food necessary to the success of a trip away from the established centers of the park. T. E. Farrow, of the 114 Yosemite Park Company, projected tentative plans for a series of “hikers’ camps,” and in the fall of 1923 I was dispatched on a journey of reconnaissance for the purpose of locating camp sites in the rugged country drained by the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne. The sites advocated were Little Yosemite, Merced Lake,[10] Boothe Lake, the Lyell Fork (Mount Lyell), Tuolumne Meadows,[10] Glen Aulin, and Tenaya Lake.[10] In 1924, these sites, with the exception of Lyell Fork and Glen Aulin, were occupied by simple camps, consisting of a mess and cook tent, a dormitory tent for women, and a dormitory tent for men. Attendants and cooks were employed for each establishment. With two exceptions, the camps were removed from roads, and equipment and supplies were of necessity packed in on mules. Yet it was possible to offer the facilities of these high mountain resorts at a very low price, and it became apparent that saddle parties, as well as hikers, would take advantage of them. Consequently they have become known as High Sierra Camps.
The camp beside the White Cascade at Glen Aulin was established in 1927 and has been very popular. In 1938, the Tenaya Lake Camp was moved to a beautiful location in a grove of hemlocks on May Lake, just east of Mount Hoffmann. New trails were built to make this spot more readily accessible from the Snow Creek Trail and from Glen Aulin. The Boothe Lake Camp, after a few years of operation, was abandoned in favor of a new camp near the junction of the Vogelsang, Rafferty Creek, and Lyell Fork trails. In 1940, this camp was rebuilt on the banks of Fletcher Creek. The Tuolumne Meadows Lodge is now the only one of these camps situated on a road. Each camp has a setting of a distinctive mountain character on lake or stream. All the camps represent a joint effort on the part of the National Park Service and the concessionaire 115 to encourage and assist travel beyond the roads, where the visitor may appreciate the wild values of the park which he can hardly observe from the highways.
The Yosemite Park and Curry Company opened the Ahwahnee in 1927. Its interior has received quite as much study as has its exterior architectural values.
California Indian patterns have been used throughout the hotel in many ways. In the lobby, six great figures, set in multiple borders, rendered in mosaic, give color and interest to the floor. In the downstairs corridor and the dining room, other borders and simpler Indian motifs are rendered in acid-etched cement. Painted Indian ornaments play a number of different roles in the building.
In the main lounge the great beams have been related to the contents of the room with borders, spots, and panels of Indian motifs in the colors that appear in the rugs and furniture coverings, while the entire mantel end of the room serves as a bond between the ceiling and the floor with a composite of Indian figures built into one great architectural structure. At the top of each of the ten high windows is a panel of stained glass, each one different, the series forming a rhythmical frieze that bands the room. They are all composed of Indian patterns.
The arts of the whole world have been called together to give the Ahwahnee character and color. There are Colonial furniture, pottery, and textiles; furniture, cottons and linen, lights, and a clock from England; cottons from Norway; and irons from Flanders; more iron and furniture and fabrics from France; embroideries from Italy; rugs from Spain; designs from Greece and designs from Turkey; rugs, jars, and tiles, silks and cottons from Persia; more rugs from the Caucasus and tent strips from Turkestan; porcelains and paintings from China; the sturdy Temmoku ware from Japan; fabrics from Guatemala; 116 terra cotta from Mexico, and so back to California, whence comes the basic motif of the whole, the Indian design.
On June 23, 1943, the Ahwahnee Hotel was taken over by the United States Navy and operated as a hospital. It functioned as the Naval Special Hospital until its formal decommissioning on December 15, 1945, and 6,752 patients were treated, the greatest number at one time being 853. A large and varied naval staff was assigned to duty at the Ahwahnee, including officers, nurses, Waves, and enlisted men. Representatives of the American Red Cross, Veterans’ Administration, and the United States Employment Service also participated in the hospital program. The Ahwahnee as a hospital became an adequately equipped and functioning rehabilitation center, capable of handling full programs of physical training, occupational therapy, and educational work. The department of occupational therapy, especially, was recognized as outstanding among service hospitals. The program of rehabilitation extended to the out-of-doors, both summer and winter.
Frequently each summer, those who climb to the Sierra crest within the Yosemite National Park come upon the remains of little “cities” near the mountaintops. Because the story of these deserted towns, now within the boundaries of the park is so interwoven with the story of Mono mining affairs in general, this chapter will of necessity take some account of the events of the Mono Basin, immediately east of Yosemite.
The first white men to visit the Mono country were undoubtedly the American trappers, followed shortly afterward by the explorers and immigrants. The first records of mineral finds in this region, however, are those that pertain to Lieutenant Tredwell Moore’s Indian-fighting expedition to the Yosemite in June, 1852 (see p. 46), which crossed the Sierra at the northern Mono Pass and brought back samples of gold ore. The miners who soon followed and, with a few others, continued to work in the Mono region, were apparently unthought-of by their former associates west of the Sierra.
John B. Trask, in his report on mines and mining in California, made to the legislature of California in 1855, says: “In my report of last year, it was stated that the placer ranges were at that time known to extend nearly to the summit ridge of the mountains; but this year it has been ascertained that they pass beyond the ridge and are now found on the eastern declivity, having nearly the same altitude as those occurring on the opposite side. Within the past season, many of these deposits have been examined, and thus far are found to be equally productive 118 with those of similar ranges to the west, and, with a favorable season ensuing, they will be largely occupied.” It is probable that Trask’s statements were based on reports of the work done by Lee Vining’s party.
At any rate, in 1857 it became known among the miners of the Mother Lode that rich deposits had been found at “Dogtown” and Monoville, and a rush from the Tuolumne mines resulted. The Mono Trail from Big Oak Flat, through Tamarack Flat, Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, and Bloody Canyon, following in general an old Indian route, was blazed at this time and came into great use. The Sonora Pass route was used also, and it was over this trail that the discoverer of the famous Bodie district, later to become the center of all Mono mining, made his way.
It is not my purpose, however, to write the history of Mono County, or even to make this a lengthy story of Mono mining camps. Rather would I present a concise account of the origin of the relics found by Sierra enthusiasts, and, incidentally, tell something about the astonishing town of Bodie.
The name Tioga and the beautiful region which its mention suggests are now familiar to thousands who annually drive over the route that bisects Yosemite National Park. The original location of the mineral deposit now known as the Tioga Mine was made in 1860. Consequently, it is here that our present chronicle of Yosemite summit events should begin. In 1874, William Brusky, a prospector, came upon a prospect hole, shovel, pick, and an obliterated notice at this place. The notice indicated that the mine had been located as “The Sheepherder” in 1860. It was presumed by Brusky that the original locators were returning to Mariposa or Tuolumne from Mono Diggings, Bodie, or Aurora when they made the find. He flattered the claim by supposing that “the original locators probably perished, as it is not likely that they would abandon so promising a claim”; he relocated it as the “Sheepherder.”
In 1878, E. B. Burdick, Samuel Baker, and W. J. Bevan organized the Tioga District. Most of the mines were owned by men of Sonora, although some Eastern capital was interested. The district extended from King’s Ranch, at the foot of Bloody Canyon, over the summit of the Sierra and down the Tuolumne River to Lembert’s Soda Springs. It was eight miles in extent from north to south. At one time there were 350 locations in the district. Bennetville (now called Tioga) was headquarters for the Great Sierra Mining Company offices, which concern was operating the old Sheepherder as the “Tioga Mine.”
The company apparently suffered from no lack of funds, and operations were launched on a grand scale. Great quantities of supplies and equipment were packed into the camp at enormous expenditure of labor and money. At first the place was accessible only via the Bloody Canyon trail, and Mexican packers contracted to keep their pack animals active on this spectacular mountain highway. A trail was then built from the busy camp of Lundy, and that new route to Tioga proved most valuable. The Homer Mining Index of March 4, 1882, describes the packing of heavy machinery up 4,000 feet of mountainside to Tioga in winter:
The transportation of 16,000 pounds of machinery across one of the highest and most rugged branches of the Sierra Nevada mountains in mid-winter, where no roads exist, over vast fields and huge embankments of yielding snow and in the face of furious wind-storms laden with drifting snow, and the mercury dancing attendance on zero, is a task calculated to appall the sturdiest mountaineer; and yet J. C. Kemp, manager of the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company of Tioga, is now engaged in such an undertaking, and with every prospect of perfect success at an early day—so complete has been the arrangement of details and so intelligently directed is every movement. The first ascent, from Mill Creek to the mouth of Lake Canyon, is 990 feet, almost perpendicular. From that point to the south end of Lake Oneida, a distance of about two miles, is a rise of 845 feet, most of it in two hills aggregating half a mile in distance. The machinery will probably be 120 hoisted straight up to the summit of Mount Warren ridge from the southwest shore of Lake Oneida, an almost vertical rise of 2,160 feet. From the summit the descent will be made to Saddlebags Lake, thence down to and along Lee Vining Creek to the gap or pass in the dividing ridge between Lee Vining and Slate creeks, and from that point to Tunnel, a distance of about one mile, is a rise of about 800 feet—most of it in the first quarter of a mile. The machinery consists of an engine, boiler, air-compressor, Ingersoll drills, iron pipe, etc., for use in driving the Great Sierra tunnel. It is being transported on six heavy sleds admirably constructed of hardwood. Another, or rather, a pair of bobsleds, accompanies the expedition, the latter being laden with bedding, provisions, cooking utensils, etc. The heaviest load is 4,200 pounds. Ten or twelve men, two mules, 4,500 feet of one-inch Manila rope, heavy double block and tackle, and all the available trees along the route are employed in “snaking” the machinery up the mountain—the whole being under the immediate supervision of Mr. Kemp, who remains at the front and personally directs every movement. It is expected that all the sleds will be got up into Lake Canyon today, and then the work will be pushed day and night, with two shifts of men. Meantime, the tunnel is being driven day and night, with three shifts of men under Jeff McClelland.
Such difficulties prompted the Great Sierra Mining Company to construct the Tioga Road, that they might bring their machinery in from the west side of the Sierra. The road was completed in 1883 at a cost of $64,000.
In 1884, one of those “financial disasters” which always seem to play a part in mining-camp history overtook the Great Sierra Mining Company, and all work was dropped. Records show that $300,000 was expended at Tioga, and there is no evidence that their ore was ever milled.
Persons who have climbed into that interesting summit region above Gaylor Lakes have no doubt pondered over the origin of the picturesque village of long-deserted rock cabins clustered about a deep mine shaft. This is the Mount Dana Summit Mine, one of the important locations of the Tioga District. Its owners were determined to operate in winter, as 121 well as in summer. In the Homer Mining Index, Lundy, of October 30, 1880, we are told that the superintendent of this mine visited Lundy and employed skilled miners to spend the winter there. In December of the same year one of them descended to Bodie to obtain money with which to pay those miners. “He got tripped up on Bodie whisky and was drunk for weeks. Some of the miners returned to Lundy from the Summit Mine. The distance is but seven miles, but they were two days making the trip and suffered many hardships.” Later F. W. Pike took charge of the Summit Mine, but no record appears to have been handed down of the final demise of the camp.
Another camp of the main range of the Sierra that received much notice and actually produced great wealth was Lundy, situated but a few miles north of Tioga. Prior to 1879, W. J. Lundy was operating a sawmill at the head of Lundy Lake. His product helped to supply Bodie’s enormous demand for timber. In the spring of 1879, William D. Wasson took his family to Mill Canyon, near Lundy Lake, and engaged in prospecting. He was followed by C. H. Nye and L. L. Homer, who located rich veins of ore. J. G. McClinton, of Bodie, investigated and was persuaded by what he found to bring capital to the new camp at once. Homer District was organized at Wasson’s residence at Emigrant Flat, in Mill Creek Canyon, September 15, 1879. Prior to this time the region was included in the Tioga District, but because the books of the Tioga recorder were kept at an inconvenient point, a new district was formed. L. L. Homer, for whom the district was named, bowed down by “financial troubles,” committed suicide in San Francisco a few months later.
It is worthy of mention that in 1881 the Sierra Telegraph Company extended its line from Lundy to Yosemite Valley, where it made connection with Street’s line to Sonora.
A trail was built from Tioga over the divide from Leevining 122 Canyon into Lake Canyon, thence down Mill Creek Canyon to Lundy. In 1881 Archie Leonard, renowned as a Yosemite guide and ranger, put on a ten-horse saddle train between Lundy and Yosemite. The trip was made in a day and a half, and the fare was $8.00 one way.
Reports of the State Mining Bureau indicate that something like $3,000,000 was taken from the May Lundy Mine. The town of Lundy proved to be substantial for many years, and the Homer Mining Index, printed there, is the best of all the newspapers that were produced in the ephemeral camps of Mono. Something of the spirit of mining-camp journalism may be gathered from the following note taken from a December, 1850, number of the Index:
The Index wears a cadaverous aspect this week. It is the unavoidable result of a concatenation of congruous circumstances. The boss has gone to Bodie on special business. The devil has been taking medicine, so that his work at the case has been spasmodic and jerky. The printing office is open on all sides, and the snow flies in wherever it pleases. In the morning everything is frozen solid. Then we thaw things out, and the whole concern is deluged with drippings. It is hard to set type under such conditions. When the office is dry, it is too cold to work. When it is warm, the printer needs gum boots and oilskins. In fact, it has been a hell of a job to get this paper out.
Like the other camps, Lundy is now defunct. The May Lundy Mine has not operated for some years, and the building of a dam has raised Lundy Lake so that a part of the townsite is submerged.
Another old camp that many Yosemite fishermen and hikers come upon is the aggregation of dwellings about the “Golden Crown.” At the very head of Bloody Canyon, within Mono Pass, are to be found sturdily built log cabins in various stages of decay. From the Homer Mining Index it has been possible to glean occasional bits of information regarding this old camp. It is stated in an 1880 number of the Index that Fuller and 123 Hayt (or Hoyt) discovered large ledges of antimonial silver there in 1879. The Mammoth City Herald of September 3, 1879, contains a glowing account of the wealth to be obtained from the “Golden Crown,” as the mine was christened, and predicts that thousands of men will be working at the head of Bloody Canyon within one year. The Mammoth City Herald of August 27, 1879, under the heading, “Something Besides Pleasure in Store for Yosemite Tourists,” contains an enthusiastic letter regarding these prospects.
When one observes the great number of mining claims staked out throughout the summit region about White Mountain, Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, and Kuna Peak, it is not surprising to learn that some Yosemite Valley businessmen ventured to engage in the gamble. Albert Snow, proprietor of the famous La Casa Nevada between Vernal and Nevada falls, owned a mine in Parker Canyon; and A. G. Black, of Black’s Hotel, owned the Mary Bee Mine on Mount Dana.
Some twenty miles south of the Tioga District, in a high situation quite as spectacular in scenic grandeur as any of the camps of the main range of the Sierra, was Lake District, in which Mammoth and Pine City flourished for a time—a very brief time.
In June of 1877, J. A. Parker, B. N. Lowe, B. S. Martin, and N. D. Smith located mineral deposits on Mineral Hill at an altitude of 11,000 feet. Lake District was organized here that same summer. Activity was not great until 1879, when great riches seemed inevitable, and a rush of miners swelled the population of Mammoth and Pine City. A mill was built for the reduction of ores that were not in sight, and two printing establishments cut each other’s throats, the Mammoth City Herald, first on the ground, and the Mammoth City Times.
For a time hope was high. J. S. French built a toll trail from Fresno to Mammoth City. French’s saddle trains met the Yosemite stages at Fresno Flats, and traveled to Basaw (or 124 Beasore) Meadows, Little Jackass Meadows, Sheep Crossing, Cargyle Meadow, Reds Meadow, through Mammoth Pass, and then to Mammoth City, a distance of fifty-four miles. Livestock to supply the Mammoth markets was driven from Fresno Flats over this trail, also.
The first winter after propaganda had inveigled capital to take a chance on Mammoth, all activities persisted through the winter. Like those hardy men who suffered the hardships of winter on Mount Dana, the inhabitants of Mammoth contended with great difficulties.
After the winter of 1879-80, it became apparent that the Mammoth enterprise was unwarranted. The mill, constructed with such optimism, was poorly built. Had it been mechanically perfect, the fate of the camp would have been no better, for the expected ore was not forthcoming. Mammoth was another of those camps which engulfed capital and produced little or nothing. In the winter of 1880-81 the place closed.
Benton, Bodie, and Aurora are quite removed from the area likely to be reached by Sierra travelers, yet to close this account without some mention of their birth, growth, and death would be to omit some of the most important affairs of Mono mining. The first settlement in the region immediately south of Mono was made by George W. Parker, who located the Adobe Meadows in 1860. In 1861 E. C. Kelty sent “Black” Taylor, a partner of the discoverer of Bodie District, to winter some cattle in Hot Springs Valley, where he was killed by Indians. William McBride entered the region in 1853 and engaged in ranching. Float rock was found in October, 1863, by Robinson and Stuart in the foothills of the White Mountains, east of Benton. In February, 1864, these men organized the Montgomery District and succeeded in attracting some attention to their find. The region flourished for a season, but soon declined and became deserted. A few very rich deposits existed, but there seem to have been no continuous veins.
SKETCH MAP OF YOSEMITE REGION
SHOWING EARLY ROUTES & CENTERS, & WITH PRESENT-DAY PLACE NAMES INCLUDED FOR REFERENCE.
EXPLANATION OF SKETCH MAP OF YOSEMITE REGION
DISCOVERY
In 1833 the Joseph Walker party crossed the Sierra, entering the Yosemite National Park region from the northeast and approximately following the route shown (Green Creek-Glen Aulin-present Tioga Road route). Several members looked into Yosemite Valley on a scouting trip from a camp along the Merced-Tuolumne divide. The party discovered the Big Trees (Tuolumne or Merced groves).
FIRST ENTRY
In 1849-50 J. D. Savage maintained a trading post and mining camp below Yosemite Valley at the confluence of the Merced and its South Fork. In the spring of 1850 this station was attacked by Indians.
Savage then removed his post to a safer location on Mariposa Creek. In December, 1850, Indians destroyed this post and murdered those in charge. Savage had established a branch store on the Fresno River, and this station was also burned in December, 1850.
As a result the white settlers organized a volunteer company to punish the Indians. A camp of 500 Indians was found on a tributary of the San Joaquin River. The savages were routed.
Governor McDougal then authorized organization of the Mariposa Battalion. On March 19, 1851, they set out for Yosemite (Mariposa-Wawona-Old Inspiration Point). The Battalion’s first Yosemite Valley camp was near Bridalveil Creek. Their second was at Indian Canyon. They explored the valley to the vicinity of Snow Creek Falls and the foot of Nevada Fall.
Later in 1851 Captain Boling and party returned to Yosemite to make final disposition of the Indians (Fort Miller-Mariposa-Wawona). After two weeks of scouting they located the Indians at Tenaya Lake (via Indian Canyon). The entire tribe was captured and brought to the reservation on the Fresno River. Old Chief Tenaya was later permitted to take his family back to Yosemite. Other members of his tribe soon ran away to join him.
In 1852, eight prospectors entered the valley and two of them were killed by the Yosemites. As a result regular soldiers from Fort Miller, under Lt. Moore, made a third expedition to Yosemite. They followed the fleeing Indians to Mono Lake (Tenaya Lake-Soda Springs-Mono Pass) but captured none of them. On Moore’s return (Soda Springs-Little Yosemite-Glacier Point vicinity-Wawona) to Mariposa he exhibited mineral specimens found in the summit region and Lee Vining was induced to go to the region to prospect. In 1853, according to Bunnell, wrathy Mono Indians, trailing stolen horses, came over the mountains and ended all Yosemite Indian troubles by virtually exterminating Tenaya’s band. But Maria Lebrado, a survivor, denied this (see p. 47).
EAST-SIDE MINING EXCITEMENT
In 1857, five years after Lt. Moore’s findings, word reached miners west of the range that rich placers had been found at Mono Diggings (Monoville). A rush from the Tuolumne Region followed. This excitement lasted but a few years.
In 1860 the Sheepherder Mine was located at Tioga. A prospect hole, shovel, pick, and obliterated notice were found in 1874 by William Breuschi, who relocated the lode. The Tioga District was organized October 18, 1878.
In 1859, Brodigan, Doyle, Garraty, and W. S. Body had located rich ground at Bodie. By 1879 there were 8,000 people in Bodie. More than $24,000,000 has been produced here.
In 1879 the Homer District was organized at Lundy, on ground discovered by C. H. Nye.
In 1882-83 a wagon road, following the old alignment of the present Tioga Road, was built from Crockers to Bennetville (Tioga) in order that machinery might be brought up the west slope. Road construction cost $64,000, and approximately another $300,000 was spent on development at Tioga. The mine never produced.
PRESENT-DAY CULTURE
The sketch map also shows the Yosemite National Park Boundary as of 1946. The boundaries at one time included Mount Ritter and the present Devils Postpile National Monument.
“Cherokee Joe” found lead ore in a long, low granite hill, which rises abruptly out of the valley west of the White Range, and it was here that Benton started in 1865. James Larne built the first house, and soon the camp became quite populous. Like the others, it attracted a printer, and for a time the Mono Weekly Messenger flaunted taunts at neighboring camps and exploited the virtues and possibilities of Benton. Like the others, too, the camp failed, and the printer moved, this time to Mammoth, where he founded the short-lived Mammoth City Herald.
When, in the late ’seventies, the turbulent town of Bodie was attaining its reputation as a tough place, a newspaper of Truckee, California, quoted the small daughter in a Bodie-bound family as having offered the following prayer: “Good-by, God! I’m going to Bodie.” An editor of one of the several Bodie papers rejoined that the little girl had been misquoted. What she really said was, “Good, by God! I’m going to Bodie.”
According to accounts printed when excitement at Bodie was high, the discoverer of the Bodie wealth, W. S. Body, came to California on the sloop Matthew Vassar in 1848. He had lived in Poughkeepsie, New York, and there left a wife and six children. In November, 1859, Body, Garraty, Doyle, Taylor, and Brodigan crossed Sonora Pass to test the Mono possibilities. On their way back to the west side of the mountains, they dug into placer ground in a gulch on the east side of Silver Hill, one of those now pock-marked hills just above Bodie.
The partners apparently remained on the ground and equipped themselves to work their claims. In March, 1860, Body and “Black” Taylor went to Monoville for supplies, and en route were overtaken by a severe snow-storm. Body became exhausted, and Taylor attempted to carry him but was forced to wrap a blanket around him and leave him. Taylor returned to their cabin, obtained food, and then wandered about all night in a vain search for his companion. It was not until May 126 that Body’s body was found, when it was buried on the west side of the black ridge southwest of the present town. Taylor’s fate has already been mentioned.
Other miners came into the vicinity, and at a meeting, with E. Green presiding, “Body Mining District” was organized. Subsequent usage changed “Body” to “Bodie.” In the summer of 1860, prospectors located lodes a few miles north of Bodie that were destined to put the Bodie find “in the shade” for some years to come. This was the Aurora discovery, upon which the Esmeralda District, organized in 1860, centered. Aurora forged ahead and became a wildly excited camp, but its bloody career was little more than a drunken orgy. The rich ores which had induced extravagance and wild speculation disappeared when shafts had been sunk about one hundred feet, and the “excitement” came to a sudden end.
It is worthy of note that the first board of county supervisors of the county of Mono met in Aurora, June 13, 1861. By 1864 it was discovered that the camp was some miles within the state of Nevada; so Bridgeport was named the county seat. Just before the move was made, a substantial courthouse had been built in Aurora, and the old building still stands. E. A. Sherman, first editor of the Esmeralda Star of Aurora, journeyed to the Eastern States prior to 1863-64, and took with him a fifty-pound specimen of rich Aurora ore. This chunk of rock had been sold and resold at mining-camp auctions to swell the Sanitary Fund, the Civil War “Red Cross.” Thousands of dollars were added to the fund by this one specimen, just as had been done through repeated sale of the celebrated Austin (Nevada) sack of flour.
Mr. Sherman met Mr. Davis of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and exchanged the Aurora ore for a piece of Plymouth Rock. This fragment of Plymouth Rock was brought back to Aurora, and when the Mono County courthouse was built there, the Plymouth Rock fragment was placed 127 in the cornerstone. The fifty-pound chunk of Aurora ore still may be seen in the Plymouth Society’s venerable museum.
Mark Twain at one time resided in Aurora and engaged in his humorous exaggerations. His cabin there, which even in 1878, when Wasson wrote his Bodie and Esmeralda, had become somewhat mythical, was recently located and moved to Reno, Nevada, where it is now exhibited. At any rate, an Aurora cabin was found which might have been occupied by Mark Twain. One part of the original Mark Twain cabin certainly did not reach Reno, according to the Mammoth Times of December 6, 1879. Bob Howland, who had lived with Mark Twain in Aurora, returned to their old domicile in 1879 and took down the flagpole. He had it made into canes, which he distributed among his friends.
The truly important activity in the Esmeralda region prompted the building of the Sonora Pass wagon road. The Mono County supervisors ordered that road bonds on the “Sonora and Mono road” be issued on November 5, 1863. The road was projected in 1864 and opened to travel in 1868.[11]
Bodie, in the meantime, had not given up the ghost, although only a comparatively few miners occupied the camp. From its discovery until 1877 an average of twenty votes were polled each year. In 1878, however, the Bodie Mining Company made a phenomenally rich strike of gold and silver ore, and the entire mining world was startled. Stock jumped from fifty cents to fifty-four dollars a share. The news swept all Western camps like wildfire, and by 1879 Bodie’s crowd and reputation were such that the little girl’s prayer of “Good-by, God! I’m going to Bodie” was representative of the opinion held by contemporaries.
Even W. S. Body, whose body had moldered in a rocky grave for nearly twenty years, was not undisturbed by the activity. 128 In 1871 J. G. McClinton had discovered the forgotten Body grave while searching for a horse. He made no move to change the burial site, however, until some one of Bodie’s several newspapers launched erroneous reports of the whereabouts of Body’s remains. In the fall of 1879 McClinton and Joseph Wasson exhumed the skeleton, exhibited it to Bodie’s motley populace, and then gave it an elaborate burial, not excluding an eloquent address by Hon. R. D. Ferguson. Now these honored bones occupy a grave that is quite as neglected as the sage-grown niche in which they originally rested, but at least they share a place with the other several hundred dead disposed of in Bodie’s forgotten cemetery.
To make Bodie’s story short, let it suffice to say that for four years the camp maintained the same high-pressure activity. Men mined, milled, played, fought, and hundreds died. Some fifty companies tunneled into Bodie Bluff and all but turned it inside out. Probably twenty-five millions in bullion were conveyed in Bodie stage coaches to the railroad at Carson City, Nevada. Perhaps an amount almost as great was sunk into the hills by the numerous companies that carried on frenzied activity but produced no wealth. Only the Standard and the Bodie had proved to be immensely profitable, and in 1881 the stock market went to pieces. Bodie’s mines, one after another, closed down. In 1887 the Standard and the Bodie consolidated and operated sanely and profitably for some twenty years longer. But the camp’s mad days of wild speculation and excessive living were done. Gradually activities ceased, and a few years ago the picturesque blocks of frame buildings were consumed by flames. To meet the opportunities of 1941 some several hundred people occupied Bodie to salvage minerals from her old mine dumps. But there was little progress in rebuilding the town. It is interesting to note, however, that the Bodie Miners’ Union Hall of the ’seventies still stands. Within it Mr. and Mrs. D. V. Cain have exhibited the relics of Bodie’s boom days.
The superlative qualities of the scenic features and such outstanding biological characteristics as the forests of the Yosemite region compelled the interest of scientists as soon as the area received wide mention in the press. The miners’ concern with mineral values directed the attention of mining engineers upon the sections both east and west of Yosemite Valley. As early as 1853 Professor John B. Trask attempted to explain the geology of the Tuolumne-Merced watersheds.
The California State Geological Survey was established in 1860. Josiah Dwight Whitney, of Harvard University, was made State Geologist. He enlisted the services of several young men who were destined to become leaders in American geological and topographical work. William H. Brewer, William Ashburner, Chester Averill, Charles F. Hoffmann, William M. Gabb, James T. Gardiner, and Clarence King were among the members of the Whitney Survey. Over a period of ten years they penetrated the remote and unknown canyons and climbed the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, recording their findings and mapping the wild terrain. They made the first contribution to accurate and detailed knowledge of the region embraced in the present Yosemite National Park.
In 1863, Whitney himself began studies in the Yosemite region.[12] He concluded that the Yosemite Valley resulted from a sinking of a local block of the earth’s crust. His assistant, King, recognized evidences of a glacier’s having passed through 130 the valley, but Whitney, although he published this fact in his official report, later stoutly denied it. Whitney at first believed the domes to have risen up as great bubbles of fluid granite.
Galen Clark, while not a trained geologist, was a careful observer and commanded considerable respect from the public. He believed that Yosemite Valley originated through the explosion of close-set domes of molten rock and that water action then cleared the gorge of debris and left it in its present form.
King, although he was the first to observe glacier polish and moraines in the Yosemite Valley, did not attribute any great part of the excavation of the valley to the glacier. He regarded the Yosemite as a simple crack or rent in the crust of the earth.
John Muir, who followed these early students, maintained that ice had accomplished nearly all the Yosemite sculpturing.
H. W. Turner, on the other hand, found no reason to believe that anything other than stream action, influenced by the peculiar rock structure, had had an important role in the origin of the valley, although he recognized that it had been the pathway of a glacier.
Joseph LeConte,[13] W. H. Brewer, M. G. Macomb,[14] George Davidson,[15] I. C. Russell,[16] George F. Becker, Willard D. Johnson, E. C. Andrews, Douglas W. Johnson, F. L. Ransome, J. N. LeConte, A. C. Lawson, Eliot Blackwelder, Ernst Cloos, John P. Buwalda, M. E. Beatty, and George D. Louderback have all studied the geology of the Yosemite Valley or the Yosemite region and have published the results of their work. The influences of the topography of the Sierra Nevada upon meteorological conditions were studied and reported upon by W. A. Glassford in the early ’nineties.
Prior to 1913, however, no one had made a comprehensive study of the geology of the entire Yosemite region. Ideas regarding the origin of the valley and related features were still hazy. In 1913, at the instance of the Sierra Club, the U. S. Geological Survey sent out a party of scientists to begin a systematic and detailed investigation. These men were François E. Matthes and Frank C. Calkins. The former was to study especially the history of the development of the Yosemite Valley; the latter to study the different types of rock. In the years that have elapsed, Matthes has carried his investigations over the entire Yosemite region and into the areas to north and south. Thus he has worked out quite definitely, back to its beginning, the story of the origin of the Yosemite and of the other valleys of the same type in the Sierra Nevada. His conclusions, published by the government, have stood the test of criticism by other members of his profession.
An extensive bibliography of the geology of Yosemite appears in A Bibliography of National Parks and Monuments West of the Mississippi River, Vol. I, 1941, pp. 95-106. The list of Matthes’ contributions to Yosemite literature is long. Probably the most significant and generally useful item is Geologic 132 History of the Yosemite Valley. This is a thorough report on the author’s study and also contains a paper by Frank C. Calkins on the granitic rocks of the Yosemite region.
Indians provided the motive for the first penetration of the whites into Yosemite Valley, but the ethnology of the region received scant attention during the first years of contacts with the aborigines. Lafayette H. Bunnell, a member of the “discovery” party of 1851, has provided satisfying accounts of the primitive Ah-wah-nee-chees in the valley, and Galen Clark, who was intimately acquainted with members of the original band, recorded their history, customs, and traditions many years after his early contacts with them. In the early ’seventies, Stephen Powers gave to them the attention of a professional ethnologist, and Constance F. Gordon-Cumming studied them in the ’eighties.
In 1898, the Bureau of American Ethnology investigated the Indians of the Tuolumne country, and William H. Holmes published the findings. Samuel A. Barrett first published on the geography and dialects of the Miwok (of which the Yosemite Indians were a part) in 1908. Barrett’s work with the Miwok continued for many years, and he is credited with several important papers. Alfred L. Kroeber, a leading authority on California Indians, first published on the Miwok in 1907 and since has published extensively on the Ah-wah-nee-chees and all their neighbors. E. W. Gifford, who has been associated with both Barrett and Kroeber in the ethnological work of the University of California, has made important contributions to the published history and culture of the Miwok. His first paper on his work in the Yosemite region appeared in 1916. C. Hart Merriam devoted careful study to the myths, folk tales, and village sites of the Yosemite Indians early in the 1900’s, and his published accounts appeared in 1910 and 1917. Mrs. H. J. Taylor, working in Yosemite Valley, obtained much important data from one of the last members of the Yosemite band, Maria 133 Lebrado, and since 1932 has published several significant items. In 1941, Elizabeth H. Godfrey, of the Yosemite Museum staff, compiled a popular summary of the work done on the Yosemites entitled, “Yosemite Indians Yesterday and Today,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1941. The Yosemite Museum collections of objects and documents include valuable local Indian materials, which provide a most interesting and convincing story of the Ah-wah-nee-chees.
In the field of biology, the Yosemite forests attracted the first attention of scientists. Botanists generally agree that in the Big Tree, the sugar pine, the yellow pine (ponderosa and Jeffrey), the red and white firs, and the incense cedar of the Sierra is the finest and most remarkable group of conifers in the world. The Big Tree (Sequoia gigantea), of course, is the most phenomenal and claims first place, chronologically, in the scientific literature. In the number of workers concerned with it and in the quantity of their writings, the Big Tree also holds a respected place.
Among the early writers who dealt with the Big Tree groves of the present Yosemite National Park were Hutchings, Whitney, Asa Gray, Isaac N. Bromley, J. Otis Williams, Muir, Bunnell, and Clark. The latter was among the first to study the Sequoia groves of the Yosemite but he did not publish for nearly half a century after he made his first observations. Following the early announcements of the existence of the Tuolumne, Merced, and Mariposa groves, another group of botanists and semiprofessional workers concentrated upon the study of the Big Tree. Walter G. Marshall, Charles Palache, Paul Shoup, Julius Starke, George Dollar, and W. R. Dudley made their contributions at this time, and Muir redoubled his initial efforts. After the turn of the century, botanists and foresters in numbers concentrated upon the Big Tree. Their publications are too numerous to list, but special mention must be made of the work of Willis L. Jepson, George B. Sudworth, 134 Ellsworth Huntington, James C. Shirley, L. F. Cook, and the continued inspired writing of Muir. The sequoia, oldest living thing, is now and always will be a fascinating subject for scientific and philosophical study. Until a thorough investigation of the ecology of a grove of giant sequoias has been made and its result published, there remains a practical need for research in this realm.
Botanical studies other than investigations of the Big Tree were limited in the pioneer days to the work of John Muir. In the early 1900’s, Harvey M. and Carlotta C. Hall did important work in the present national park, and their published Works continue to be dependable guides for present-day botanists. Enid Michael, long a resident in Yosemite Valley, was untiring in her field studies, and her many published articles about the flora of the park are of importance to all investigators. Carl W. Sharsmith has studied intensively in the high mountain “gardens” of the park. Mary C. Tresidder published a very useful guide to the trees of the park in 1932. Emil F. Ernst has studied the forests and forest enemies in the park for many years. Willis L. Jepson’s work constitutes a substantial basis for all botanical studies in Yosemite as it is for other parts of the State, and the investigations of LeRoy Abrams, 1911, have been important to subsequent workers. The studies of George M. Wright, during his residence in the park in the 1920’s, resulted in significant papers on life zones in Yosemite and were the groundwork for the later important studies by him and his associates in founding and conducting broad biological surveys in the entire national park system—an undertaking briefly described later in this chapter.
The Yosemite fauna elicited no particular attention from pioneers other than James Capen Adams, who in 1854 captured grizzly bears for exhibit purposes, and John Muir, who applied himself to certain bird and mammal studies quite as enthusiastically as he did to botany and geology. In the opening 135 years of the twentieth century, a few bird students, among them W. Otto Emerson, W. K. Fisher, Virginia Garland, C. A. Keeler, M. S. Ray, and O. Widman, published on their observations in the present park, but not until Joseph Grinnell initiated his publication program in 1911 did Yosemite zoölogy find reasonable representation in scientific journals. Grinnell and his staff from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoölogy of the University of California began formal field work in Yosemite in the fall of 1914 and continued through 1920 in making a complete survey of the vertebrate natural history of the region. Grinnell, Tracy I. Storer, Walter P. Taylor, Joseph Dixon, Charles L. Camp, Gordon F. Ferris, Charles D. Holliger, and Donald D. McLean participated in the work. The results of this survey, Grinnell and Storer’s Animal Life in the Yosemite, published by the University of California Press in 1924, constitutes an exhaustive and most useful reference on the subject. David Starr Jordan considered it the best original work on life histories published in the West. This study, like the geological work by Matthes, was endorsed and facilitated by the Sierra Club.
After the Museum of Vertebrate Zoölogy paved the way, wildlife studies in the park increased, and Yosemite found better representation in the biological literature. Most of the workers who had participated in Grinnell’s survey published extensively. Others who made notable contributions are Charles W. and Enid Michael, Barton W. Evermann, A. B. Howell, Vernon Bailey, J. M. Miller, John A. Comstock, E. O. Essig, and Edwin C. Van Dyke.
After 1920, when the National Park Service instituted a park-naturalist program in Yosemite, the regular and seasonal employees of the Naturalist Department made many contributions to the scientific knowledge of the park. Among the permanent park naturalists who conducted biological investigations are Ansel F. Hall, Carl P. Russell, George M. Wright, 136 C. A. Harwell, C. C. Presnall, A. E. Borell, M. E. Beatty, James Cole, C. Frank Brockman, M. V. Walker, Harry Parker, and Russell Grater. D. D. McLean, who participated in the Grinnell Survey, also made further contributions as a regular employee of the Naturalist Department. Dr. H. C. Bryant, first as a seasonal employee and later as a regular member of the Director’s staff, published extensively on his studies in the park and was influential in starting many other workers on investigations of biological nature.
One important development in biological research in Yosemite had an influence on the wildlife program of the entire National Park Service. George M. Wright, ranger and Assistant Park Naturalist, during the late 1920’s sensed the dangers of the uncoördinated wildlife policy of the National Park Service and determined that there should be better administrative understanding of the normal biotic complex of Yosemite and all other national parks. In 1929, Wright was placed on a field status in order that he might organize a central unit of wildlife investigators to survey the wildlife problems of the National Park Service and recommend a broad Service-wide policy of wildlife management. Joseph S. Dixon and Ben W. Thompson were employed by Wright to assist him in this undertaking. Their work during the next several years was conducted from headquarters in Berkeley, California, and from Washington, D. C. It demonstrated that a Wildlife Division was an important administrative adjunct in the Director’s organization. In 1936, Wright lost his life while in the course of his significant work. Such progress had been made in establishing policy and procedure that the program persisted. It holds a strategic place in the regular administrative set-up of the Director’s office and reaches all field areas with its guidance.
The bibliography of scientific work done in Yosemite National Park since World War I is too extensive to be included here. A goodly part of it is contained in A Bibliography of 137 National Parks and Monuments West of the Mississippi River. References to research projects published since the appearance of that bibliography appear in the publications of the Yosemite Natural History Association, particularly the monthly journal, Yosemite Nature Notes. Especially significant items dealing with wildlife policy and trends in park management are included in the references appended to the present volume. In brief, it may be said that the wildlife problems of Yosemite National Park are now fairly well defined and that administrative and technical practices are so aligned as to assure preservation of the faunal and floral characteristics of the reservation within the concept of “public enjoyment and use” of today and tomorrow. As Director of the National Park Service, Newton B. Drury has said, “It is national park policy to display wildlife in a natural manner. The normal habits of animals are interfered with as little as possible, and artificial management is refrained from except for protective purposes and then only as a last resort. The pauperizing or domestication of the native animals is avoided, as is also the herding or feeding of these animals to provide ‘shows.’ Under this policy the park is a wildlife refuge but it is neither a circus or a zoo.”
The wildlife of Yosemite, like its forests and wildflower displays, its renowned cliffs and waterfalls, its glacial pavements, its meadows and valleys, and its spectacular mountaintops, has enthralled its lay visitors quite as it has galvanized the scientist and technician. When Stephen T. Mather assumed the directorship of the national parks in 1916, he determined at the outset to provide park visitors with the information on the natural and historic features which they wanted. Educational endeavors were made a part of his projected program even before a staff had been organized. Surveys of outdoor educational methods and nature teaching as practiced in several European countries had been made in 1915 by C. M. Goethe, and his reports of the success of this work had inspired a few 138 Americans to establish similar educational work in the United States. The California Fish and Game Commission in 1918 sent its educational director, Dr. Harold C. Bryant, into the Sierra to reach vacationists with the message of the conservationist. Yosemite National Park and the playground areas about Lake Tahoe witnessed the introduction of “nature guiding” several years prior to the inclusion of the work in the broad field program of the National Park Service.
In 1920, Mr. Mather and some of his friends joined in supporting this nature teaching in Yosemite, and Dr. Bryant and Dr. Loye Holmes Miller were employed to lay the foundation of what has continued to be an important part of the program of the Branch of Natural History.
A personal letter from Dr. Miller, University of California, Los Angeles, provides a firsthand account of his pioneering in interpretive work in Yosemite:
I think John Muir was the first Yosemite guide (see A Son of the Wilderness, by L. M. Wolfe). We smaller folk could only strive to emulate. My first experience in the valley involved a six-week period during the summer of 1917 under private auspices. Professor M. L. Maclellan (geology) and I (biology) held a summer school for public school teachers who were largely from Long Beach, California. The work consisted of lectures and field trips about the valley floor and the trails to the rim and to Merced Lake.
During the summer of 1919 I was doing similar work at Tahoe when Mr. Stephen T. Mather came through on a flying trip. He asked me to confer with him on the subject of Nature Guide work in Yosemite and urged me to come at once to the valley and begin the work there. It was late in the season and I had spent most of my free time for the year. Furthermore, it seemed to me that there should be some preparation made for the work, including a measure of publicity in the park guidebooks. I therefore urged Mr. Mather to wait until 1920 for the inauguration of an official Nature Guide service. He agreed and we parted with a definite plan for 1920.
In the meantime Mr. C. M. Goethe of Sacramento had become interested in the movement and had engaged Dr. H. C. Bryant 139 in a tour of certain summer camps. I also urged the appointment of Dr. Bryant for the Yosemite work in 1920. My University schedule was such that Dr. Bryant was able to report earlier than I. He therefore gave the first official work in the valley. We coöperated in it after my arrival. I knew that I could not devote many summers to the service because of other duties as an officer of the University. Furthermore, it seemed to me that Dr. Bryant was just the man to carry on to a larger field of development. I therefore urged repeatedly that he make a full-time activity of the movement. This end was ultimately realized. Bryant made all the official reports of our work (with my endorsement). Those reports are in the files of the Superintendent’s office in the park.
During the month of January, 1921, Dr. Bryant and I gave our services to the cause in an extended lecture tour through the eastern and middle western states. This effort was underwritten personally by Mr. Mather. The purpose and theme in this series was to publicize and stimulate interest in the natural history values of the park and the appreciation of nature through an increased knowledge and understanding.
I returned to Yosemite in the summer of 1921—again in coöperation with Dr. Bryant. The movement seemed to be well on its feet so I withdrew at the end of that summer. We were appointed as temporary rangers with duties informally defined. Each morning a field trip was conducted by one or the other of us alternately, the alternate holding office hours for questions by visitors. (Questions averaged 45 to the hour). In the afternoon a children’s field class was held. In the evening we alternated with talks at Camp Curry and the “Old Village” near Sentinel Bridge. They were busy days but interest was good. Week ends were devoted to overnight trips by one or the other of us.
At the urgent request of Mr. Ansel Hall I initiated the same type of work at Crater Lake Park, Oregon, in 1926 and continued it in 1927. My son, Alden Miller, was associated with me and two students, Miss Leigh Marian Larson and Miss Ruth Randall, acted as volunteers in charge of wildflower display. Reports of this work should be in the Crater Lake files. During the summer we were visited by Mr. Mather, by Dr. John C. Merriam, and by Mr. John D. Rockefeller and family. The interest of these men was immediate and finally bore material fruit in improvement of Crater Lake Park and the whole Nature Guide movement in America. Just as had 140 been the case at Yosemite, we were appointed as rangers. My duties at Crater Lake included nature guiding, directing traffic, comforting crying babies, rounding up stray dogs, and a wild drive down the mountain to Medford Hospital with a writhing appendicitis patient and his distracted wife in the rear seat.
I have not been officially connected with the work since but have sent many graduate students to the Yosemite Field School with what I hope was the right point of view. My own retirement at 70 years leaves me out of the picture except in an advisory capacity. Just last week in conference with my associates here, I urged Park Naturalist activity as one of the public services for which our department should train young men. So you see that my interests are still with the movement. It is a field of infinite horizon. Sincerely yours, Loye Miller
March 18, 1946.
Dr. H. C. Bryant, the coworker referred to by Dr. Miller, became Assistant Director of the National Park Service in charge of interpretive work for all national parks. To Dr. Miller’s statement may be added Bryant’s words about interpretive work:
In the spring of 1921, through a coöperative arrangement with the California Fish and Game Commission, the National Park Service instituted a free nature-guide service in Yosemite. The aim of this service was to furnish useful information regarding trees, wildflowers, birds, and mammals, and their conservation, and to stimulate interest in the scientific interpretation of natural phenomena. The means used to attain this aim were: trips afield; formal lectures, illustrated with lantern slides or motion pictures; ten-minute campfire talks, given alternately at the main resorts of the park; a stated office hour when questions regarding the natural history of the park could be answered; a library of dependable reference works, and a flower show where the commoner wildflowers, properly labeled, were displayed. Occasionally, visiting scientists helped by giving lectures.
About this same time, a Yosemite ranger, Ansel F. Hall, conceived the idea of establishing a Yosemite museum to serve as a public contact center and general headquarters for the interpretive 141 program. Superintendent W. B. Lewis endorsed the plan, and the old Chris Jorgenson artists’ studio was made into a temporary museum; Hall was placed in charge as permanent educational officer. The same year found a museum program under way in Yellowstone National Park, where Milton P. Skinner was made park naturalist, and in Mesa Verde National Park, where Superintendent Jesse Nusbaum organized a museum to care for the archeological treasures brought to light among the ruins of prehistoric man’s abode. Glacier, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia, and Zion quickly organized educational programs similar to those established by Yosemite and Yellowstone, and in 1923 Hall, with headquarters in Berkeley, was designated to coördinate and direct the interpretive work in all parks. Working with Dr. Frank R. Oastler, Hall in 1924 organized a comprehensive plan of educational activities and defined the objectives of the naturalist group.
In 1924, C. J. Hamlin was president of the American Association of Museums. The opportunities opened by national park museums were called to his attention by Hall, and the American Association of Museums immediately investigated the possibilities of launching adequate museum programs in the parks. In response to recommendations made by the Association and the National Park Service, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial made funds available with which to construct a fireproof museum in Yosemite National Park. This, one of the first permanent national park museums, became the natural center around which revolves the educational program in Yosemite. Even before the Yosemite museum installations had been opened to the public, demonstration of the effectiveness of the institution as headquarters for the educational staff and visiting scientists convinced leaders in the American Association of Museums that further effort should be made to establish a general program of museum work in national 142 parks. Additional funds were obtained from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, and new museums were built in Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks. Dr. Herman C. Bumpus, who had guided the museum planning and construction in Yosemite, continued as the administrator representing the association and Rockefeller interests, and Herbert Maier was architect and field superintendent on the construction projects. It was Dr. Bumpus who originated the “focal-point museum” idea.
When the museums of Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone had demonstrated their value to visitors and staff alike, they were accepted somewhat as models for future work, and upon the strength of their success, the Service found it possible to obtain regular government appropriations with which to build several additional museums in national parks and monuments. When P.W.A. funds became available, further impetus was given to the museum program, and a Museum Division of the Service was established in 1935, embracing historic areas of the East as well as the scenic national parks. It was my privilege to serve as the first head of this unit. The work of the Museum Division has expanded until there are more than one hundred small national park and monument museums and historic-house museums; more are planned for the future.
In order to stimulate balanced development of interpretive programs, Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior, appointed a committee of educators under the chairmanship of Dr. John C. Merriam to study the broad educational possibilities in national parks (see Wilbur, 1929). In 1929, this committee recommended that an educational branch, with headquarters in Washington, be established in the Service. It was further recommended that the committee continue to function on a permanent basis as an advisory body, “whose duty it shall be to advise the Director of National Parks on matters pertinent to educational policy and developments.”
Dr. Bryant, who since 1920 had served as a summer employee on the Yosemite educational staff and who had been a member of the Committee on Study of Educational Problems in National Parks, was made head of the new branch on July 1, 1930. Antedating the establishment of the branch by one year was the previously mentioned wildlife survey instituted in national parks by George M. Wright, who began his career in the National Park Service as a park ranger in Yosemite in 1927.
Thus it is evident that the pioneer interpretive work done in Yosemite projected its influence and its personnel into the wider fields of “nature guiding” and museum programs throughout the National Park Service. It may be shown, also, that the educational work done by the Yosemite staff has been instrumental in advancing the naturalist programs in state parks and elsewhere where out-of-door nature teaching is offered to the public.[17] Some three hundred public areas and agencies in the United States provide naturalist services modeled on the Yosemite plan. Only ten per cent of these are in the National Park System.
One of the far-reaching influences of the Yosemite naturalist department is the Yosemite School of Field Natural History, a summer school for the training of naturalists, where emphasis is placed on the study of living things in their natural environment. The school was founded in 1925 by Dr. H. C. Bryant in answer to a demand for better trained naturalists for the Yosemite staff. There was need for a training not furnished by the universities. The California Fish and Game Commission coöperated with the National Park Service in starting this school program. The staff is composed of park naturalists and the regular Yosemite ranger-naturalist force, aided by specialists from universities and other government bureaus. The last week of the field period is spent in making studies at timberline.
As the name implies, emphasis is placed on field work. The work is of university grade, although no university credit is offered. Graduates of this school are filling positions as nature guides in parks and summer camps throughout the country. Many of the naturalist and ranger-naturalist positions in the National Park Service are held by graduates of this field school.
The Park Naturalist position in Yosemite National Park has been held by Ansel F. Hall, 1922-1923; Carl P. Russell, 1923-1929; C. A. Harwell, 1929-1940; C. Frank Brockman, 1941-1946; and now, Donald Edward McHenry. These men and their assistants have supervised the naturalist activities including the Yosemite Museum program, directed the Yosemite School of Field Natural History, and the activities of the Yosemite Natural History Association, including the editing and publishing of Yosemite Nature Notes. This last-named organization has existed since 1924 as a society coöperating with the National Park Service in advancing the work of the Yosemite Naturalist Department. It is the successor of the Yosemite Museum Association formed by Ansel F. Hall in 1920. On April 24, 1925, members of its advisory council and board of trustees defined these purposes of the Association:
1. To gather and disseminate information regarding birds, mammals, flowers, trees, Indians, history, geology, trails, scenic features, and other subjects so well exemplified by Nature in Yosemite National Park and elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada.
2. To develop and enlarge the Yosemite Museum (in coöperation with the National Park Service) and to establish subsidiary units, such as the Glacier Point Lookout and branches of similar nature.
3. To contribute in every way possible to the development of the educational activities of the Yosemite Nature Guide Service.
4. To publish (in coöperation with the National Park Service) Yosemite Nature Notes, a periodical containing articles of scientific interest concerning the matters referred to in this statement of purposes.
5. To promote scientific investigation along the lines of greatest 145 popular interest and to publish from time to time bulletins or circulars of a nontechnical nature.
6. To maintain in Yosemite Valley a library containing works of historical, scientific, and popular interest.
7. To study the living conditions, past and present, of the remaining Indians of the Yosemite region, for the purpose of preserving their arts, customs, and legends.
8. To strictly limit the operations, business, property, and assets of the association to purposes which shall be scientific and educational, in order that the association shall not be organized, constituted, or operated for profit, and so that no part of the net income of the association shall inure to the benefit of any member or other party thereto.
These objectives in almost every particular are also the objectives of the Naturalist Department of Yosemite National Park. In 1937 the Congress authorized park naturalists and other government employees to devote their regular working hours to the program of the Yosemite Natural History Association and similar “coöperating societies” in national parks which might be designated by the Secretary of the Interior. In effect, the Yosemite Natural History Association is an auxiliary of the naturalist department. For nearly twenty-five years it has adhered to its defined purposes, and the support it has given to the interpretive program has furthered research in the park, enriched the collections of the Yosemite Museum, and promoted the dissemination of the Yosemite story.
The function of the interpreters has been, and their purpose must be, to enrich the mountain experience of the Yosemite traveler and thereby demonstrate that a national park is far more than a tourist’s way station. Upon today’s visitor and his full awareness of national-park values the future of the national-park concept must depend. A public which, in its enjoyment of the parks, comprehends the importance of “the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein” will insist that they remain unimpaired.
In the body of Indian fighters who first entered Yosemite Valley, there appears to have been but one man who sensed the possibilities of public good to be derived from the amazing place just discovered. A year prior to the entry of the Mariposa Battalion, L. H. Bunnell, in climbing the trail from Ridley’s Ferry (Bagby) to Bear Valley, had descried in the eastern mountains an immense cliff which, apparently, loomed, column-like, to the very summit of the range. He looked upon the “awe-inspiring sight with wonder and admiration, and turned from it with reluctance to resume the search for coveted gold.”
When, on March 25, 1851, Bunnell stood at Inspiration Point with other members of Savage’s command and gazed upon the extravagance of natural wonders, he recognized “the immensity of rock” which had, the previous year, astonished him from afar. He writes:
Haze hung over the valley—light as gossamer—and clouds partially dimmed the higher cliffs and mountains. This obscurity of vision but increased the awe with which I beheld it, and as I looked, a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears with emotion.
He withdrew from the trail and stationed himself on a projecting rock, where he might contemplate all that was spread before him. Major Savage, bringing up the rear of the column, brought him out of his soliloquy in time to join the battalion in its descent to the floor of the valley.
The party that night discussed the business of naming the valley as they sat about their first campfire, near the foot of Bridalveil Fall. Bunnell comments:
It may appear sentimental, but the coarse jokes of the careless, and the indifference of the practical, sensibly jarred my more devout feelings, while this subject was a matter of general conversation; as if a sacred subject had been ruthlessly profaned, or the visible power of Deity disregarded.
Bunnell’s later discussions with residents of the Mariposa hills and his very tangible evidence in the form of personal funds expended on the Coulterville trail to Yosemite, indicate that he was the first to strive for public recognition of the assets available in the new scenic wonderland. Other men of the region were understandably slow to develop aesthetic appreciation for that which only thrilled and produced no gold.
By 1855 rumor and conjecture regarding the mysteries of the valley had created sufficient interest among the old residents and the many newcomers in the mining camps to prompt fascination in J. M. Hutchings and his story when he returned to Mariposa after his first “scenic banqueting” under Yosemite walls. With the publication of the Hutchings articles and the Ayres drawings, curiosity may be said to have become general, and the trek to the valley was started.
The entire mountain region was, of course, public domain, and, though it had not been surveyed, it was generally conceded that preëmption claims could be made upon it. Homesteaders were establishing themselves in numerous mountain valleys above the gold region, and such “squatting” was done with the assent of state and federal officers. It is hardly surprising that some local aspirants laid claim to parts of Yosemite Valley. The company that expected to develop a water project in 1855 was apparently the first to attempt to establish rights. Then came the series of would-be hotel owners, whose activities have been described. James C. Lamon was a mountaineer who came to Yosemite in 1859 and aided in the building of the Cedar Cottage. While so engaged, he established himself in the upper end of Yosemite Valley and there developed the first bona fide homestead by settlement. For many years his log cabin was a picturesque landmark in the valley, and today two orchards near Camp Curry serve as reminders of his pioneering.
With the advent of the ’sixties California began to recognize the aesthetic value of some of her mountain features. The acclaim of leaders from the East and the expressed wonder of notables from abroad played a part in the development of a state pride in the beauties of Yosemite, and, gradually, it became apparent that only poor statesmanship would allow private claims to affect an area of such world-wide interest.
On March 28, 1864, Senator John Conness,[18] of California, introduced in the U. S. Senate a bill to grant to the State of California tracts of land embracing the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. On May 17, his bill was reported out of committee. On the occasion of the debate which followed, Senator Conness entered into the record of American conservation the first evidences of national consciousness of park values as we conceive of them today. He started the long train of legislative acts which have given the United States the world’s greatest and most successful system of national parks. It is a fact, of course, that the Senate action of 1864 did not create a national park but it did give Federal recognition to the importance of natural reservations in our cultural scheme, and charged California with the responsibility of preserving and presenting the natural wonders of the Yosemite.
John Muir
By George Fiske Galen Clark
Colonel H. C. Benson
James M. Hutchings
By J. N. LeConte Sierra Club Headquarters in Yosemite, 1898
By Ansel Adams William E. Colby
Senator Conness explained to the Senate that it was the purpose of his bill “to commit them [Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees] to the care of the authorities of that State for their constant preservation, that they may be exposed to public view, and that they may be used and preserved for the benefit of mankind.... The plan [of preservation] comes from gentlemen of fortune, of taste, and of refinement.... The bill was prepared by the commissioner of the General Land Office, who also takes a great interest in the preservation both of the Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees Grove.”[19]
The bill was passed by the Senate on May 17, referred to the House Committee on Public Lands on June 2, debated and passed by the House on June 29, and signed by President Lincoln on July 1, 1864. These deliberations, which designated the first scenic reservation for free public use, were consummated under the stress of waging war.
In order to eliminate friction and delays in the operation of legislative machinery, proponents of the Yosemite bill secured its passage without recognition of the private claims made by Yosemite settlers. Lamon, clearly a bona fide homesteader; Hutchings, who had a short time before the passage of the act purchased the Upper Hotel property; Black, the owner of Black’s Hotel; and Ira Folsom, interested in the Leidig property, pressed their claims and involved the new state park in prolonged litigation.
The State Park Act provided that the Yosemite Grant and the Mariposa Big Trees should be managed by a board of commissioners, of whom the governor of the state was to be one. On September 28, 1864, three months after the grant was made, Governor F. K. Low proclaimed that trespassing upon the tracts involved must desist. His board of Yosemite commissioners was appointed in the same proclamation.
Frederick Law Olmsted, even then an accomplished landscape architect, was made chairman of the board. As Brockman (1946, p. 106) has revealed in his article on Olmsted, the chairman was also the first administrative officer of the Yosemite Grant. Olmsted’s statement of 1890 substantiates this fact: “I had the honor to be made chairman of the first Yosemite Commission, and in that capacity to take possession of the Valley for the State, to organize and direct the survey of it and to be the executive of various measures taken to guard the elements of its scenery from fires, trespassers and abuse. In the performance of these duties I visited the Valley frequently, established a permanent camp in it and virtually acted as its Superintendent.”
Legal acceptance of the gift could not be made until the next session of the state legislature. On April 2, 1866, the necessary provisions for administration were secured. The board of commissioners made the best possible selection of a guardian, the Yosemite pioneer, Galen Clark, and invited the settlers of the valley to vacate their holdings.
J. M. Hutchings, as might be expected, was wrathy. It is probable that James Lamon, after eight years of permanent residence on his land, saw no justice in the act. The other claimants held out for what might be in it. Hutchings and Lamon refused to surrender their property, and a test suit was brought against Hutchings, which was decided in his favor. This was carried to the supreme court of the state and then to the federal Supreme Court. In these last actions the commissioners were sustained. That Hutchings and Lamon were deserving of consideration and remuneration cannot be denied, but millions of Americans are today indebted to the board of commissioners who pursued the case to a settlement favorable to the people. Private titles of the type held by the Yosemite Valley settlers would have been disastrous to all administration in the years that were to come.
On the other hand, Hutchings and Lamon were deserving 151 of certain sympathy. No man had done more than J. M. Hutchings to call attention to the fact that the Yosemite was a wonderland, eminently worthy of the distinction bestowed upon it by the state. For a decade prior to the creation of the state park, he had devoted himself to disseminating knowledge on its “charming realities.” Much of this was done through his California Magazine and the lithographic reproductions of the Ayres drawings. Some of it was accomplished with his volume, Scenes of Wonder, which ran through several editions. The many published testimonials of his worth as guide and informant while operating his Hutchings House in Yosemite Valley indicate that his efforts to engender a public love for the place were not spared even after his difficulties arose with the state. And, finally, during the ten-year fight for reimbursement he lectured throughout the country, bringing home to the dwellers in Eastern cities the fact that a phenomenally beautiful area in California was worthy of their visit. Some of the manuscripts of these Eastern lectures are possessed by the Yosemite Museum. Their text reveals none of the commercialism and selfishness with which Hutchings sometimes has been charged.
The earnest efforts which Hutchings had expended in interesting the public in Yosemite had not failed to create an interest in him as well. The court had refused further consideration of the claims of the settlers, but the state legislature, influenced by public feeling and the expressed approval of the Yosemite commissioners, appropriated $60,000 to compensate the four claimants. Of this Hutchings received $24,000; Lamon, $12,000; Black, $13,000; Folsom, $6,000, and the remaining $5,000 was returned to the State Treasury. Because of this prolonged litigation, the commissioners did not secure full control of the grant until 1875.
To what extent such troubles would dissipate the best directed efforts of a board of managers of any business can well be imagined. Further difficulties developed when road privileges 152 were granted. The state legislature failed to sustain the position of the commissioners in the matter of exclusive rights for a road on the north side of the valley, and again a controversy arose which directed heated criticism upon the management of the state park. Public hostility alternated with general indifference. The state failed to provide adequate funds with which to accomplish the important work before the commissioners, and the lack of a well-defined policy handicapped the administration to a point of ruin. In 1880 a new law removed the first board and appointed a new one.
The next decade saw important developments take place in the park, but policies adopted were sure to displease someone or some faction. Criticism still prevailed. Gradually the seethings of the press brought about the development of intelligent public interest in Yosemite affairs. Indifference was replaced by discriminating attention, and Yosemite administration arrived in a new era.
In these pages not enough has been said about John Muir. His contributions to the preservation of Yosemite National Park, to the determination of scientific facts regarding it, and to public understanding of its offerings place him in the front rank of conservationists who have been instrumental in saving representative parts of the American heritage. The role he played as explorer, researcher, interpreter, and defender of the public interests in the Yosemite may well become the subject of another book of Muiriana; however, at this juncture, it is only possible to relate him rather inequitably to the field of Yosemite administrative history.
John Muir arrived in Yosemite for the first time in 1868. Intent upon making deliberate studies of all that fascinated him, he determined to remain a resident of the Yosemite region. In order to do so, he attached himself to a sheep ranch. He gave the first winter to work on the foothill ranch and the next summer to herding in the Yosemite Sierra. With the intimate 153 acquaintance so made with sheep and their ways, he was destined to create a wave of public interest in Yosemite that would eclipse all former attentions and revolutionize the administrative scheme.
For eight years after his first Sierra experience, John Muir rambled over his “Range of Light.” He tarried for some time in Yosemite Valley and was employed by J. M. Hutchings, at times, to operate a sawmill, which Muir immortalized merely by inhabiting it.
Some impression of his first employment in Yosemite Valley and his early outlook upon the Yosemite scene may be gained from these paragraphs of his memoirs published by Badè.[20]
“I had the good fortune to obtain employment from Mr. Hutchings in building a sawmill to cut lumber for cottages, that he wished to build in the spring, from the fallen pines which had been blown down in a violent wind-storm a year or two before my arrival. Thus I secured employment for two years, during all of which time I watched the varying aspect of the glorious Valley, arrayed in its winter robes; the descent from the heights of the booming, out-bounding avalanches like magnificent waterfalls; the coming and going of the noble storms; the varying songs of the falls; the growth of frost crystals on the rocks and leaves and snow; the sunshine sifting through them in rainbow colors; climbing every Sunday to the top of the walls for views of the mountains in glorious array along the summit of the range, etc.
“I boarded with Mr. Hutchings’ family, but occupied a cabin that I built for myself near the Hutchings’ winter home. This cabin, I think, was the handsomest building in the Valley, and the most useful and convenient for a mountaineer. From the Yosemite Creek, near where it first gathers its beaten waters at the foot of the fall, I dug a small ditch and brought a stream into the cabin, entering at one end and flowing out the other 154 with just current enough to allow it to sing and warble in low, sweet tones, delightful at night while I lay in bed. The floor was made of rough slabs, nicely joined and embedded in the ground. In the spring the common pteris ferns pushed up between the joints of the slabs, two of which, growing slender like climbing ferns on account of the subdued light, I trained on threads up the sides and over my window in front of my writing desk in an ornamental arch. Dainty little tree frogs occasionally climbed the ferns and made fine music in the night, and common frogs came in with the stream and helped to sing with the Hylas and the warbling, tinkling water. My bed was suspended from the rafters and lined with libocedrus plumes, altogether forming a delightful home in the glorious Valley at a cost of only three or four dollars, and I was loath to leave it.”
When he was not running Hutchings’ mill, he was making lonely trips of discovery or guiding visitors above the valley walls. Perhaps Muir knew of the use he would make of the natural history data he was gathering, but few of his associates sensed the fact that he would soon make the nation quicken with new views of Yosemite values.
He first made his influence felt in the early ’seventies, when he began publishing on Yosemite in journals and periodicals. His material awakened responses everywhere. On February 5, 1876, he published an article in the Sacramento Record Union which was one of the initial steps in his forceful appeal to America to save the Yosemite high country from the devastations of sheep and the incendiary fires of sheepherders.
It is likely that few who today enjoy the Yosemite High Sierra realize that sheep, “hoofed locusts,” were responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park. The people of California, awakened to the danger by the warnings of Muir and others, attempted to secure an enlargement of the state park. Selfish local interests frustrated the plan. In 1889, John Muir allied himself with the Century Magazine, and a plan was 155 launched which was designed to arouse a public sentiment that could not be shunted. Muir produced the magic writings, and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of the Century, secured the support of influential men in the East. On October 1, 1890, a law was enacted which set aside an area, larger than the present park, as “reserved forest lands.” Within this reserve were the state-controlled Yosemite and Mariposa Grove grants.
The reactions of residents of the regions adjacent to the new national park to this legislation was typical of the period. Citizens of the counties affected could not foresee the coming of unbroken streams of automobile traffic, which eventually would bring millions of dollars to their small marts of trade. The thought of losing some thousands of acres of taxable land caused county seats to seethe with unrest. The local press painted pictures of dejected prospects and near ruin. The following summary of a lengthy wail from a contemporary paper reveals the fears that prevailed:
Let us summarize the result of our analysis. On the one side, we have 932,600 acres of land taken away from the control and use of the people at large, and of the people of Mariposa, Tuolumne, Mono, and Fresno counties in particular, for the ostensible purpose of preserving timber, mineral deposits, and natural curiosities or wonders within said reservation—for whose benefit, the act does not say, but presumably for the benefit of tourists.
On the other side, we find: That the avowed object of preserving forests appears to be only a false pretense to cover up the real object of the scheme, whatever it may be—that to preserve mineral deposits will prevent untold treasures from being employed in industry and commerce, and prevent the employment of thousands for many years to come in the exploration of these mineral deposits—that to preserve natural curiosities and wonders, it is not necessary to fling away nearly a million acres of land, when all that is necessary can be accomplished by attaching to each wonder as much land, as, through natural formation, contributes in any measure towards its maintenance—that, if on the one hand, these claims are respected, it will condemn hundreds of American settlers to poverty, 156 if, on the other hand, these claims are bought out, it will entail an expense of many millions on the country, whilst the claimants, themselves, will never receive anything like the amount their properties would be worth, in the course of time, if this part of the country is left to its own development without Government interference, and all the settlements now existing will be left to fall into decay and ruin, or will have to be worked by a system of tenantry, a curse, as contemporary history shows, which ought never be allowed to take root in our country.
The preservation of the full watershed of the Yosemite Valley is not only a legitimate, but a desirable object; the same holds good with the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, or any other grand work of nature. Every alienation of land, beyond this, is of evil.
This local feeling resulted in immediate attempts to change the park boundaries. The first attempt was frustrated largely through the efforts of the Sierra Club. This organization came into existence shortly after Yosemite National Park was created and has always been one of the most important agencies that have promoted the safety of Yosemite treasures. Its publication, the Sierra Club Bulletin, which first appeared in 1893, is a rich source of Yosemite history. For twenty-two years John Muir was the president of the club. His vim in leaping to the defense of the great natural preserve was no less than had been his vigor in working for its creation. Muir aided in the preservation of national monuments as well. In early May, 1903, Theodore Roosevelt, then president, visited Yosemite via Raymond and the Mariposa Grove. Governor George C. Pardee, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, and John Muir were among those who interpreted the scene for the President. Conservation matters were discussed by Muir and the legislation which was to become famous as the Antiquities Act of 1906 was given some definition at this time. It was truly an important occasion.
Chief among the Sierra Club defenders of Yosemite who have carried on since the death of Muir is William E. Colby. 157 He served forty-four years as secretary of the organization, two years as president, and is now, as a director, a frequently sought source of counsel. He led the club’s summer outings for more than three decades. Throughout this period Colby has unceasingly built the Sierra Club’s prestige in the field of conservation. For the past six years he has served as a member of the Yosemite Advisory Board, and has been in close touch with past and current park problems.
The failure of the national government to provide funds with which to extinguish private claims within the park involved the administration in difficulties which are being felt even yet. By 1904 relations between administrative officers and the large number of owners of private holdings had become so strained that legal action was imperative. Boundary revisions were required. Major Hiram M. Chittenden headed the commission appointed to investigate possible boundary changes. Upon the recommendation of this commission large areas on the east and west were lopped off. In 1906 a tract on the southwest was cut off, and since that time small changes have been rather numerous. Private lands still exist within the park and constitute an ever-present source of trouble.
From the first the control of Yosemite National Park has been vested in the Secretary of the Interior. Immediately after the passage of the act of creation, military units were detailed to take charge of all national park lands. The state retained its plan of administration of the original Yosemite Grant, and so came about the dual control which for sixteen years colored the Yosemite administration with petty misunderstandings and hindered progress in the maintenance of the entire region.
Galen Clark’s old ranch (Wawona) became headquarters for the Acting Superintendent of the federal preserve. From this eccentric hub, patrols of cavalrymen were sent into the unbounded wilderness area of the new preserve. A trail system and accurate maps did not exist. One of the first undertakings 158 of the early superintendents was to make the rough country accessible by horse trail. The topography was studied, and a good map was prepared. Following the practice established in Yellowstone National Park, patrolling stations were established, and the United States Army had the safety of Yosemite’s fauna and flora fairly within its keeping.
Since pioneer days, sheep and cattlemen had enjoyed unrestricted use of the excellent range which was now forbidden them. Naturally they were reluctant to abandon it. Their trespass was the most formidable threat with which the troopers were confronted, and concerted, ingenious work was necessary to expel the intruders. When the first culprits were taken into custody, it was found that no law provided for their punishment. Congress had failed to provide a penalty for the infraction of park rules. Nothing daunted, the superintendents put the captured herders under arrest and escorted them across the most mountainous regions to a far boundary of the park. There they were liberated. The herder’s sheep were driven out of the reserve at another distant point. By the time the herder had located his animals, his losses usually were so great as to represent a more severe punishment than could have been meted out by the court had the law applied. Several years of this practice caused neighboring ranchers to keep their animals out of the forbidden territory.
Captain Abram Epperson Wood was the first superintendent. With detachments from the Fourth Cavalry he arrived in the park on May 19, 1891, and continued in charge until his death in 1894. Each year the troopers came in April or May and withdrew in the fall. During the winter two civilian rangers attempted to patrol the area. With such inadequate winter protection, it is small wonder that poachers grew to feel that the wild life of the reserve was their legitimate prey. It was not until 1896, in fact, that a determined effort was made to keep firearms out of the park at any time of the year.
For twenty-three years the Department of the Interior continued to call upon the War Department for assistance in administering Yosemite National Park. Eighteen army officers took their turn at the helm. Some of them assumed leadership after some years of Yosemite experience as subordinate officers. Others were placed in command with no previous service in the park. Lieutenant (later Colonel) Harry C. Benson and Major W. W. Forsyth were perhaps the most distinguished of the superintendents. Benson was certainly more than a superintendent; he was an explorer, map maker, trail builder, fish planter, and nemesis of the sheepmen. Among the subordinate officers and enlisted men a number left their mark by way of accomplishments. N. F. McClure and Milton F. Davis are remembered for their explorations and excellent map making. William F. Breeze and W. R. Smedberg worked with McClure and Benson in stocking the headwaters of the Yosemite rivers with trout. A. Arndt pioneered in exploration of some of the northern sections of the park. Many others in the military organizations are remembered in place names throughout the Yosemite High Sierra.
Yosemite was fortunate in having within its National Park Service personnel one man, Gabriel Sovulewski,[21] who pioneered with these army units and who was acting superintendent of the park in 1908-1909 and again in 1914. For thirty-five years Mr. Sovulewski was actively engaged in caring for Yosemite. An unpublished manuscript on his National Park Service experiences is preserved in the Yosemite Museum. Within it he comments upon the Yosemite work of United States troops.
National Parks in California, and Yosemite especially, owe much to the late Colonel H. C. Benson. No one who has not participated in those strenuous years of hard riding and incessant fighting of 160 natural and human obstacles can ever realize the need for indomitable spirit and unselfish devotion to a cause that existed during those first years in Yosemite National Park. Sheep and cattle overran the country. They were owned by men who knew every foot of the terrain. We were ordered to eliminate them. There were few or no trails, and maps did not exist. Reliable guides were unobtainable, and we had more than a thousand square miles to cover.
Officers with detachments set out upon patrols that would keep them away from our base of supplies for thirty days at a time. Many times rations were short, and sixteen to twenty hours of action per day, covering sixty miles in the saddle was not unusual. Constant hammering at the offending cattlemen continued for several years, and at last they were convinced that they must vacate the territory set aside for National Park purposes. The would-be poachers and the entire countryside were taught a moral lesson which still has its effect today. Some of the present-day administrative problems are made easier because of the foundation laid in those first years of the park’s existence.
The duplication of effort and expense which resulted from the anomaly of state and federal administration within the reserve brought about controversies which finally caused many Californians to conclude that their Yosemite State Grant of 1864 might well be placed in the hands of the federal government, to be managed by the same officers who controlled the surrounding national park. The Sierra Club and many civic organizations took the lead in urging recession. Not a few citizens felt that the proposed move was an affront to state pride. This group proved to be an obstacle but was overcome in 1905, when the state legislature re-ceded to the United States the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove. A formal acceptance by Congress brought the Yosemite State Park to an end on August 1, 1906. Major Benson removed military headquarters from Camp A. E. Wood (Wawona), and Fort Yosemite came into existence on the site of the present Yosemite Lodge.
For seven years the administrative organization set up by the military continued to function. The succeeding superintendents 161 found their responsibilities increased considerably. Other national parks were coming into existence, and a national conscience was beginning to recognize the value of wilderness preserves. In 1910 the American Civic Association had launched a campaign for the creation of a national park bureau. President Taft favored central administration of the parks, and bills were introduced creating such a bureau. Major William T. Littebrant was in command in Yosemite when Dr. Adolph C. Miller, a civilian, became assistant to Secretary Lane and was placed in charge of the national parks. The next year troops did not come to Yosemite. Mark Daniels was made superintendent, and civilian employees undertook the work that had been done by the troopers.
A few civilian rangers had assumed the care of the park each winter when troops were withdrawn. Archie O. Leonard had been the first of these and he remained in the service when the administrative change was made. In 1914 “park rangers” came into existence under authorization of Secretary Lane. They patrolled the park as had the troopers, but, unlike the troopers, they remained in touch with their problems throughout the year.
In 1916 Congress created the National Park Service. Dr. Miller, in the meantime, had been called to other work, and Stephen T. Mather, who had followed Dr. Miller as assistant to the secretary, was made Director of the National Park Service. He was authorized by law to “promote and regulate the federal areas known as the national parks, monuments, and reservations.” Conservation of scenery and wildlife of the areas was declared by Congress to be a fundamental purpose of the new organization. Mr. Mather’s first undertaking was to balk exploitation schemes. Unfortunately, Yosemite had already been raided. In 1913 Congressman John E. Raker had introduced a bill granting to San Francisco rights to the Hetch Hetchy as a water reservoir. Secretary Garfield had opened the 162 way to this move in 1908. In spite of much opposition, the Raker Bill was passed by the House and Senate and approved by President Wilson. Since that time the Hetch Hetchy dam has become a reality and provides all the administrative difficulties and troubles that were expected.[22]
Private holdings in Yosemite were rather large even after the boundary changes of 1905 and 1906 were made. Timber companies possessing tracts of choice forest constituted the greatest menace. Some of these private lands have been bought up, and others have been exchanged.
During 1930 much progress was made in the acquisition of private holdings in the national park. There were 15,570 acres of land involved, which cost approximately $3,300,000. Half of the cost of purchasing these lands was defrayed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the remainder coming from the fund provided by Congress for the acquisition of private holdings in national parks.
The following statements regarding timber holdings in and near Yosemite National Park are taken from the Report of the Director of National Park Service for 1930:
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this Yosemite forest acquisition. It brought into perpetual Government ownership the finest remaining stands of sugar-pine timber in the area and reduced the total area of private holdings in that park to 5,034 acres. This total will be materially reduced when two pending deals are consummated. A tract containing 640 acres is now in course of acquisition with funds contributed by George A. Ball, of Muncie, Indiana, as is another of about 380 acres, half the funds for the latter transaction being contributed through the co-operation of Dr. Don Tresidder, president of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company.
Additional timber holdings in the Tuolumne River watershed—fine stands of sugar and yellow pine—remain in private ownership 163 outside the park. One cannot help regretting that they are imperiled, and it is hoped by all friends of these majestic forests that they may yet be saved.
In order that the beauty of the Big Oak Flat Road may be unimpaired, arrangements have been made between the Sugar Pine Lumber Co., the Forest Service, the State, and the Park Service to preserve the roadsides through selective cutting of the larger trees and careful removal of any trees that are taken out. Particularly interesting and valuable stands of timber which should be preserved untouched will be made the subject of exchanges between the Forest Service and the Sugar Pine Lumber Co.
This land acquisition program was finally assured of success in July, 1937, when legislation authorized the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the Carl Inn Tract, comprising some 7,200 acres of magnificent sugar pine forest bordering the western boundary of the park. After a year and a half of negotiations with the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company, owner of most of the tract, agreement was reached on a price of $1,495,500 to be paid by the United States. The purchase was consummated early in 1939. Senator William Gibbs McAdoo and Representative John S. McGroarty, both of California, were the ardent supporters who introduced the bills, S. 1791 and H.R. 5394, in their respective houses.
Policies regarding the toll roads by which tourists could enter the park constituted another perplexing problem with which the young National Park Service was confronted. The routes had been privately constructed and were privately owned and controlled by turnpike companies. Government funds were not available with which to purchase them outright. One company was persuaded to turn the Wawona Road over the public in exchange for a grant for the exclusive rights to the route during a certain number of years. The government assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the road during this period. The owners of the Coulterville Road could not be persuaded to agree to such a plan. As a result, 164 that part of it which is within the park has not been maintained and, because of erosion, has fallen into disuse.
The Tioga Road had been constructed in 1882-1883 by the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Mining Company for the purpose of serving the Tioga Mine. The mining venture terminated in 1884 after an expenditure of $300,000 had been made. The road had become impassable during the many years of neglect, but it was still the property of private owners when the region through which it passes became a national park. Stephen T. Mather and some of his friends bought it privately and in 1915 turned it over to the federal government. The state of California purchased the portions of the route which were outside of the park and extended the road eastward, down Leevining Canyon, so giving Yosemite a remarkable high mountain highway, free from toll, which connects Yosemite Valley with the routes of the Mono basin. Tolls were also removed from the Big Oak Flat route. Every effort was made to put all recognized routes in the best of condition consistent with government appropriations. Travel to the park grew apace, and Yosemite had, indeed, entered a new era.
The first scheme of centralized administration of the national park system was promising in theory but proved faulty in practice. More than a few difficulties appeared on the parks horizon. The national preserves were regarded in Washington somewhat as orphans and were not receiving the specialized attention so necessary for their proper administration. The introduction of Mather ideals and methods was required to bring about coördination.
The story is told that one day in 1915 Stephen Mather walked into the office of Secretary Lane and expressed indignation over the way things were run in Sequoia and Yosemite.
“Steve,” said Lane, “if you don’t like the way those parks are run, you can run them yourself.”
“Mr. Secretary, I accept the job,” was Mather’s rejoinder.
By J. V. Lloyd W. B. Lewis and Stephen T. Mather
By J. N. LeConte A Presidential Party at the Grizzly Giant Pardee Roosevelt Muir Wheeler
By J. N. LeConte Hetch Hetchy Valley before Inundation
By J. N. LeConte Devils Postpile, Excluded from Yosemite in 1905
The genial Secretary of the Interior showed him into a little office and said, “There’s your desk, Steve; now go to work.” With that Lane went out and closed the door, but presently opened it and said, “By the way, Steve, I forgot to ask what your politics are.”
With such brief preliminaries did Stephen T. Mather assume directorship of the national parks. He served through the presidential administrations of Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge, but the matter of his politics was never inquired into by any party.
Stephen Mather was born on the Fourth of July, 1867, in San Francisco. His ancestry traces back to Richard Mather, a Massachusetts clergyman of the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Stephen T. Mather was not a scion of wealth. As a young man, he made his way through college by selling books. He graduated from the University of California in 1887 and for several years was a newspaper reporter. Thereafter, he entered the employ of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and was identified with the trade name, “Twenty-Mule Team Borax,” that became well known around the world. For ten years he engaged in the production of profits for his employers and then organized his own company. It was in borax that he built up his business success and accumulated the fortune which “he later shared so generously with the nation through his investments in scenic beauty on which the people receive the dividends.”
For more than twenty-five years Stephen Mather resided in Chicago, Illinois, but his loyalty to his native state, California, never waned. He was the leading spirit in the organization of the California Society of Illinois and, as its secretary, always secured donations of a carload of choice California fruits to be served at the Society’s annual banquets. Mather then saw to it that these affairs were well written up by the press and telegraphed throughout the country on the Associated Press wires. In this publicity the spirit and motives of the present Californians, Inc., had their birth.
As might well be expected, Mather was a member of the Sierra Club and participated in many of its summer outings. (See Farquhar, 1925, pp. 52-53.) He became acquainted with national park areas on these trips, and it is said that his ideal of a unified administration of the parks resulted from the intimacies so acquired. It was his ambition to weld the parks into a great system and to make them easily accessible to rich and poor alike.
At the time Mather undertook his big task, there were thirteen parks. Some of them were difficult of access and provided few or no facilities for the accommodation of visitors. Government red tape stood in the way of action in the business of park development, but Mather cut the red tape. When government appropriations could not meet the situation, he usually produced “appropriations of his own.” It was such generosity on his part which gave the Tioga Road to the government and saved large groves of Big Trees in the Sequoia National Park. In his own office it was necessary for him personally to employ assistants. Because of the lack of government funds, he expended twice his own salary in securing the personnel needed to set his parks machine in operation. The national benefits derived from the early Mather activity in the parks were recognized by Congress, and that body took new cognizance of national park matters. Larger appropriations were made available, and Mather’s plans were put into effect.
For fourteen years he gave of his initiative and strength, as well as his money. His ideas took material form, and the park system came into being as he had planned. His work was recognized and appreciated. In 1921 George Washington University bestowed upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. His alma mater, the University of California, conferred the same degree in 1924. President W. W. Campbell on that occasion characterized him as follows:
“Stephen Tyng Mather, mountaineer and statesman; lover 167 of Nature and his fellow-men; with generous and farseeing wisdom he has made accessible for a multitude of Americans their great heritage of snow-capped mountains, of glaciers and streams and falls, of stately forests and quiet meadows.”
In 1926 he was awarded the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences for his service to the nation in national parks development. The American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society awarded the Pugsley gold medal in recognition of his national and state park work, and he was made an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.[23]
In the fall of 1928, Mather’s health failed. He suffered a stroke of paralysis which forced his retirement from public service in January, 1929. For more than a year he fought to regain his strength but in January, 1930, he was suddenly stricken and died quickly. Indeed, “the world is much the poorer for his passing, as it is much the richer for his having lived.”
One of Mather’s first acts as Director of the National Park Service was to appoint a strong man to the superintendency of Yosemite National Park. On the staff of the Geological Survey was an engineer of distinction, Washington B. (“Dusty”) Lewis. Mather appointed him to the Yosemite task and he became the first park superintendent on March 3, 1916. The Yosemite problems were complicated and trying from the beginning. The park was, even then, attracting more visitors than had been provided for. Public demands kept steadily ahead of facilities that could be made available through government appropriations. For more than twelve years W. B. Lewis expended his energy and ingenuity in bringing the great park through its formative stages.
Under his superintendency practically all the innovations which today characterize the public service of a national park 168 were instituted in Yosemite. Motor buses replaced horse-drawn stages; tolls were eliminated on all approach roads; the operating companies were reorganized and adequate tourist accommodations were provided at Glacier Point and Yosemite Valley; a modern school was provided for local children; the housing for park employees was improved; the best of electrical service was made available; the park road and trail system was enlarged greatly and improved upon; the construction of an all-year highway up the canyon of the Merced made the park accessible to a degree hardly dreamed of; provision of all-year park facilities met the demands of winter visitors; a new administrative center was developed; the Yosemite High Sierra Camps were opened; and an information service was devised. The ranger force was so organized as to make for public respect of national park ideals and personnel. The interpretive work, which makes for understanding of park phenomena and appreciation of park policies, was initiated in Yosemite and has taken a place of importance in the organization of the entire national park system.
In short, the present-day Yosemite came into existence under the hands of Lewis and his assistants. How well the demands of the period were met and future requirements provided for is evidenced by the continued healthy growth and present success of the Yosemite administrative scheme.
In the fall of 1927 Lewis was stricken by a heart attack. He later returned to his office, but in September, 1928, it became apparent that he should no longer subject himself to the strain of work at the high altitude of Yosemite Valley. He removed to West Virginia, and there partly regained his strength. Director Mather then sought his services as Assistant Director of the National Parks, and in that capacity he functioned until the summer of 1930. His physical strength, however, failed to keep pace with his ambitious spirit, and after another attack, he died at his home in a Washington suburb on August 28, 1930.
Soon after Lewis accepted his Washington appointment, Director Mather experienced the breakdown which brought about his resignation as Director. There was but one man to be thought of in connection with filling the difficult position. That man was Horace M. Albright, who had been Mather’s right-hand man since the National Park Service had existed. A native of Inyo County, California, and a graduate of the University of California, he became an assistant attorney in the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., in order to advance his learning, and there took a keen interest in plans then developing for the establishment of the National Park Service. He was detailed to work in connection with park problems and had already become familiar with them when Stephen T. Mather assumed their directorship. The Secretary of the Interior assigned him to Mather as a legal aid, which position quickly grew in responsibilities as the two men became acquainted. From the first, Albright was the Director’s chief reliance, and when the National Park Service was organized in 1916, he was made Assistant Director. In 1917, 1918, and 1919 he aided in the creation of Mount McKinley, Grand Canyon, Acadia,[24] and Zion national parks. At twenty-nine, he was made superintendent of the largest of all parks, Yellowstone, and in addition shouldered the job of Field Director of the Park Service. In that capacity he compiled budgets, presented them to congress, and handled general administrative problems in the West.
Outstanding among his special interests in park problems was his vigorous participation in programs launched to conserve and reëstablish the native fauna of national parks. He gained an intimate understanding of the needs of American wild life and actively engaged in attempts to supply its wants. He allied himself with such organizations as the National Geographic Society, the American Game Protective Association, the American Forestry Association, the American Bison Society, the American Society of Mammalogists, the Boone and Crockett Club, the Save-the-Redwoods League, and the Sierra Club. He became an expressive factor in American conservation and in his own domain, the national parks, practiced what he preached. He recognized the importance of ecological study of the great wilderness areas, with the safety of which he was charged, and pressed into service a special investigator to work on Yellowstone mammal problems. Later he seized upon the opportunity to extend this research to all parks. In keeping with his desire to assemble scientific data for the preservation of fauna and flora, he had an ambition to popularize the natural sciences as exemplified in the varied park wonderlands. He engaged actively in the development of plans for the museum, lecture, and guide service which today distinguishes the national parks as educational centers as well as pleasure grounds.
Upon the resignation of Director Mather in 1929, it was but natural that Albright should succeed him. He entered into the Yosemite administrative scheme by actual residence in the park and study of its problems. From the Yosemite personnel he drew new executives for other parks, field officers for the service at large, and administrative assistants for his Washington office. He turned to Crater Lake National Park to obtain a superintendent who would succeed Lewis. Colonel C. G. Thomson had distinguished himself as the chief executive of Crater Lake and in 1929 was called to Yosemite.
Some of the developments in Yosemite for which Thomson was largely responsible included the construction and improvements of the Wawona Road and Tunnel, improvement of the Glacier Point Road, commencement of the Big Oak Flat Road and Tioga Road realignment, the installation of improved water systems at the Mariposa Big Trees, Wawona, and Tuolumne Meadows, construction of the new Government Utility 171 Building, and many smaller projects. Such important land acquisition programs as the Wawona Basin project and the Carl Inn sugar pine addition constituted heavy administrative responsibilities imposed upon the superintendent’s office during his regime. The establishment of “emergency programs,” C.C.C., C.W.A., W.P.A., and P.W.A., greatly expanded the developmental activities in the park after 1933, and the inclusion of the Devils Postpile National Monument and Joshua Tree National Monument in the Yosemite administrative scheme increased the duties of the superintendent.
In 1937, Colonel Thomson was stricken by a heart ailment and died in the Lewis Memorial Hospital on March 23. In eulogy, Frank A. Kittredge said:
“Colonel Thomson has, through his dynamic personality and energy and the wealth of his experience, been an influence and inspiration not only to the thousands of Park visitors with whom he has had personal contact, but especially to the Park Service itself. His keen sense of the fitness and desire for the harmony of things in the national parks has made itself felt in the design of every road, every structure, and every physical development in the Park. He recognized the importance and practicability of restricting and harmonizing necessary roads and structures into a natural blending of the surroundings. He has set a standard of beauty and symmetry in construction which has been carried beyond the limits of Yosemite into the entire National Park system. The harmony of the necessary man-made developments and the unspoiled beauty of the Yosemite Valley attest to the Colonel’s injection of his refinement of thought and forceful personality, into even the everlasting granite itself of the Yosemite he loved so well.”
In June, 1937, Lawrence Campbell Merriam, a native Californian, was transferred to the superintendency of Yosemite National Park. He had received a degree in forestry from the University of California in 1921, had become a forest engineer, 172 and had later gone into emergency conservation work in the state parks throughout the United States. Upon the death of Thomson, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes appointed Merriam Senior Conservationist in the National Park Service and designated him Acting Superintendent of Yosemite.
During his four years as the chief executive of the park he renewed the service’s efforts to restore the natural appearance of the valley, and modified the master plan to provide suitable areas for the operators’ utilities.
In August, 1941, Merriam became Regional Director of Region Two, National Park Service, with headquarters at Omaha, Nebraska. Frank A. Kittredge succeeded him in Yosemite.
During World War I, Kittredge served as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers and saw service in France. Afterward, while with the Bureau of Public Roads, he was identified with park work; he made the location survey of the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park, did the first road engineering in Hawaii National Park, and devoted his attention to national park road matters handled by the Bureau.
In 1927, Kittredge was appointed chief engineer of the National Park Service and continued in that capacity for ten years, when he was made Regional Director, Region Four, a position involving supervision over Park Service programs in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah; Glacier National Park in Montana; and the territories of Alaska and Hawaii. In August, 1940, he was made Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, from which position he was transferred in 1941 to the chief executive position in Yosemite National Park. In all this varied experience with the scenic masterpieces of the national park system, Frank Kittredge maintained a sincerity of purpose in safeguarding the natural and historic values of the parks.
As was true of Mather and Albright, succeeding directors of the National Park Service have taken personal interest and 173 active part in the management of Yosemite National Park. On July 17, 1933, Arno B. Cammerer, formerly Associate Director, succeeded Albright in the Washington post. During his incumbency, 1933-1940, the national park system increased from 128 areas to 204 units, and in addition to regular appropriations, nearly 200 million dollars was expended by the Service in connection with the programs of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Emergency Relief Appropriation acts. Under Cammerer’s directorship, five C.C.C. camps were established in Yosemite National Park. With the help of C.C.C., C.W.A., and P.W.A., many management and construction projects in the park were advanced far ahead of regular schedule. The Wawona Road tunnel project was completed, and notable progress was made in constructing the Tioga and Big Oak Flat roads on modern standards. Winter use of the park increased mightily, and the Yosemite Park and Curry Company developed the Badger Pass ski center in accordance with Service plans.
Because of failing health, Cammerer resigned as Director in 1940, and Newton B. Drury, a Californian and a member of the Yosemite Advisory Board, was appointed to the position on June 19, 1940. Since 1919, Drury had been a leader in the movement to preserve distinctive areas for park purposes. As executive head of the Save-the-Redwoods League, he had become a nationally recognized authority on park and conservation affairs and was intimately acquainted with the problems of Yosemite National Park through personal study. The normal problems of the park and of the Service, generally, were greatly complicated by the circumstances resulting from World War II, and the years 1942-1945 were probably the most critical in the history of national parks. But in spite of pressure exerted by production interests and those who sought to capitalize on the park’s assets under the guise of “war necessity,” the natural values of Yosemite were held inviolate. And it is 174 to the everlasting credit of Director Drury and his staff and associates in central offices and the field that during the years of all-out warfare serious inroads were nowhere made upon national park values.
Each year, more than a half million people benefit by the great park’s offerings, and each year witnesses new demands for expansion of public utilities provided by the operators and the Government. To meet these demands and at the same time guarantee “benefit and enjoyment” of Yosemite values for future generations of visitors is one of the most exacting tasks engaged in by public servants anywhere.
One hundred fourteen years have elapsed since the explorers in Joseph Walker’s party first made their way to some point on the north rim of Yosemite Valley and beheld a tremendous scene beneath them. It is to be hoped that the Yosemite visitor today will have his enjoyment of Yosemite National Park somehow enhanced by the recorded story of the human events during the past century, particularly by the story of the human effort that made Yosemite accessible to him, but not too accessible.
Yosemite, like other national parks, has its master plan. Upon it is set down in rather definite form the conception of the park staff of needs for physical improvements. This prescription is reviewed by technicians and executives in central offices and made to delimit the maximum development necessary to meet the requirements of staff and public. The master plan also contains an analysis of the inspirational and recreational experiences which attract the multitude of visitors to the park. As might be expected this analysis of Yosemite’s offerings points to the fact that one of the notable values of the reservation is found in its capacity to stimulate pride in and understanding of the heritage of natural beauty preserved within the park’s boundaries. Another important value is indicated in 175 the capacity of the park to serve as a repository of scientific treasures. In this last-named role as “museum of the out-of-doors,” Yosemite National Park reasonably may be expected to become increasingly important as the less protected areas of the Sierra Nevada are more and more encroached upon by exploiters. The exploiters are not always concerned with livestock, minerals, or timber. The aggressiveness of those who cater to recreation seekers—even of the recreation seekers themselves—constitutes a force to be reckoned with, and this group particularly lays siege to the structure of National Park Service conservatism.
It is well that the visitor to this and other national parks extend his ken. We know something of what has happened since 1833. But what will have happened to the Yosemite region by the year 2033 A.D., two hundred years after white man’s first glimpse of the valley? Will the men of great enterprise have built “ladders touching the sky, changing the face of the universe and the very color of the stars?” Or will there still be a remnant of mountain sanctuary, where the handiwork of today’s and tomorrow’s visitors will be as hard to discern as Joe Walker’s footsteps are to trace?
The following outline of the history of the Yosemite region cites the original sources of information used in preparing this book. References are to the pages of publications and manuscripts appearing in the bibliography which follows. Items cited frequently are abbreviated:
| SCB | Sierra Club Bulletin, 1893 to date. |
| USNPS | Annual Report, United States National Park Service. |
| USWD | Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, United States War Department. |
| YNP | Report of the Acting Superintendent, 1892-1914, Yosemite National Park. |
| YNHA | Yosemite Nature Notes, Yosemite Natural History Association, 1922 to date. |
| YVC | Biennial Report, Yosemite Valley Commissioners, 1867-1904. |
Garces entered Tulare Valley and named the interior range “Sierra de San Marcos.” Bancroft, 1884, p. 291; Farquhar, 1928, p. 56.
Name “Sierra Nevada” applied to mountains that now carry the name, by Padre Pedro Font. Font, map; Farquhar, 1928, p. 55.
Moraga Expedition explored lower course of Merced River and gave it the name “Merced.” Richman, p. 465; Farquhar, 1928, p. 58.
Jedediah Smith brought first party of trappers from the East. Crossed near Cajon Pass in November. Dale, p. 183; Merriam, 1923, p. 228.
J. R. Walker crossed present Yosemite National Park with a party of trappers. Leonard, Z., p. 174; Bancroft, 1885, p. 390; Farquhar, 1942, pp. 35-49; Watson, P. 57.
Bartleson party was first of immigrants. Crossed Sonora Pass and probably saw Calaveras Grove. Bidwell; Bancroft, 1886, p. 268.
First wagons brought across the Sierra by Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party. Bancroft, 1886, p. 445.
J. B. Alvarado conveyed “Mariposa Grant” to J. C. Frémont for $3,000. California Supreme Court.
Sierra gold discovery. Tinkham, p. 59.
Rush to “Southern Mines” (Mariposa region). Bunnell, p. 315.
Tuolumne County organized. Coy, 1923, p. 288.
Mariposa County established. Coy, 1923, p. 161.
Joseph Screech discovered Hetch Hetchy Valley. Hoffmann, p. 370.
J. D. Savage forced to abandon trading station at mouth of South Fork of Merced. Bunnell, p. 15.
Indians attack Savage’s Fresno River store and his Mariposa Creek Station, Dec. Bunnell, pp. 22, 23.
Organization of Mariposa Battalion under J. D. Savage. Bunnell, p. 29.
Battalion marched toward mountain stronghold of Indians, March 19. Elliott, p. 179
Chief Tenaya and a part of Yosemite tribe surrendered to advancing whites, March 25. Marvin; Bunnell, p. 52.
Battalion viewed Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point, March 25. Name “Yosemite Valley” applied. Bunnell, pp. 53, 61.
Yosemite Valley and Merced Canyon to Nevada Fall explored by men with Savage, March 26. Bunnell, p. 72.
Battalion withdrew from Yosemite without having found more Indians, March 27. Bunnell, p. 91.
Second entry to Yosemite made by Capt. John Boling’s Company, May 9. Bunnell, p. 142; Boling, June 12; Kuykendall, p. 9.
First letter dispatched from valley, May 15. Boling, June 12; Kuykendall, p. 9.
Boling captured Yosemite Indians at Tenaya Lake, May 22. Indians were escorted to Fresno Reservation, but in winter Tenaya and his family were permitted to return to the mountains. Boling, June 14; Kuykendall, p. 10; Bunnell, p. 228.
Eight prospectors entered valley May 2, and two were killed by Indians. Russell, 1926, p. 332.
Lt. Tredwell Moore entered Yosemite with detachment of 2d Infantry in June. Bunnell, p. 275; Elliott, p. 172; Hutchings, 1862, p. 75.
Yosemite Indians took refuge with Mono Indians and were not found by soldiers. Elliott, p. 172.
In August Lt. Moore found promising mineral deposits east of Sierra crest. Bunnell, p. 277.
Mariposa Grove discovered by party of prospectors. Elliott, p. 172; Russell, 1926, p. 332, YNHA, 1929, p. 51.
Yosemite Indians left Monos and returned to Yosemite, but stole horses, and Monos nearly annihilated the Yosemites for their treachery. Bunnell, pp. 275, 291; Hutchings, 1862, p. 75. Eyewitness account at variance with Bunnell’s (see p. 47).
A number of parties of prospectors entered Yosemite Valley in the fall of 1853. Bunnell, p. 295.
James Capen Adams visited Yosemite to capture grizzlies, which he trained. Hittell, T. H., p. 196.
J. M. Hutchings organized first party of sightseers to enter Yosemite. First Yosemite pictures made by T. A. Ayres in June. Bunnell, p. 304; Hutchings, 1862, p. 77; Hutchings, 1886, p. 79; YNHA, 1944, pp. 21-25.
Trail from South Fork (Wawona) built to Yosemite Valley by Milton and Houston Mann. Finished in 1856. Bunnell, p. 304; Brockman, 1943, pp. 53-54.
Galen Clark engaged in surveying ditch to supply water to Mariposa Frémont Grant. Foley, p. 108.
First house, a shack, built in Yosemite Valley by surveyors, including Bunnell. (Use of Yosemite Valley as a reservoir contemplated.) Bunnell, p. 304; Country Gentleman; Whitney, 1870, p. 18.
“Coulterville Free Trail” from Bull Creek to Yosemite built by G. W. Coulter and Bunnell. Bunnell, p. 315.
T. A. Ayres made second trip to Yosemite and made more pencil drawings. Bunnell, p. 310; Farquhar, 1926, p. 111; Ayres.
“Lower Hotel,” first permanent structure, built by Walworth and Hite at base of Sentinel Rock. Bunnell, p. 309.
Rush of miners from Tuolumne, over Mono Trail, to Mono Diggings; Tom McGee, of Big Oak Flat, perhaps blazed Mono Trail. Bodie Standard, March 1, 1879; Wasson; Hodgdon.
Beardsley and Hite put up canvas-covered house at Cedar Cottage site. Galen Clark settled at what is now Wawona, and with Milton Mann explored Mariposa Grove. Bunnell, p. 310; Brace, p. 85; Foley, p. 102.
“Upper Hotel” (Cedar Cottage) built. Operated by Mr. and Mrs. John H. Neal. Bunnell, p. 310; Hutchings, 1886, p. 101.
J. L. Cogswell party visited Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees. YNHA, 1937, pp. 60-63.
W. S. Body located mineral deposits in region that later became famous as Bodie. Wasson, p. 5.
First photograph made in Yosemite by C. L. Weed. Subject was Upper Hotel. Hutchings, 1886, p. 101; YNHA, 1929, p. 75.
James C. Lamon preëmpted and took up permanent residence in Yosemite. Hutchings, 1886, p. 134; Corcoran, 1925.
“Sheepherder Mine” (Tioga Mine) located. Bodie Daily Free Press, September 10, 1881.
California State Geological Survey established, with Prof. Josiah Dwight Whitney in charge. Whitney, 1865, p. ix; Farquhar, 1925, pp. 15-23.
Nine Bactrian camels taken to Nevada mines. Stopped in Calaveras Grove en route. Farquhar, 1925, p. 26.
Mono County established. Coy, p. 182.
C. E. Watkins, pioneer photographer, visited Yosemite Valley. YNHA, 1936, pp. 17-18.
State Geological Survey made expedition to region between upper Merced and Tuolumne rivers. Whitney, 1865, p. 13.
Artist Albert Bierstadt made first trip to Yosemite. YNHA, 1944, pp. 49-51.
J. M. Hutchings took over Upper Hotel, and it became known as “Hutchings House.” Calif. Legis., p. 323; Hutchings, 1886, p. 102.
Sonora Pass wagon road improved to serve Bodie, etc. Wasson, p. 59.
Florence Hutchings was the first white child to be born in Yosemite. Hutchings, 1886, p. 144.
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Trees granted to California as public trust. Grant contained 48.6 square miles. Board of eight commissioners created, Frederick Law Olmsted, chairman. Galen Clark, guardian. U. S. Congress, p. 3444; YVC, 1877, p. 5; Matthews, 1906, pp. 382-387; YNHA, 1946, p. 107.
I. W. Raymond, of Central American Steamship Transit Co., New York City, advocated to Senator Conness of California that the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove be reserved as a State Grant for public enjoyment. The members of a proposed board of commissioners were recommended by Raymond and Conness jointly. Raymond, 1864; Farquhar, 1926, p. 77.
First appropriation made for administration of Yosemite Grant. Calif. Statutes; YVC, p. 7.
John Muir made his first trip to Yosemite. Badè, 1924, I, p. 185; YNHA, 1938; Wolfe, 1945, pp. 117-122.
George F. Leidig built “Leidig’s Hotel” near Lower Hotel. Churchill, 1876, p. 138; Vivian, p. 376; Calif. Legis., pp. 164, 208, 210; Leidig; YNHA, 1930, p. 4.
Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Black removed Lower Hotel and built “Black’s Hotel” on its site. Hutchings, 1886, p. 101.
Edwin Moore acquired half interest in Clark’s station, and it became known as “Clark & Moore’s.” Ellsworth, p. 44; Greenwood, p. 313; Lester, p. 170.
Mountain View House (Peregoy’s) built on Wawona-Yosemite Valley trail. YNHA, 1929, p. 71.
Central Pacific built from Sacramento to Stockton. Ingram.
Albert Snow built trail to flat between Vernal and Nevada falls. Calif. Legis., p. 170; Minturn, p. 264; Lester, p. 197.
Central Pacific built to Modesto. Ingram.
Copperopolis branch of Central Pacific built. Ingram.
Joseph LeConte made his first trip to Yosemite. LeConte, 1903, p. 247.
La Casa Nevada was built by Albert Snow above Vernal Fall. Buckley, p. 25; YNHA, 1930, p. 4.
John Muir explored the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. SCB, 1924; Farquhar, 1926, pp. 96-97.
Peregoy built a stopping place at Glacier Point. Peregoy Hotel Register.
John Conway built trail from La Casa Nevada to Little Yosemite; he attempted the ascent of Half Dome. Russell, 1926, p. 340.
Central Pacific built to Berenda. Ingram.
Conway started work on Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point (completed in 1872). Russell, 1926, p. 340; Kneeland, p. 82.
Mount Lyell climbed by J. B. Tileston, Aug. 29 (first ascent). Tileston, pp. 89-90.
Central Pacific built to Merced. Ingram.
Stage road built on north side of Yosemite Valley by Conway. Calif. Legis., p. 198; Russell, 1926, p. 340.
Earthquake in Yosemite. Kneeland, p. 88.
Eagle Peak Trail built to foot of Upper Yosemite Fall by Conway. Russell, 1926, p. 340.
J. C. Smith built his “Cosmopolitan” bath house and saloon in Yosemite Valley. Russell, 1931, p. 207; YNHA, 1933, p. 1; Cosmopolitan House.
Coulterville Road built to valley floor. (Known as “J. T. McLean’s Road.”) Hutchings, 1886, p. 288; U. S. Senate; YNHA, 1930, pp. 73-74; 1943, pp. 59-60.
Big Oak Flat route completed to Yosemite Valley by Yosemite Turnpike and Road Company. Hutchings, 1886, p. 335; U. S. Senate; YNHA, 1943, p. 60.
Wood road built from “Hutchings” up the south side of the valley. Calif. Legis., p. 340.
State of California purchased private claims in Yosemite Valley. Calif. Legis., p. 351; YVC, 1877-78, p. 16.
George W. Coulter and A. J. Murphy leased former Hutchings property. YVC, 1877-78, p. 10.
Harlow Street erected telegraph line from Sonora to Yosemite Valley. A line was built from Yosemite to Bodie also. Bodie Daily Free Press, January 29, 1881; Hutchings, 1886, p. 358; Morris, Paul.
Wawona Road built to floor of Yosemite Valley. U. S. Senate; YVC, 1874-75; YNHA, 1843, pp. 60-61.
George G. Anderson made first ascent of Half Dome. Hutchings, 1886, p. 457; Leonard, R. M., 1937, p. 40.
Public School provided for Yosemite. Mariposa County, May, 1875; YNP, 1909, p. 10; Hutchings, 1886, p. 355.
Washburn Brothers purchased Clark & Moore’s. Place has been called “Wawona” since. Vivian, p. 370; Stornoway, p. 72.
Sentinel Hotel built by Coulter and Murphy. Known as Yosemite Falls Hotel for many years. Calif. Legis., p. 238; Jones.
John Muir’s first article on devastation of Sierra by sheep was published. Farquhar, 1925, p. 30; Badè, 1923-24, 2: 58-59.
J. K. Barnard took over “Coulter and Murphy’s” (Sentinel Hotel). Blake, p. 119; YVC, 1877-78, p. 14; Jones.
John L. Murphy settled at Tenaya Lake (exact date doubtful). Jackson, pp. 109-171; Hutchings, 1886, p. 481.
High Sierra country surveyed by Lieut. M. M. Macomb of Wheeler Survey. USWD.
Bodie and Lundy mining excitement reached height. Tioga came into prominence. Bodie Daily Free Press, Dec. 29, 1880; Whitney, H. A.
A. Harris established first public campgrounds in Yosemite Valley. Harris Register; Calif. Legis., p. 232; Hutchings, 1886, p. 355.
Tunnel in Big Tree of Tuolumne Grove made in June. Marshall, p. 341.
Mountain House built at Glacier Point. Gordon-Cumming, p. 174.
Homer District (Lundy) organized. Was discovered by C. H. Nye. Mammoth City Herald, Sept. 24, 1879; Homer Mining Index, 1880.
Yosemite chapel built by Sunday School Union. Hutchings, 1886, p. 355; Glass, pp. 114-118.
Legislation ousted Board of Yosemite Commissioners. New board appointed J. M. Hutchings guardian. YVC, 1880, p. 3.
Charles D. Robinson, artist, maintained studio in the valley (1880-1890). YNHA, 1944. pp. 38-40.
L. H. Bunnell, of Yosemite discovery party, published Discovery of the Yosemite Valley.
Silver found on Mount Hoffmann. Mount Hoffmann Mining District organized, but amounted to nothing. YNHA, 1925, p. 83.
Tunnel cut through Wawona Tree. YNHA, 1925, p. 83.
“Anderson Trail” (Happy Isles to bridge below Vernal Fall) built. Calif. Legis., pp. 311, 367; YVC, 1880-82, p. 5.
Construction of Tioga Road started. (Completed in 1883 at cost of $62,000). Calif. State Mineralogist; U. S. Senate.
Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Mining Company (Tioga Mine) incorporated. Calif. State Mineralogist.
John Conway built road to Glacier Point. Conway.
President Hayes with party of twelve visited Yosemite Valley.
Tioga Mine closed after expenditure of $300,000 and no production. Calif. State Mineralogist.
Mr. and Mrs. John Degnan established bakery and store, the oldest business among Yosemite concessions. USNPS, 1941, p. 9; Degnan, p. 1.
Hutchings removed as guardian, and W. E. Dennison appointed. YVC, 1883-84, p. 14.
Legislature appropriated $40,000 to build Stoneman House. YVC, 1885-86, p. 6.
John B. Lembert took up homestead in Tuolumne Meadows. Stornoway, p. 64; Farquhar, 1925, pp. 40-41; YNP, 1903, p. 23.
“Echo Wall Trail” (Nevada Fall to Glacier Point) built. YVC, 1885-86, p. 9.
Log Cabin built in Mariposa Grove. YVC, 1885-86, p. 10.
John L. Murphy preëmpted 160 acres at Tenaya Lake. YNP, 1903, p. 23.
Mark L. McCord made guardian. YVC, 1887-88.
A tramway to Glacier Point considered and surveyed. Calif. Legis., p. 341.
Stoneman House leased to J. J. Cook. YVC, 1887-88, p. 14; Calif. Legis., pp. 263, 336; Stornoway, p. 24.
Commissioners removed Black’s and Leidig’s hotels. Calif. Legis., p. 210; YVC, 1887-88, p. 17.
Galen Clark again made guardian. YVC, 1889-90, p. 5.
Mirror Lake dam built to increase area of lake. YVC, 1889-90, p. 5.
Yosemite National Park created, Oct. 1. John Muir’s writings were important in bringing this about. YVC, 1889-90, p. 27.
Capt. A. E. Wood, first Acting Superintendent, arrived with federal troops to administer park, May 19; headquarters at Wawona. YNP, 1891, p. 3; YNHA, 1944, p. 54.
First telephones installed in Yosemite Valley. YVC, 1891-92, p. 6.
Sierra Club organized, with John Muir as president, to aid effort to secure federal administration of entire Yosemite region. SCB, 1893.
First plant of trout (rainbow) made in Yosemite by California Fish and Game Commission. YNP, 1893, p. 8; YNHA, 1934, p. 58.
Sierra Forest Reservation established, Feb. SCB, 1896, pp. 257-259.
Capt. G. H. G. Gale made Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1894.
Capt. Alex. Rodgers appointed Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1895.
Wawona fish hatchery erected. Operated by state. YNP, 1895, p. 5.
Stoneman House destroyed by fire, Aug. 24. YVC, 1895-96, p. 9.
Lt. Col. S. B. M. Young appointed Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1896; Farquhar, 1926, p. 109.
First effort made to keep firearms out of park. YNP, 1896, p. 4.
Miles Wallace made guardian. YVC, 1897-98.
Wooden stairs at Vernal Fall removed and replaced by rock steps. YVC, 1897-98, p. 6.
Capt. Alex. Rodgers again made Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1897.
Camps rented to visitors by state. YVC, 1897-98, p. 5.
Archie O. Leonard, first civilian park ranger. YVC, 1897-98, p. 12; YNP, 1898, p. 3.
Both J. W. Zevely, special inspector, and Capt. J. E. Caine were acting superintendents. YNP, 1898.
Lt. Wm. Forse and Capt. E. F. Wilcox were acting superintendents. YNP, 1890.
Curry Camping Company established. Tresidder, D. B.; Tresidder, M. C., MS; YNP, 1908, p. 12.
Chris Jorgensen maintained artist’s studio in the valley (1899-1918). YNHA, 1944, PP 94-97.
Major L. J. Rucker, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1900.
Holmes brothers, of San Jose, drove first auto into Yosemite. Holmes.
Camp Yosemite (Lost Arrow) established. YVC, 1901-02, p. 6; YNP, 1908, p. 12; 1910, p. 12; Tresidder, D. B., p. 35.
Major L. A. Craig, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1901.
First of the annual outings of the Sierra Club took place in Tuolumne Meadows. Farquhar, 1925, pp. 52-53.
Power plant at Happy Isles built by state. YVC, 1901-02, p. 4.
Major O. L. Hein, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1902.
J. M. Hutchings killed on Big Oak Flat Road near Yosemite Valley, Oct. 31. Foley, p. 6; Godfrey, 1941, MS, p. 14.
Harry Cassie Best established artist studio in valley. (Maintained business until his death, 1936.) YNHA, 1945, pp. 42-44.
LeConte Memorial Lodge built in Yosemite Valley by Sierra Club. SCB, 1904, pp. 66-69; 1905, pp. 176-180.
San Francisco’s first application for use of Hetch Hetchy denied by Secretary Hitchcock, U.S. Dept. of Interior, 1908, 1910, 1914.
George T. Harlow, guardian. YVC, 1903-04.
U. S. Weather Bureau installed instruments in Yosemite. YVC, 1903-04, p. 7.
Lt. Col. Jos. Garrard, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1903.
John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gov. George C. Pardee discuss Yosemite Grant recession in Yosemite. Badè, 1923-1924, 2: 355.
Major John Bigelow became Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1904.
Arboretum established, and first plans for a Yosemite Museum made at Wawona. YNP, 1904, p. 20; YNHA, 1930, pp. 17-18.
Area of Yosemite National Park reduced. Mount Ritter region and Devils Postpile eliminated. Yosemite Park Commission; YNP, 1905, p. 5; 1906, p. 8.
Capt. H. C. Benson, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1905; SCB, 1925, pp. 175-179.
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove re-ceded to United States. Superintendent’s headquarters (Major H. C. Benson) moved to Yosemite Valley. YNP, 1905, pp. 5-6; 1906, p. 6; Badè, 1923-1924, 2: 355; Colby, 1938, pp. 11-19.
Last “hold up” of a Yosemite stage (Raymond-Wawona run). Yosemite Tourist, 1906.
Yosemite Valley Railroad opened to travel. YNP, 1907, p. 5; Radcliffe; Bartlet. Del Portal, the railroad hotel at El Portal, shown in Williams, p. 143.
Extensive telephone system installed in park. YNP, 1907, p. 8.
Yosemite cemetery given permanent marking with boundary of trees. YNHA, 1932, pp. 1-4.
Hetch Hetchy rights granted to San Francisco. YNP, 1908, p. 14.
Camp Ahwahnee established at foot of Sentinel Rock by W. M. Sell. YNP, 1908, pp. 11, 12; Tresidder, D. B., p. 37.
Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. built telegraph line from El Portal to Sentinel Hotel. YNP, 1908, p. 9.
Supervisor Gabriel Sovulewski, Acting Superintendent, Oct. 25 (to April 27, 1909). YNP, 1909, p. 5.
Major W. W. Forsyth, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1909.
Death of Galen Clark, March 24, age 96. YNP, 1910, p. 15; 1911, p. 8.
Tenaya Lake Trail completed. YNP, 1910, p. 10; 1911, p. 8.
Devils Postpile made a national monument by President Taft. SCB, 1912, pp. 170-173, 226-227.
Galen Clark Memorial Seat built. YNP, 1911, p. 12.
Yosemite hospital built by U. S. troops. YNP, 1912, p. 12; Tresidder, D. B., p. 157.
Sierra Club purchased Soda Springs property at Tuolumne Meadows. Farquhar, 1926, p. 58.
Major William T. Littebrant, Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1913.
Automobiles admitted to Yosemite Valley. YNP, 1913, p. 12.
Raker Act authorized use of Hetch Hetchy Valley as reservoir; approved by President Wilson, Dec. 19. Farquhar, 1926, p. 39; Johnson, R. U., pp. 307-313; Wolfe, 1945, pp. 339-346.
Civilian employees replaced the military in administration of Yosemite. Mark Daniels, first superintendent. USNPS, 1916, p. 4; Calif. State Mineralogist, p. 61.
Museum of Vertebrate Zoölogy, University of California, began 5-year field study of animal life in Yosemite, which culminated in publication of 752-page treatise. Grinnell and Storer; YNHA, 1924, p. 2.
John Muir died in a Los Angeles hospital, December 24. Badè, 1923-1924, II, pp. 390-391.
Parsons Lodge built by Sierra Club in Tuolumne Meadows. SCB, 1916, pp. 84-85.
First appropriation for the John Muir Trail approved by Governor Johnson. Rensch, 1933, p. 484; Wolfe, 1945, p. 364.
Yosemite Lodge established in Yosemite Valley. Tresidder, D. B., p. 37.
Stephen T. Mather purchased Tioga Road and presented it to U. S. Government. Farquhar, 1926, p. 94.
Mather became assistant to Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. Albright, 1929, pp. 10-11; Cramton, 1929, p. 13.
Yosemite horse-drawn stages replaced by motor stages. Tresidder, D. B., p. 33.
R. B. Marshall made superintendent of all national parks. USNPS, 1916, p. 5.
National Park Service Act passed August 25. Stephen T. Mather made Director. USNPS, 1916, p. 81; 1917, p. 1; Farquhar, 1926, p. 63.
W. B. Lewis made Superintendent of Yosemite National Park. USNPS, 1916; Farquhar, 1926, p. 114.
Tuolumne Meadows Lodge installed; also Tenaya and Merced camps opened. Tresidder, D. B., p. 76.
Stephen T. Mather became first Director, National Park Service. Albright, 1929, p. 12; Cramton, 1929, p. 13.
Glacier Point Hotel completed. USNPS, 1917, p. 59; Tresidder, D. B., p. 61.
Wawona Road and Glacier Point Branch turned over to federal government. USNPS, 1917, p. 62.
Parts of park opened to grazing. USNPS, 1917, p. 153.
Modern school buildings constructed. USNPS, 1920, p. 237.
David A. Curry dies; Mrs. Curry continues operation of Camp Curry. Tresidder, Mary C., MS.
Cascade power plant completed at cost of $215,000. USNPS, 1917, pp. 61, 143; 1918. pp. 45, 134.
Ledge Trail built. USNPS, 1918, p. 47.
First airplane landed in Yosemite Valley, May 27. Lt. J. S. Krull, pilot, alone. USNPS, 1919, pp. 183, 190.
LeConte Memorial Lectures instituted. USNPS, 1919, p. 194.
Construction started on all-year highway up Merced Canyon. USNPS, 1920, p. 110.
Rangers’ Club House built. USNPS, 1920, pp. 113, 250.
Yosemite National Park Co. founded. USNPS, 1920, p. 248.
Yosemite educational work started by H. C. Bryant, A. F. Hall, L. H. Miller, and Enid Michael. Yosemite Museum planned. USNPS, 1920, pp. 113, 245, 253; Hall, 1930; YNHA, 1932, pp. 2-3.
California valley elk brought to Yosemite. USNPS, 1920, p. 250; 1921, p. 196.
Big Trees Lodge built at Mariposa Grove. Tresidder, D. B., p. 72.
First Yosemite Museum installations made. USNPS, 1921, pp. 72, 196, 202; Yosemite Park Naturalist, July, 1921; Hall, 1930.
Yosemite Educational Department created. USNPS, 1922, pp. 113, 115; 1923, p. 20.
Yosemite Nature Notes first published (mimeographed through 1924, then printed). YNHA, 1925, p. 1.
Hikers’ camps installed. USNPS, 1923, p. 54; 1924, pp. 37, 109; YNHA, 1923; Tresidder, D. B., p. 80; Adams, 1940, pp. 79-83; Russell, 1925.
Educational Department for all national parks created. Yosemite Park Naturalist; USNPS, 1923, p. 20; 1925, p. 10; 1926, p. 7; Burns, N. J., pp. 4-25.
Hoof and mouth disease epidemic in Yosemite deer. USNPS, 1924, pp. 36, 108; 1925, pp. 6, 93; 1926, p. 14.
New administration center and village developed. USNPS, 1924, pp. 37, 108; 1925, p. 87.
Yosemite Park and Curry Co. formed by consolidation of Curry Camping Co. and Yosemite National Park Co. Tresidder, D. B., p. 37; USNPS, 1925, p. 27.
Yosemite School of Field Natural History organized. USNPS, 1925, pp. 11, 90; YNHA, 1925, pp. 9-10, 16, 66.
Glacier Point branch of Yosemite Museum opened. Yosemite Park Naturalist, June, 1925, YNHA, 1925, p. 55.
All-year highway dedicated July 31. USNPS, 1926, pp. 30, 102.
Yosemite Museum opened, May 29. USNPS, 1924, pp. 8, 105; 1925, pp. 12, 89; 1926, pp. 31, 99; YNHA, 1924, 1926, p. 95.
Ahwahnee Hotel opened by Yosemite Park and Curry Co. USNPS, 1926, pp. 31, 101.
Board of expert advisors, Frederick Law Olmsted, Duncan McDuffie, and John P. Buwalda, appointed by authority of Congress to study and assist in the solution of Yosemite problems. USNPS, 1928, p. 173.
Maria Lebrado, one of the last of the original Yosemite Indians, gives firsthand account of Yosemite Valley discovery. YNHA, 1928, pp. 41-46; 1929, pp. 69-70, 85-86.
Wildlife research in national parks instituted by George M. Wright, of Yosemite naturalist organization. YNHA, 1929, p. 66; Russell, 1939, p. 10; Wright, Dixon, and Thompson.
W. B. Lewis transferred to Washington; became Assistant Director, National Park Service. E. P. Leavitt designated Acting Superintendent. YNP, 1929.
A hospital, which after the death of Assistant Director Lewis, 1930, was named the W. B. Lewis Memorial Hospital, was constructed in Yosemite Valley at cost of $50,000. USNPS, 1929, p. 144.
Col. C. G. Thomson appointed Superintendent. YNP, 1929.
Stephen T. Mather dies, January 22. Story.
“Live Indian Exhibit” instituted on Yosemite Museum grounds; project made possible by the coöperation of the Yosemite Natural History Association.
Maggie Howard, “Ta-bu-ce” of the Monos was engaged to demonstrate modes of Indian life. USNPS, 1930, p. 168; YNHA, 1933, pp. 14-16.
Sugar pine forest on west side of park acquired through private gift and government appropriation. YNHA, 1930, pp. 65-66.
W. B. Lewis died August 28 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. USNPS, 1931.
High Sierra snow surveys organized on consolidated basis. Brockman, 1946, pp. 105-109; YNHA, 1927, p. 19; Russell, 1928, pp. 36-38.
Marjorie Montgomery Ward presented $4,000 with which to develop a living exhibit of native flowers at the rear of the Yosemite Museum. USNPS, 1931; YNHA, 1931, p. 64; 1932, pp. 4-5.
Research Reserves established (White Mountain, Boundary Hill, and Swamp Lake). USNPS, Master Plan, 1942, Sheet 7, map; YNHA, 1927, pp. 46-48.
Glacier measurements instituted in the Yosemite High Sierra. YNHA, 1934, pp. 44-46; 1935, pp. 93-96; 1942, pp. 89-91.
Wawona Basin, 8,785 acres, added to Yosemite National Park. Half of the funds required were donated; the Department of Interior was authorized by Congress to match the donation with federal funds. USNPS, 1932, p. 61.
Mariposa Grove Museum established. USNPS, 1932, p. 63; YNHA, 1932, p. 4.
Big Trees Lodge constructed in Mariposa Grove at Sunset Point. Earlier tent camp eliminated from upper grove. USNPS, 1932, p. 64.
Cosmopolitan House, built in 1873, destroyed by fire, Dec. 8. YNHA, 1933, p. 1-2.
Sierra Club Rock-Climbing Section organized. Leonard, R. M., 1938, p. ii.
Devils Postpile National Monument placed under supervision of the superintendent, Yosemite National Park. YNHA, 1935, pp. 45-57.
Tule elk herd (27 animals) removed from Yosemite Valley to Owens Valley, east of Sierra. YNHA, 1933, pp. 107-109.
Arno B. Cammerer made Director of National Park Service upon resignation of Horace M. Albright. USNPS, 1933, p. 153.
Wawona Road and tunnel dedicated June 10, 1933. YNP, 1933, p. 1.
“Emergency programs,” C.C.C., C.W.A., and P.W.A. advanced the construction and management projects of the park. Five C.C.C. camps were established at Wawona, Crane Flat, and Eleven Mile Meadow. YNP, 1933, pp. 26-32.
First ascent of Higher Cathedral Spire, April 15; Lower Cathedral Spire, August 25. Leonard, R. M., 1934, p. 178.
Hetch Hetchy water flows into San Francisco. YNHA, 1934, pp. 89-91; YNP, 1935, pp. 11-12.
Radio replaced mountain telephone lines in Yosemite administration. YNP, 1934, p. 11.
Outdoor church bowl in Yosemite Valley improved by C.C.C. YNP, 1934.
Ski house built at Badger Pass by Yosemite Park and Curry Co. YNP, 1936, p. 6.
Thomas Moran art collection acquired by the Yosemite Museum. YNP, 1936, p. 4; YNHA, 1936, pp. 57-64; 1944, pp. 64-68.
Yosemite Museum acquired 198 oil and water-color paintings by the Yosemite artist, Chris Jorgensen. YNP, 1937, p. 7.
First ski ascent of Mount Lyell, March 2, by Bestor Robinson, David R. Brower, Lewis F. Clark, Boynton S. Kaiser, and Einar Nilsson. Brower, 1938, pp. 40-45.
Harry Cassie Best dies in San Francisco, October 14. Virginia Best Adams and Ansel Adams take over operation of Best Studio, Yosemite Valley. YNHA, 1936, p. 88a, back cover; 1945, p. 44.
Lawrence C. Merriam appointed to superintendency in June following death of C. G. Thomson. YNP, 1937, p. 2; YNHA, 1937, pp. 36-38.
Hetch Hetchy Dam enlarged by addition of 85 feet to its height. YNP, 1938, p. 9.
Tenaya Lake High Sierra Camp removed and new camp established at May Lake. YNP, 1938, p. 14.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove, July 15. YNP, 1939, p. 6.
Sentinel Hotel, River Cottage, and Ivy Cottage torn down in Dec. YNP, 1939, p. 21.
Gabriel Sovulewski died Nov. 29. YNP, 1939, p. 11.
Vegetation type map of the park prepared by Branch of Forestry, National Park Service. USNPS, Master Plan, 1942, two maps and key.
Newton B. Drury appointed to Yosemite Advisory Board, Feb. 24. YNP, 1939, p. 10.
Newton B. Drury appointed Director of the National Park Service in June, when Arno B. Cammerer requested that he be relieved of his duties as Director for reasons of health. USNPS, 1940, p. 204.
Tioga Road, Crane Flat to McSwain Meadows, and Big Oak Flat Road, from Crane Flat to El Portal Road, constructed on modern standards; opened with ceremonies, June 23. YNP, 1940, p. 1. USNPS, Master Plan, 1942.
Cedar Cottage (Upper Hotel) and Oak Cottage razed. YNP, 1941, pp. 3-4; 1942, p. 6.
C. A. Harwell vacated the Yosemite Park Naturalist position Sept. 7. YNHA, 1941, p. 37.
Ski-touring accommodations provided at Ostrander Lake, under slopes of Horse Ridge. YNP, 1941, p. 2.
William E. Colby appointed to membership on Yosemite Advisory Board effective November 15. Maulding, Mrs. J. Atwood.
Mrs. John Degnan, pioneer park operator, died Dec. 15. YNP, 1941, p. 9.
Arno B. Cammerer, Director of National Park Service, 1933-1940, died April 30. USNPS, 1942.
C. Frank Brockman appointed Yosemite Park Naturalist, Mar. 27. YNHA, 1941, p. 37.
Bear-feeding programs in Yosemite Valley discontinued. YNP, 1941, p. 3.
Superintendent Lawrence C. Merriam appointed Regional Director, National Park Service, Region Two (Omaha, Nebraska), July 31. Frank A. Kittredge transferred from Grand Canyon National Park to the Yosemite superintendency, Aug. 1. YNP, 1942, pp. 1, 5.
Cosie Hutchings Mills visited Yosemite Valley, Aug. 20, after absence of 42 years. YNHA, 1941, p. 111; 1942, pp. 37-40.
Yosemite School of Field Natural History and Junior Nature School discontinued for duration of war. YNHA, 1942, p. 30; YNP, 1942, p. 7.
Activities of C.C.C. in Yosemite National Park discontinued in July. YNP, 1943, p 1.
U. S. Army Signal Corps units utilized National Park Service facilities at Wawona and Badger Pass as special summer training schools. YNP, 1943, p. 1; 1944, pp. 1-2; 1945, p. 2.
Armed-forces men who came to Yosemite National Park for recreation or conditioning totaled 23,272 in the fiscal year ending June 30. (This total reached 89,686 during the war years.) YNP, 1943, p. 1; 1944, p. 2.
J. N. LeConte appointed Collaborator, Yosemite Advisory Board. YNP, 1943, p. 2.
Ranger-naturalist program discontinued as a war measure. YNHA, 1943, pp. 46-47.
Death of Dr. H. C. Bumpus, of the National Park Service Advisory Board, June 21. YNHA, 1943, pp. 97-101.
Death of John Degnan, pioneer resident and operator, Feb. 27. Mary Ellen Degnan, daughter, continued operation of Degnan store. YNP, 1943, p. 10.
Death of Mrs. Mabel Sweetman Boysen, longtime operator and resident, May 10. YNP, 1943, p. 11.
Ahwahnee Hotel converted to hospital use by U. S. Navy, June 23 (to Dec. 15, 1945). YNP, 1944, p. 1; YNHA, 1946, p. 75; Yosemite Park and Curry Co., 1946, pp. 1-76.
Death of Chief Ranger Forest S. Townsley, Aug. 11. YNP, 1944, p. 6; YNHA, 1943, p. 75.
Transfer of Acting Chief Ranger John H. Wegner to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. YNHA, 1944, pp. 32-33.
Oscar A. Sedergren appointed Chief Ranger. YNHA, 1944, pp. 37-38.
M. E. Beatty, Associate Park Naturalist, transferred to Glacier National Park, Montana. M. V. Walker appointed vice Beatty. YNHA, 1944, pp. 58, 60.
First consideration given to the removal of some of the physical developments from Yosemite Valley and the establishment of new centers of operations in less precious localities. Vint, 1945.
Elizabeth H. Godfrey, a student and writer of Yosemite history, transferred from Yosemite to Region Four, National Park Service. YNHA, 1945, p. 97.
Meadows and vista restoration program initiated in Yosemite Valley. YNP, 1945, p. 10.
Yosemite Valley Railway abandoned August 27. YNP, 1946, p. 5.
Park Naturalist C. Frank Brockman resigns from National Park Service. YNHA, 1946, pp. 110-111.
Lost Arrow ascended by Jack Arnold, Anton Nelson, Fritz Lippmann, and Robin Hansen, September 2. YNHA, 1946, pp. 113-116; Brower, 1946, pp. 121-122.
Constam T-bar lift for skiers constructed at Badger Pass in fall. YNP, 1947.
Maggie Howard, “Ta-bu-ce,” a principal character in Yosemite Indian demonstration, died at Mono Lake. Kittredge, 1947.
The following references are to pertinent titles in the bibliography of Yosemite history. A comprehensive bibliography is to be found in the Yosemite section, pages viii to 134, of A Bibliography of National Parks and Monuments West of the Mississippi River, National Park Service, Western Museum Laboratories, Berkeley, California, 1941. No attempt has been made here to list all items descriptive of the park.
Adams, Ansel. Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail [“Transmission of emotional experience”] (Berkeley, 1938), 50 plates.
Adams, Virginia, and Ansel Adams. Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley (San Francisco, 1940), 128 pp., illus., maps.
Albright, Horace M. “How the National Park Service Came into Being: A Reminiscence,” American Civic Annual, 1929, pp. 9-12.
——. “Yosemite on the Way to Protection,” American Civic Annual, 1929, pp. 23-25.
American Motorist. “Yosemite Motor-Conquered,” September, 1916, p. 37.
American Planning and Civic Association. Portfolio on the national park and monument system (Washington, D. C., n.d.), four booklets, 32 pp. each.
Anonymous. Mono County (F. W. McIntosh, Reno, 1908), 96 pp., illus.
Archibald, J. F. “A Cavalry March to the Yosemite,” Illustrated American, November, 1896.
Ayres, Thomas A. Original pencil drawings made in Yosemite Valley, 1855 and 1856 (Yosemite Museum exhibits).
Badè, W. F. “The Hetch Hetchy Situation [editorial],” Sierra Club Bulletin, 9 (1914): 3, 174-176.
——. “John Muir in Yosemite,” Natural History, March-April, 1920.
——. The Life and Letters of John Muir (2 vols., Boston and New York, 1924).
Bailey, C. A. “The Vantage Points of Yosemite,” Sunset, April, 1899.
——. “Unfrequented Paths of Yosemite.” Overland Monthly, July, 1886, pp. 88-92.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Tourists’ Guide (1871).
——. History of California, I, 1542-1800 (San Francisco, 1884), 744 pp.; III, 1825-1840 (1885), 792 pp.; IV, 1840-1845 (1886).
Barrus, C. “In the Yosemite with John Muir,” The Craftsman, December, 1912.
Bartlet, L. “By Rail to the Yosemite.” Pacific Monthly, June, 1907, pp. 730-738.
Beadle, J. H. The Undeveloped West (Philadelphia, 1873), 824 pp., illus.
Beatty, M. E. “History of the Firefall,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1934, pp. 41-43.
——. “Glaciers of Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1934, pp. 44-46.
——. “C. E. Watkins, One of the Early Photographers of Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1936, pp. 17-18.
——. “A Brief Story of the Geology of Yosemite Valley,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1943, pp. 33-40.
——. “Bears of Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1943, pp. 1-16.
Beatty, M. E., and C. A. Harwell. “Birds of Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1938, pp. 1-36.
Belden, C. J. “The Tioga Road across the Sierra Nevada,” Geographical Review, June, 1919.
Bell, Major Horace. Reminiscences of a Ranger (Santa Barbara, 1927), 500 pp., illus.
Bidwell, John. John Bidwell’s Trip to California, 1841 (St. Louis, 1842), 32 pp.
——. “First Emigrant Train to California,” Century Magazine, November, 1890.
Blackwelder, Eliot. “Pleistocene Glaciation in the Sierra Nevada and Basin Ranges,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 42 (1931), 865-922.
Blake, Mary E. On the Wing (Boston, 1883), 236 pp.
Boddam-Whetham, J. W. Western Wanderings (London, 1874), 364 pp., illus.
Bodie Daily Free Press, November 3, 1879; January 26, 1884.
Bodie Standard, November 7, 1877; June 6, 1881.
Boling, Captain John. “Letter from Yosemite Valley,” Alta California, June 12, 1851.
——. “Letter from Camp on Fresno River,” Alta California, June 14, 1851.
Bolles, Ida Savage. “Sidelights on Major James Savage,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1929, pp. 15-16.
Borell, Adrey E. “History of Fishing in Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1934, pp. 57-60.
Bowles, Samuel. Our New West (New York, 1869), 524 pp., illus.
Brace, Charles Loring. The New West (New York, 1869), 374 pp.
Branson, I. R. Yosemite against Corporation Greed (Aurora, Neb., 1909), 30 pp.
Breitenstein, A. J. “The Park-to-Park Highway,” New West, May, 1917, pp. 17-20.
Brewer, William H. Up and Down California in 1860-1864 (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1930).
Brewster, E. T. Life and Letters of J. D. Whitney (Boston, 1909), 412 pp.
Brockman, C. Frank. “Contributions of the Naturalist to Winter Recreation,” Proceedings, Second Park Naturalist Conference (Washington, D. C.), pp. 74-80 [mim.].
——. “Little Change in Yosemite’s Glaciers,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1942, pp. 89-91.
——. “Development of Transportation to Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1943, pp. 49-63, 69-72, 76-79, 81-86, 91-96, 101-103.
——. “Administrative Officers of Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1944, pp. 53-57.
——. “Principal Waterfalls of the World and Their Relation to Those in Yosemite National Park,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1945, pp. 1-32.
——. “Yosemite and the Mother Lode Country,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 81-85.
——. “The ‘Why’ of Snow Surveys,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 57-61.
——. “The Great Sierra Snow Survey,” Natural History, March, 1946, pp. 105-109.
——. “Introduced Trees in Yosemite National Park” [Landmarks of pioneer activities], Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 90-92.
——. “Principal Administrative Officers of Yosemite: Frederick Law Olmsted,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 106-110.
——. “Broadleaved Trees of Yosemite National Park,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1947, pp. 1-40.
Bromley, I. H. “The Big Trees and the Yosemite,” Scribner’s Monthly, January, 1872.
Brower, David R. “Beyond the Skiways,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 23 (1938): 2, 40-45. [First ski ascent of Mount Lyell.]
——. “Winter Sports Dilemma,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 31 (1946): 5, 6-7.
——. “Lost Arrow,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 31 (1946): 6, 121-122.
——. “Skiing the Sky-Land,” American Ski Annual, 1947, pp. 49-59.
Brower, David R., with Richard M. Leonard, “A Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra: Part IV, Yosemite Valley,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 25 (1940): 1, 41-63.
Bryant, Harold C. “A School for Nature Guides,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1925, pp. 9-10, 16.
——. “Recollections,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1932.
—— and Wallace W. Atwood, Jr. Research and Education in the National Parks (Washington, D. C., 1932), pp. 1-66.
——. “A Nature Preserve [Research Reserve] for Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1927, pp. 46-48.
——. “Trails and Trail Use,” Proceedings of Eighth Appalachian Trail Conference, 1938, pp. 26-30.
Bryce, James. National Parks—The Need of the Future. University and historical addresses (1913), 434 pp.
Buckley, J. M. Two Weeks in the Yosemite and Vicinity (New York, 1884), 36 pp.
Bunnell, L. H. Discovery of the Yosemite (Chicago, 1880), 332 pp., portrait, map.
Burns, J. “Yosemite,” in T. Cook’s Letters from the Sea and Foreign Lands (1873), 124 pp.
Burns, Ned J. Field Manual for Museums (National Park Service, Washington, D. C., 1941), xii + 426 pp.
Burroughs, John. “The Spell of the Yosemite,” Century Magazine (Nov., 1910), pp. 47-53.
California Alpine Club. Trails (San Francisco, 1920 to date).
California Fish and Game Commission. California Fish and Game (Sacramento, 1914 to date).
California Legislature. Investigations of Yosemite Commissioners; Assembly Hearings, 1889, 430 pp.
California State Board of Trade. Yosemite Valley: History, Description and Statement of Conditions Relative to the Proposed Recession to the National Government, Circular 13 (Sacramento, 1904), 34 pp., map.
California State Mineralogist. Report, 1888, pp. 367-371.
California, Statutes of, chap. dxxxvi, 1865-66.
California Supreme Court. Frémont Decision (Burnett). Case of Biddle Boggs vs. Merced Mining Company, 14th California Report, January term, 1858.
Century Magazine. Editorial, “The Care of the Yosemite Valley,” January, 1890.
——. Editorial, “Amateur Management of the Yosemite Scenery,” September, 1890.
Chamberlain, A. “Scenery as a National Asset,” Outlook, May, 1910, pp. 157-169.
Chamberlain, Newell D. The Call of Gold: True Tales of the Gold Road to Yosemite (Mariposa, 1936), 184 pp., illustrations, maps.
Chapman, C. E. History of California: The Spanish Period (New York, 1921), 528 pp., illus.
Chase, J. S. Yosemite Trails (Boston and New York, 1911), 354 pp., illus.
Churchill, C. M. Over the Purple Hills (Denver, 1876), 336 pp., illus.
——. The Big Trees of California (Redondo, Calif., 1907), 104 pp., illus.
Clark, Galen. Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity (Yosemite, 1904), 110 pp., illus.
——. The Yosemite Valley: Its History, Characteristic Features, and the Theories Regarding Its Origin (Yosemite Valley [Nelson L. Slater], 1910), 108 pp., illus.
——. “Yosemite: Past and Present,” Sunset, April, 1909, pp. 394-396.
Clark, W. A. “Automobiling in Yosemite Valley,” Overland Monthly, August, 1902, pp. 104-110.
Clarke, Clinton C. “Story of Building the Pacific Crest Trailway, 1932-1942,” bulletin of the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference, Pasadena, Calif., 1942, pp. 1-6.
——. The Pacific Crest Trailway (Pasadena, Calif.: Pacific Crest Trail System Conference, 1945), 126 pp., maps.
Cleland, R. G. Pathfinders, of the series, “California” (Los Angeles, 1929), 452 pp., illus.
Clemens, Samuel L. Roughing It (Hartford, 1872), 592 pp., illus.
Cloos, Ernst. “Structure of the Sierra Nevada Batholith,” in Guidebook 16, International Geological Congress (Washington, D. C., 1932), pp. 40-45, map, bibliog.
Coffman, John D. “How Much and What Kind of Forest Land Should Be Devoted Exclusively to Recreation and Aesthetics?” Journal of Forestry (February, 1937), pp. 210-214.
Colby, William E. “The Completed LeConte Memorial Lodge,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 5 (1904): 1, 66-69, illus.
——. “The Sierra Club,” Forestry and Irrigation, August, 1905, pp. 391-393.
——. “The Soda Springs Purchase,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 8 (1912): 4, 272-274.
——. “The John Muir Trail,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 10 (1916): 1, 86-92.
——. “Yosemite and the Sierra Club,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 23 (1938): 2, 11-19.
——. “Yosemite’s Fatal Beauty,” National Parks Magazine (January-March, 1947), pp. 4-11.
Cole, James E. “Origin of the Name, ‘Yosemite,’” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1936, pp. 49-54.
——. “Museum [Yosemite] Scientific Collections,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1936, pp. 27-32, 37-40.
Commonwealth Club of California. “Should We Stop Building New Roads into California’s High Mountains?” The Commonwealth 12 (June 2, 1936): 22, 325-386, illus.
Cone, Mary. Two Years in California (Chicago, 1876), 238 pp., illus.
Conway, John. Time Book, Glacier Point Road Construction (in Yosemite Museum).
Cook, Lawrence F. The Giant Sequoias of California (Washington, D. C., 1942), 28 pp., illus.
——. “Forest Fire Prevention,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1945, pp. 57-61.
Corcoran, May Stanislas. “Wilderness Odds,” Oakland Tribune, July 5, 1925.
——. “Mariposa, the Land of Hidden Gold” (MS in Yosemite Museum).
Cornhill Magazine, “Early Spring in California,” April, 1883.
Cosmopolitan House. Grand Register, 1873. [A massive record of visitors during the stagecoach days. Lent to the Yosemite Museum by the Utter family.]
Country Gentleman, October 9, 1856.
Coy, O. C. California County Boundaries (Sacramento, 1923), 336 pp., maps.
——. Gold Days, of the series “California” (Los Angeles, 1929), 382 pp., illus.
Cramton, Louis C. “The National Parks under Stephen T. Mather,” American Civic Annual, 1929, pp. 13-16.
Crane, Agnes. “Staging to the Yosemite,” Leisure Hour, August, 1883.
Crocker, H. S. and Co. Yosemite Illustrated in Colors (San Francisco, 1890).
Crofutt, G. A. Trans-continental Tourist’s Guide (New York, 1872), 224 pp.
——. New Overland Tourist and Pacific Coast Guide (1878), 322 pp., illus.
Curtis, W. B. “Our National Parks and Reservations,” Annals, American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1910, pp. 15-24.
Dale, H. C. The Ashley-Smith Explorations, 1822-1829 (A. H. Clark Co., 1918), 352 pp., 3 pls.
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Davidson, G. “The Occupation Of Mount Conness,” Overland Monthly, February, 1892.
Degnan, Mary Ellen. “Early Day Experiences in Yosemite” (MS [1941] in Yosemite Museum).
Dequille, Dan. “The Perils of the High Sierras,” Overland Monthly, March, 1887, pp. 311-322.
Dickensen, Luella. Reminiscences of a Trip Across the Plains in 1846, and Early Days in California [Yosemite Valley in 1854] (San Francisco, 1904), 118 pp.
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Doerr, John E. “An Appraisal of the Winter Use in Snow Areas of the National Park Service,” MS, pp. 1-10, with tabular summary of character of areas, extent of use, accommodations, and installations of winter sports facilities, pp. 1-8 [Yosemite, pp. 8-10 of “Appraisal,” and p. 8 of Summary], 1946.
Drury, Aubrey. California: An Intimate Guide (New York, 1935) [Yosemite region, pp. 408-418, 445-478].
Drury, Newton B. “Preserving the Native Landscape in California,” National Parks Bulletin, 15 (1940): 68, 11-15.
——. “Half a Century and the National Parks,” Park Service Bulletin (September-October, 1940), pp. 1-6.
——. “The National Parks in Wartime” (Chicago: National Park Service, 1943; included with “Justifications for Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1944”), pp. 1-14, mimeographed [see also American Forests (August, 1943), pp. 374-378, 411, for another article, same title].
——. “What the War Is Doing to National Parks and Where They Will Be at Its Close,” Living Wilderness, 9 (1944): pp. 11-15.
——. “National Park Service Grazing Policy,” National Parks Magazine (July-September, 1944), pp. 16-17.
——. “The National Park Service: The First Thirty Years,” American Planning and Civic Annual (1945), pp. 29-37.
——. “Policy of the National Park Service Regarding Winter Use,” Memo. of March 21, 1946, mimeographed, pp. 1-3.
Dudley, W. R. “Report on the Big Trees of California,” U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Div. of Forestry, Bulletin 28, 1900, pp. 1-30, illus., maps.
Dumbell, K. E. M. Seeing the West (New York, 1920), 206 pp., illus.
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Ellsworth, Rodney Sydes. The Giant Sequoia (Oakland, 1924), 168 pp., illus.
Ernst, Emil F. “The Cause of Ghost Forests in Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1936, pp. 25-27.
Evans, Willis A. “Fishes of Yosemite National Park,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1944, pp. 1-20.
Farquhar, Francis P. “Northward over the John Muir Trail,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 11 (1920): 1, 34-48.
——. “Exploration of the Sierra Nevada,” California Historical Society Quarterly, March, 1925.
——. “Colonel Benson,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 12 (1925): 2, 175-179.
——. Place Names of the High Sierra (Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1926), 128 pp.
——. “Spanish Discovery of the Sierra Nevada,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 13 (1928): 1, pp. 54-61.
——. “Frémont in the Sierra Nevada,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 15 (1930): 1, pp. 73-95.
——. “Walker’s Discovery of Yosemite,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 27 (1942): 4, pp. 35-49.
——. “Jedediah Smith and the First Crossing of the Sierra Nevada,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 28 (1943): 3, 35-52.
Finck, H. T. The Pacific Coast Scenic Tour (1890), 310 pp., illus.
Foley, D. J. Foley’s Yosemite Souvenir & Guide [Galen Clark’s description of exploration of the Mariposa Grove] (1915), 116 pp., illus.
Font, Pedro. Mapa del Viage que Hizo el P. F. Pedro Font a Monterey, y puerto de San Francisco; y del Viage que Hizo el P. F. Francisco Garces por El Rio Colorado hasta su Desemboque, y para arrira Hasta P. F. Petrus Font fecit Tubutama anno 1770. [Original in Seville; copy in Yosemite Museum.]
Fountain, Paul. The Eleven Eaglets of the West (New York, 1906), 362 pp.
Fry, Walter, and John R. White. Big Trees (Stanford University Press, 1930), 114 pp., illus.
Fryxell, F. M. “The Thomas Moran Art Collection of the National Parks,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1936, pp. 57-60.
——. “A Painter of Yosemite” [Chris Jorgensen], The American Scandinavian Review, winter, 1939, pp. 329-333, illus.
Garfield, J. R. Decision of Secretary of Interior Garfield, May 11, 1908, approving the application of San Francisco for the Hetch Hetchy reservoir site, in Proceedings before the Secretary of the Interior in re Use Of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Site in the Yosemite National Park by the City of San Francisco (Washington, D. C., 1910), pp. 1-6.
Glass, Alfred. “Brief History of the Village Chapel,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1945, pp. 114-118.
Glassford, W. A. “Climate of California and Nevada,” 51st U. S. Congress, 2d Session, Ex. Doc. 287, Appendix 67 (Washington, D. C., 1891), pp. 333-356.
Gleadell, W. H. “Yosemite Memories,” Electric Magazine, December, 1896.
Godfrey, Elizabeth H. “Chronicles of Cosie Hutchings Mills” (1941 MS in Yosemite Museum), pp. 1-14.
——. “Yosemite Indians Yesterday and Today,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1941, pp. 49-72.
——. “Thumbnail Sketches of Yosemite Artists” [T. A. Ayres, Thomas Hill, Charles D. Robinson, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, William Keith, Chris Jorgensen, Gunnar M. Widforss, Harry C. Best, Ferdinand Burgdorff], Yosemite Nature Notes, 1944, pp. 21-97, passim; 1945, pp. 37-76, passim.
——. “Joseph N. LeConte,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 66-69.
Godfrey, William C. “Among the Big Trees in the Mariposa Grove,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1929, pp. 37-50 [illus. with 15 original pen and ink drawings].
Goethe, C. M. “Nature Guides,” Survey, 44 (April, 1920): 145.
——. “Yosemite Nature Guides,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 11 (1921): 2, 167-170.
Gompertz, H. M. “A Closer Acquaintance with Yosemite,” Sunset, 1900.
Gordon-Cumming, Constance F. Granite Crags of California (Edinburgh, 1886), 374 pp., illus.
Graves, J. A. California Memories (Los Angeles, 1930), 330 pp., illus.
Greeley, Horace. Recollections of a Busy Life (New York, 1868), 624 pp.
Greenwood, Grace. New Life in New Lands (New York, 1873), 414 pp.
Grinnell, Joseph, and Tracy Irwin Storer. Animal Life in the Yosemite (University of California Press, 1924), xviii + 752 pp., map and illus.
Gunnison, A. Rambles Overland (1884), 246 pp.
Hall, Ansel F. Guide to Yosemite (San Francisco, 1920), 98 pp.
—— (Ed.). Handbook of Yosemite National Park (New York, 1921), 348 pp., illus.
——. “The Early Days in Yosemite,” California Historical Society Quarterly, January, 1923.
——. “The Educational Development of Yosemite National Park,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 11 (1923): 4, 411-416.
——. “Educational Activities in National Parks,” Proc. First Pan Pacific Conf. (Washington, D. C., 1927), pp. 397-413.
——. Yosemite Valley: An Intimate Guide (Berkeley, 1929), 80 pp.
——. Letter, 1930, to C. P. Russell concerning Yosemite Museum History (in Yosemite Museum).
Hall, Harvey N., and Carlotta C. Hall. A Yosemite Flora (San Francisco, 1912), 282 pp.
Hamilton, E. H. “The New Yosemite Railroad,” Cosmopolitan Magazine, September, 1907.
Hamlin, Chauncey J. “Yosemite Museum Formally Presented to Park Service,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1926, p. 95.
——. “Studying Nature in Place,” Proc. First Pan Pacific Conf. (Washington, D. C., 1927), pp. 435-443.
Hanna, Phil Townsend. “Yosemite Re-born,” Touring Topics, July, 1926, pp. 16-19.
Harper’s Magazine. “The Yosemite Valley,” May, 1866, pp. 697-708, illus., map.
Harris Yosemite Camp Grounds, Register of Yosemite Campers, 1878.
Harwell, C. A. “The Stephen Tyng Mather Appreciation Memorial Plaque Dedication,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1932, p. 1.
——. “Beginning of Nature Guiding,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1932, pp. 2-3.
Hildebrand, Joel H. “A Nation of Onlookers?” [Advocates that skiers get away from “the merry-go-round of packed slope and ski tow.”] American Ski Annual, 1945-46, pp. 145-150.
Hill, H. A. “A Trip to Yosemite Valley,” Penny Monthly, July, 1871.
Hittell, J. S. The Resources of California (San Francisco, 1867), 462 pp.
——. Bancroft’s Pacific Coast Guide Book (San Francisco, 1882), 270 pp., illus.
——. Hittell’s Hand-book of Pacific Coast Travel (San Francisco, 1887), 264 pp., illus.
Hittell, T. H. The Adventures of James Capen Adams (San Francisco, 1860), 378 pp., illus.
——. History of California (San Francisco, 1897), 982 pp.
Hodgdon, T. J. MS by C. P. Russell on interview with Mr. Hodgdon (in Yosemite Museum).
Hoffmann, C. F. “Notes on Hetch Hetchy Valley,” Proceedings California Academy of Natural Sciences, 3 (1868): 5, 368-370.
Holder, C. F. “Famous Basaltic Columns,” Scientific American, February 2, 1901.
Holmes, A. E. Letter to J. V. Lloyd (in Yosemite Museum).
Homer Mining Index (Lundy), June 12, 1880; July 22, 1882.
Howard of Glossop, Winifred Mary (De Lisle) Howard. Journal of a Tour in the United States, Canada, and Mexico (London, 1897), 356 pp., illus.
Huber, Walter L. “The John Muir Trail,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 15 (1930): 1, 37-46.
Hudson, T. S. A Scamper through America (New York, 1882), 290 pp.
Huntington, E. The Secret of the Big Trees (1913), 24 pp., illus.
Hussey, John A. “Discovery of the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1937, pp. 60-63.
Hutchings, J. M. Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California (San Francisco, 1862), 268 pp., illus.
——. In the Heart of the Sierras (Oakland, Calif., 1886), 496 pp., illus.
——. Souvenir of California (San Francisco, 1894), 102 pp., illus.
Hutchinson, J. S. “A New Link in the John Muir Trail,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 11 (1923): 4, 357-367.
Huth, Hans. “The Evolution of Preservationism in Europe,” Journal of the American Society of Architectural Historians (July-October, 1941), pp. 5-12 [Yosemite on pp. 5, 12].
Ingram, K. C. Letter to C. P. Russell (in Yosemite Museum) regarding Southern Pacific records of railroad building.
Irving, Washington. The Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia, 1837). Two vols., frontis., maps.
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Bits of Travel at Home (Boston, 1878), 414 pp.
James, Harlean. Romance of the National Parks (New York, 1939), xiv + 240 pp., illus.
Jeffers, L. R. “Memories of the Mountains of California,” Scribner’s Magazine, May, 1919.
——. The Call of the Mountains (1922).
Johnson, Clifton. Highways and Byways of the Pacific Coast (1907), 324 pp., illus.
Johnson, Robert U. Remembered Yesterdays (Boston, 1923), 624 pp., illus.
Johnstone, E. McD. West by South, Half South (Buffalo, 1890), 98 pp., illus.
Jones, Fannie Crippen. “The Barnards in Yosemite” (MS in Yosemite Museum).
King, Clarence. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada (Boston, 1872), 292 pp. [Several subsequent eds., the latest edited by F. P. Farquhar (New York, 1935, 2d printing, 1946), 320 pp., illus.]
Kittredge, Frank A. “Trails of the National Parks,” American Civic Annual, 1931, pp. 18-22.
——. “His [Col. C. G. Thomson’s] Contribution to the National Parks,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1937, pp. 37-38.
——. “Yosemite During the War Years,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 73-77.
——. “The National Park Service: The Thirtieth Anniversary,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1946, pp. 86-88.
——. “Death of Maggie Howard, ‘Tabuce,’ Participant in Yosemite Indian Demonstration, Yosemite Interpretive Program,” Memo., Superintendent to Director, January 29, 1947, 2 pp.
Kneeland, Samuel. The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley (1872), 98 pp., illus.
Knowlton, E. “Yosemite on Foot,” Overland Monthly, July, 1870, pp. 84-89.
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——. “Indians of Yosemite,” in Handbook of Yosemite National Park (Ansel F. Hall, ed.; New York, 1921), pp. 49-73.
——. “Handbook of the Indians of California,” Bulletin 78, Bureau American Ethnology (Washington, D. C., 1925).
Kuykendall, R. S. Early History of Yosemite Valley (Washington, D. C., 1919).
Kyle, C. W. Yosemite: The World’s Wonderland (1915).
Laidlaw, Walter. “A Camping Tour to Yosemite,” Outlook, June 5, 1897, pp. 319-324.
Layton, G. I. Two Years in the Life of the Felon, Grovenor I. Layton, Lynched at Sonora, 1852 (A. R. Orton, 1852), 40 pp., illus.
LeConte, J. N. Alpina Americana, No. 1: The High Sierra of California (American Alpine Club, New York, 1907).
——. “The Soda Springs Property in the Tuolumne Meadows,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 9 (1913): 1, 36-39.
LeConte, Joseph. A Journal of Ramblings through the High Sierras of California by the “University Excursion Party” (San Francisco, 1875). [Reprinted, Sierra Club Bulletin, 3 (1900): 1, pp. 1-107. New ed., San Francisco, The Sierra Club, 1930, xviii + 152 pp., illus.]
——. “Rough Notes of a Yosemite Camping Trip,” Overland Monthly, October, November, December, 1885.
——. “Yosemite,” Sunset, 2 (1899): 119-120, illus.
——. The Autobiography of Joseph LeConte (1903), 338 pp., illus.
Leidig, Charles T. “The Leidig Family in California” (MS).
——. “President Roosevelt’s Visit to Yosemite in May, 1903” [a report by the President’s guide and cook], 4 pp., 1941, typed MS in Yosemite Museum.
Leonard, Richard M. “Piton Technique on the Cathedral Spires,” Appalachia, December, 1934, p. 178.
——. “Rock Climbing in Yosemite,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 23 (1938): 2, 116-119.
——. “Use of Wilderness Areas,” American Planning and Civic Annual, 1939, pp. 227-231.
Leonard, Richard M., and David R. Brower. “A Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra: Part IV, Yosemite Valley,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 25 (1940): 1, 41-63.
Leonard, Richard M., et al. Mountain Records of the Sierra Nevada (Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1937), 118 pp. (mim.).
Leonard, Zenas. Leonard’s Narrative, 1831-1836 (Cleveland, 1904), 318 pp., illus.
Lester, J. E. The Yo-Semite (an address, Providence, 1873), 40 pp.
——. The Atlantic to the Pacific (Boston, 1873), 366 pp.
Lewis, Ralph H. “A Survey of National Park Service Museums,” Museum News, 19 (1941): 7, 10-12.
——. “Park Museums—State and Local” [Part I, Trailside Museums; Part II, Historic House Museums; Part III, Museums in the Survey], Museum News, 23 (1945): 10, 7-12; 11, 7-12.
Lewis, W. B. “Yosemite as a Playground,” California Forestry, June, 1917, pp. 12-13.
——. “Yosemite Timber Lands Saved,” American Civic Annual, 2 (1930), 7-9.
Littell’s Living Age, “The Yo-Hamite Valley of California,” January, 1860.
Lloyd, James D. “The Removal of the Old Yosemite Village,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1926, pp. 26-31.
Lockwood, J. A. “Uncle Sam’s Troopers in the National Parks of California,” Overland Monthly, April, 1899, pp. 365-368.
Logan, Olive. “Does It Pay to Visit Yosemite?” Galaxy, October, 1870.
Ludlow, F. H. “Seven Weeks in the Great Yosemite,” Atlantic Monthly, June, 1864.
Mclellan, R. Guy. The Golden State (1874).
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Mammoth City Herald, July 9, 1879-February 12, 1881.
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Mariposa Gazette, “‘Old Timers’ Convention in Yosemite,” June 24 and July 1, 1943.
Marshall, W. G. Through America (1881), 424 pp.
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——. “Administration of the National Parks of the United States,” Proc. First Pan Pacific Conference (Washington, D. C., 1927), pp. 447-452.
Matthes, François E. “Studying the Yosemite Problem,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 9 (1914): 3, 136-147.
——. Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley, U.S.G.S. Prof. Paper 160 (Washington, D. C., 1930), 138 pp., illus., maps.
——. “John Muir and the Glacial Theory of Yosemite,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 23 (1938): 2, 9-10.
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Maulding, Mrs. J. Atwood. Letter to William E. Colby from Director of Personnel, Department of Interior, October 19, 1940, copy in National Park Service files.
Meinecke, E. P. “The Skier and His Government” [in minutes, Section on Forests and Recreation, Commonwealth Club, June 25, 1941], pp. 1-5, mim.
Merriam, C. Hart. The Dawn of the World: Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan Indians of California (Cleveland, 1910), 274 pp., illus., bibliog.
——. “Indian Village and Camp Sites in Yosemite Valley,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 10 (1917): 2, [202]-209.
——. “Route of Jedediah S. Smith in 1826,” California Historical Society Quarterly, October, 1923, pp. 228-236.
Merrill, George P. The First One Hundred Years of American Geology (Yale University Press, 1924), 774 pp.
Michael, Enid. “A Distributional List of Yosemite Birds,” Bulletin 2, Yosemite Natural History Association, 1927, pp. 1-15.
——. “The Common Nesting Birds of Yosemite Valley,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1930, pp. 41-64.
——. “Nature Garden a New Feature of Yosemite Museum,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1932, pp. 4-5.
——. [See also Yosemite section, U. S. National Park Service, Bibliography, 1941.]
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Mills, Cosie Hutchings [Mrs. Gertrude Hutchings Mills]. Letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Godfrey: reminiscences of pioneer days in Yosemite Valley. (MS in Yosemite Museum.)
Mills, E. A. “Touring in Our National Parks,” Country Life in America, January, 1913, pp. 33-36.
Minturn, William. Travels West (London, 1877), 396 pp.
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Motor West. “The Motor Conquest of Yosemite National Park,” September 15, 1916.
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——. “Features of Proposed Yosemite National Park,” Century Magazine, September, 1890, pp. 656-667.
——. Picturesque California (1888-1891), 10 vols., illus.
——. “The Yosemite National Park,” Atlantic Monthly, August, 1899, pp. 145-152.
——. The Mountains of California (1894), 382 pp., illus.
——. Our National Parks (1909), 382 pp., illus.
——. “The Endangered Valley: The Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Yosemite National Park,” Century Magazine, January, 1909, pp. 464-469, illus. [Reprinted in Scribner’s Magazine, November, 1909, and Sierra Club Bulletin, January, 1916.]
——. “Galen Clark,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 7 (1910): 4, 215-220, illus.
——. My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), 354 pp.
——. The Yosemite (1912), 284 pp., illus.
——. Letters to a Friend, 1866-1879 (Boston, 1915), 194 pp.
——. “Studies in the Sierra,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 9-11 (1915-1921).
——. “The Creation of Yosemite National Park: Letters of John Muir to Robert Underwood Johnson,” Sierra Club Bulletin, 29 (1944): 5, 49-60 [with notes by Wm. E. Colby].
Murphy, T. D. Three Wonderlands of the American West (1912), 180 pp., illus.
Nation Magazine. “Preservation of the Yosemite Valley,” February 6, 1890.
——. “The Yosemite Recession,” April 27, 1905.
National Parks Association. “Newton B. Drury is New Director of the National Park Service [Editorial],” National Parks Bulletin, 15 (1940): 68, 16.
Nichols, Grace. “Pioneer Shrines in Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1934, pp. 22-24, 29-32, 37-40, illus.
Olmsted, Frederick Law. “Government Preservation of Natural Scenery,” Brookline, Mass., March 8, 1890 [a leaflet; reprinted, Sierra Club Bulletin, 29 (1944): 5, 61-66].
Out West Magazine. “Yosemite for the People,” August, 1902 [editorial].
——. “The Big Trees,” 1904 [editorial].
Outlook. “A National Park Service,” February 3, 1912, p. 246.
Patterson, J. E. “Life History of Recurvia milleri, the Lodgepole Pine Needle-Miner, in the Yosemite National Park, California,” Journal of Agricultural Research, 21 (1921): 3, 127-143.
Peck, J. K. The Seven Wonders of the New World (1885), 320 pp.
Peregoy Hotel Register, 1869-1874 (in Yosemite Museum).
Perry, H. E. “Museum Guests Recall History of Yosemite Valley,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1930, pp. 1-3.
Pierrepont, Edward. Fifth Avenue to Alaska (1884) 330 pp.
Porter, T. C. Impressions of America (1899), 242 pp., illus.
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——. “Indian Picture Writing in Yosemite,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1930, p. 94.
——. “Indian Rancherias Found,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1930, pp. 107-108.
——. “Translating the Autobiography of a Big Tree,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1933, pp. 5-7.
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Rensch, H. E., and Ethel G. Rensch. Historic Spots in California, I: The Southern Counties, Stanford University Press, 1932, pp. 93-106, bibliog.; II: Valley and Sierra Counties, Stanford University Press, 1933, xxiii + 598 pp.
Reynolds, G. E. Guardians of Our National Parks, compiled from Stockton Record, 1923-1924.
Rhoda, J. “Uncle Sam in the Yosemite,” Overland Monthly, June, 1918, pp. 590-594.
Richardson, A. D. Beyond the Mississippi (1867), 572 pp., illus.
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Rider, Fremont. Rider’s California (1925), 668 pp., illus.
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——. “Yosemite Discoverers Immortalized,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1925, pp. 43-45, illus.
——. “Early Years in Yosemite,” California Historical Society Quarterly, 5 (1926): 4.
——. “Sierra Nevada Winter Journeys [cross-country skiing],” Sunset, January, 1928.
——. “H. C. Bumpus Inspects the Yosemite Educational Project,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1928, pp. 21-23, illus.
——. “Tribute to G. E. Reynolds of the Stockton Record,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1928, pp. 64-65.
——. “Two Interviews with Maria Lebrado, Last of the Original Yosemite Indians” (1929), (MS in Region Four Headquarters, National Park Service, San Francisco).
——. One Hundred Years in Yosemite: The Romantic Story of Early Human Affairs in the Central Sierra Nevada, Stanford University Press, 1931, 242 pp., illus.
——. “Seasonal Migration of Mule Deer,” Ecological Monographs, 2 (1932), 1-46.
——. “The History and Status of Interpretive Work in National Parks,” Regional Review, July, 1939, pp. 7-14.
——. “Dr. Herman Carey Bumpus, 1862-1943,” Yosemite Nature Notes, 1943, pp. 97-101.
Russell, Israel C. Glaciers of North America (Boston, 1897) [glaciers of the Sierra Nevada, pp. 37-54].
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Senn, Nicholas. Our National Recreation Parks (1904), 148 pp., illus.
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The following entries refer particularly to narrative pages. For further references, see under appropriate date in Chronology.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V Q X Y Z
is a clear story—sometimes dramatic, sometimes humorous, always fascinating—of the struggles of the many men who brought about the development of a great national park from an unknown wilderness. It is an account of the men who first battled with Yosemite Indians, of those who excited the curiosity of the first tourists and played critical roles in heralding the valley of waterfalls, the back-country haven of peaks, glacial lakes, and Big Trees.
To this narrative is added the story behind the later works of men in the valley—its trails, roads, hotels, camps, climbs, and ski runs, and the tale of the legislative battles over fixing the park’s boundaries and preventing the overdevelopment and ruin of an irreplaceable scenic treasure.
This is not a guidebook to Yosemite, but a story of men who made 228 possible the existence and enjoyment of the great park we know today—a story which can immeasurably increase the visitor’s enjoyment of Yosemite. For those who would pursue this aspect of Californiana further, there is appended the most nearly complete of published bibliographies on Yosemite.
Dr. Russell was for many years the Yosemite Park Naturalist, charged with representing Yosemite to the public. He is now Chief Naturalist of the National Park Service. His long list of publications has established him as an authority in this field.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
IN YOSEMITE
CARL PARCHER RUSSELL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PRICE, $3.75
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