Indians formerly called the Yosemite Valley _Ah-wah-nee_, meaning
"grassy valley." Early one morning a young brave started for Mirror
Lake to spear fish. On the way he encountered a huge grizzly bear. He
fought the beast with his spear and a club. After a long and furious
battle, in which he was badly wounded, the bear was killed. For this
exploit the Indian was named Yosemite, which means a full-grown
grizzly bear. This name was transmitted to his children and eventually
given to the entire tribe of Indians inhabiting the valley.
The Yosemite Valley was first made known to the public by Major James
D. Savage and Captain John Boling, who discovered it in 1851. Joseph
R. Walker, frontiersman and explorer, claims to have discovered the
valley in 1833.
Tourist travel to the valley began in 1857. It became a state park in
1864, and in 1890 a National Park was made around it. In 1905 the
boundaries were changed, and in 1906 a vigorous state and national
campaign was waged, under the leadership of John Muir, the Sierra
Club, and Robert Underwood Johnson, which resulted in the entire
region becoming a National Park.
John Muir enjoyed telling of the experience of an English gentleman
who years ago made a trip to the valley. Journeying from the railroad
on horseback, he missed the way and spent a long day descending into
gulches and cañons, then climbing out upon the high ridges. At last,
late one evening, he arrived on the rim of the Yosemite. After a swift
glance down into the valley, he exclaimed, "Great God! have I got to
cross this too?"
John Lamon, a roving Westerner, was the first settler in the Yosemite
Valley, where in 1859 he built a cabin, made a garden, and planted
fruit-trees. He was so charmed with the scenery and the climate that
he quit his roving life and here made his home till his death in 1876.
The Hetch-Hetchy appears to have been discovered in 1850 by a hunter
named Joseph Screech. In 1903 the San Francisco supervisors applied
for permission to make commercial use of the valley by building a dam
and making of it a reservoir. John Muir and the Sierra Club led the
opposition to this. The fight went on for ten years with uncertain
results. At times it was intense and bitter. Congress finally decided
in favor of San Francisco, but up to this date San Francisco has not
complied with the conditions imposed.
In 1915 plans were made for the improvement of the Yosemite Village.
In the same year occurred an event of greater importance for the Park.
Chiefly through the efforts of Stephen T. Mather, the disused Tioga
Road became a part of the Yosemite road-system. This road has been
reopened and will be a great advantage and convenience to Yosemite
visitors. It extends across the Park from east to west, passing near
the Big Trees, the Parsons Memorial Lodge, and Tuolumne Meadows,
invading the High Sierra, and crossing the range through Tioga Pass.
Henceforth automobilists from the East may leave the main continental
highway in Nevada and reach the Yosemite Park _via_ Mono Lake and this
road.
The name of Galen Clark is pleasantly interwoven with the history of
the Yosemite National Park. John Muir thus described the man: "The
best mountaineer I ever met, and one of the kindest and most amiable
of all my mountain friends.... His kindness to all Yosemite visitors
and mountaineers was marvelously constant and uniform."
Galen Clark enjoyed showing people of all ages the various wonders of
Yosemite Valley, never tired of answering questions, and endeavored
carefully to explain the facts concerning each point of interest.
Thousands of visitors to the valley came to know him intimately. He
came to the Park to live in 1857, and for more than fifty years it was
his permanent home. For twenty-four years he was a member of the
Yosemite State Park Commission. The Indians of the valley were fond of
him, and from them he gathered much interesting information. His
serene disposition and his almost constant outdoor life kept his body
and mind normal to the day of his death. After he reached the age of
ninety, deciding to become an author, he wrote and published three
little books relating to the Indians and to the natural wonders of the
Yosemite National Park.