Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: Frontispiece: Yosemite Valley]
One Hundred Years in Yosemite
_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_
[Illustration: Looking at the valley]
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
FOREWORD
[Illustration: Decorative border]
_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 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_
PREFACE
_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 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._
[Illustration: _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 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 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_
_CONTENTS_
CHAPTER PAGE
I Discovery 1
II Mariposa Hills 9
III White Chief of the Foothills 15
IV Pioneers in the Valley 36
V Tourists in the Saddle 50
VI Stagecoach Days 61
VII Explorers 71
VIII Hotels and Their Keepers 92
IX East-side Mining Excitement 117
X The Interpreters 129
XI Guardians of the Scene 146
Chronology 176
Bibliography 195
Index 217
ILLUSTRATIONS
FOLLOWING PAGE
Frontispiece, by Ralph H. Anderson ii
The Yosemite Museum x
The First Drawing Made in Yosemite xviii
Mariposa in the ’Fifties 8
Joseph R. Walker 44
Maria Lebrado 44
Captain John Boling 44
Lafayette H. Bunnell 44
A Freight Outfit 44
Early Tourists in the Saddle 44
First Yosemite Photograph—“Upper Hotel” 60
The Big Tree Room 60
The Big Oak Flat Route 60
The First Automobile—July, 1900 60
Early Yosemite Buses 60
Old Tioga Road 60
New Tioga Road 60
John Conway, a Pioneer Trail Builder 76
On the First Trail to the Top of Vernal Fall 76
Mount Conness and the Observatory Camp 76
James T. Gardiner and Clarence King, Early Mappers 76
Professor Davidson (right) and the Conness Observatory 76
Present-Day Trail Work—Oiling the Eleven-Mile Trail 80
Gabriel Sovulewski in 1897 80
Mount Maclure and Its Glacier 80
Measuring the Mount Lyell Glacier 80
Ski Mountaineering Party near Mount Starr King 88
Climbing on the Three Brothers 88
Descending Lower Cathedral Spire 88
The Cosmopolitan, 1870-1932 92
The Lower Hotel, 1856-1869 92
Mill Built by John Muir in 1869 96
Glacier Point Mountain House, 1878 to date 96
Sentinel Hotel (left background), 1876 to 1938 96
The Ahwahnee Hotel, 1927 to date 96
Saddle Trip on a High Sierra Trail 96
Merced Lake High Sierra Camp, 1916 to date 96
Badger Pass Ski House 100
Ski Patrol at Work 100
Winter in the Yosemite High Sierra: Clark Range 100
Snow Gaugers Entering Tuolumne Meadows 100
Sketch map of Yosemite Region, illustrating discovery, first
entry, east-side mining excitement, and some present-day
culture 124
John Muir 148
Galen Clark 148
Colonel H. C. Benson 148
James M. Hutchings 148
Sierra Club Headquarters in Yosemite, 1898 148
William E. Colby 148
W. B. Lewis and Stephen T. Mather 164
A Presidential Party at the Grizzly Giant 164
Hetch Hetchy Valley before Inundation 164
Devils Postpile, Excluded from Yosemite in 1905 164
[Illustration: _By Thomas A. Ayres, 1855_
The First Drawing Made in Yosemite]
CHAPTER I
_DISCOVERY_
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 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 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 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 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 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 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_.
[Illustration: _By Schwartz_
Mariposa in the ’Fifties]