History of the Yosemite area - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For over 3,000 years Sierra Miwok, Mono

Mono tribe

The Mono are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Eastern Sierra , the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin.-Culture and geography:...

, Paiute, and other Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

groups have lived in the central Sierra Nevada region of California. When European Americans first visited the area that would later become Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...

, a band of Miwok-speaking Native Americans called the Ahwahnechee

Ahwahnechee

The Ahwahnechee are a Native American people who traditionally lived in the Yosemite Valley. They are related to the Northern Paiute and Mono tribes. The Ahwahnechee people's heritage can be found all over Yosemite National Park.-History:The Ahwahnechee lived in Yosemite Valley for centuries...

lived in Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...

. The California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

in the mid-19th century greatly increased the number of non-indigenous people in the region. Tensions between Native Americans and white settlers escalated into the Mariposa War

Mariposa War

The Mariposa War was a conflict between Native Americans and miners in California that took place in the early 1850s.The Mariposa War was sparked by the 1849 California Gold Rush, the discovery of the gold forged a California Trail which forked off southward from the Oregon Trail...

. As part of this conflict, settler James Savage led the Mariposa Battalion

Mariposa Battalion

Mariposa Battalion was a California State Militia unit formed in 1851 to fight the Yosemites and Chowchillas in the Mariposa War.After a force under Mariposa County Sheriff James Burney was found unequal to the task of defeating the Indians, Burney made an appeal to Governor John McDougal for help...

into Yosemite Valley in 1851, in pursuit of Ahwaneechees led by Chief Tenaya

Chief Tenaya

Chief Tenaya was a Native American chief of the Yosemite Valley people in California.-Background:Tenaya's father was the chief of the Ahwahneechee , which means "people of the Ahwahnee" . The Ahwahneechee had become a tribe distinct from the other tribes in the area...

. Accounts from the battalion, especially from Dr. Lafayette Bunnell

Lafayette Bunnell

Lafayette Houghton Bunnell was an American physician, explorer, author, and an explorer of Yosemite Valley, born in Rochester, New York.-Biography:...

, popularized Yosemite Valley as a scenic wonder.

In 1864, Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of Giant Sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature examples of the tree...

of Giant Sequoia trees were transferred from federal to state ownership. Yosemite pioneer Galen Clark

Galen Clark

Galen Clark is known as the first European American to discover the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees, and is notable for his role in gaining legislation to protect it and the Yosemite area, and for 24 years serving as Guardian of Yosemite National Park.-Early life and education:Galen Clark...

became the park's first guardian. Conditions in Yosemite Valley were made more hospitable to people and access to the park was improved in the late 19th century. Naturalist John Muir

John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...

and others became increasingly alarmed about the excessive exploitation of the area. Their efforts helped establish Yosemite National Park in 1890. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were added to the national park in 1906.

The United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

had jurisdiction over the national park from 1891 to 1914, followed by a brief period of civilian stewardship. The newly formed National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

took over the park's administration in 1916. Improvements to the park helped to increase visitation during this time. Preservationists led by Muir and the Sierra Club

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...

failed to save Hetch Hetchy Valley

Hetch Hetchy Valley

Hetch Hetchy Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Tuolumne River fills the reservoir. Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. The reservoir...

from becoming a reservoir in 1923. In 1964, 89 percent of the park was set aside in a highly protected wilderness area, and other protected areas were added adjacent to the park. The once-famous Yosemite Firefall
Yosemite Firefall
The Yosemite Firefall was a summer time ritual that lasted from 1872 until 1968 in which burning hot embers were dropped a height of about 3000 feet from the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park down to the valley below, and from a distance looked similar to a glowing water fall because...

, created by pushing red hot embers off a cliff near Glacier Point

Glacier Point

thumb|right|upright|Glacier Point, as seen from [[Yosemite Valley]]. In springtime, this cliff face is covered with dozens of freshets and tiny waterfalls from the snowmelt, the largest being [[Staircase Falls]]....

at night, was discontinued in the mid-to-late 20th century along with other activities that were deemed to be inconsistent with preservation.

Native Americans

Humans may have visited the Yosemite area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. By the time people started to settle Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

3,000 years ago, vegetation and game in the region was similar to that present today; the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada had acorns, deer, and salmon, while the eastern Sierra had pinyon nuts and obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...

. Native American

Native Americans in the United States

groups traveled between these two regions to trade and raid.

Archaeologists divide the pre-European American contact period of the region into three cultural phases. The Crane Flat phase lasted from 1000 BCE to 500 CE and is marked by hunting with the atl atl and the use of grinding stone

Grinding Stone

Grinding Stone is a 1973 debut album by Gary Moore, released under the "The Gary Moore Band" moniker.-Track listing:All songs by Gary Moore.# "Grinding Stone" – 9:38# "Time to Heal" - 6:19# "Sail Across the Mountain" - 6:58...

s. The Tarmarack phase lasted from 500 until 1200, marked by a shift to using smaller rock points, indicating development and use of the bow and arrow. The Mariposa phase lasted from 1200 until contact with European Americans.

Trade between tribes became more widespread during the Mariposa phase, and the diet continued to improve. Miwok

Miwok

Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...

, Monos and Shoshonean-speaking tribes visited the area to trade; one major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...

in Eastern California.

Sierra Miwoks were the primary inhabitants of the Yosemite area and the foothills to the west during the Mariposa and historic phases. The Central Sierra Miwoks lived along the drainage area of the Tuolumne

Tuolumne River

The Tuolumne River is a California river that flows nearly from the central Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley...

and Stanislaus River

Stanislaus River

The Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is long and has north, middle and south forks...

s, while the Southern Sierra Miwoks inhabited the upper drainage of the Merced

Merced River

The Merced River , in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through the southern part of Yosemite National Park, and the...

and Chowchilla River

Chowchilla River

The Chowchilla River is a river in central California and a minor tributary of the San Joaquin River. It flows for from the western side of the Sierra Nevada Range to the San Joaquin River system...

s.

The band of Miwok-speaking people – who called the valley that provided them with nuts, berries, and small game Ahwahnee, meaning "place of a gaping mouth" – inhabited the valley during historic times. They called themselves the Ah-wah-ne-chee

Ahwahnechee

, meaning "dwellers in Ahwahnee." The Ahwahneechees were decimated by a disease in about 1800, and left the valley, although about 200 returned under the leadership of Tenaya, son of an Ahwahneechee chief.

Displaced Native Americans from the Californian coast moved to the Sierra Nevada during the early-to-mid-19th century, bringing with them their knowledge of Spanish food, technology, and clothing. Joining forces with the other tribes in the area, they raided land grant ranchos

Ranchos of California

The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

on the coast and drove herds of horses to the Sierra, where horse meat became a major new food source. The Shoshonean

Shoshone language

Shoshoni or Shoshone is a Native American language spoken by the Shoshone people. Principal dialects of Shoshoni include Western Shoshoni in Nevada, Gosiute in western Utah, Northern Shoshoni in southern Idaho and northern Utah, and Eastern Shoshoni in Wyoming.Shoshoni-speaking Native Americans...

-speaking Monache moved from eastern deserts into the southern Sierra during the last 300–500 years.

Exploration by European Americans

Although there were Spanish missions

Spanish missions in California

The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...

, pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...

s (towns), presidio
Presidio
A presidio is a fortified base established by the Spanish in North America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fortresses were built to protect against pirates, hostile native Americans and enemy colonists. Other presidios were held by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth...

s (forts), and ranchos along the coast of California, no Spanish explorers visited the Sierra Nevada. The first European Americans to visit the mountains were amongst a group led by fur trapper Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...

, crossing north of the Yosemite area in May 1827, at Ebbetts Pass

Ebbetts Pass

Ebbetts Pass, named after John Ebbetts, is a high mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada range in Alpine County, California. Ebbetts is the eastern of two passes in the area traversed by State Route 4. The western pass is the Pacific Grade Summit . The pass is registered as California Historical...

.
A group of trappers led by mountain man Joseph Reddeford Walker

Joseph Reddeford Walker

Joseph R. Walker was a mountain man and experienced scout.-Biography:Walker was born in Roane County, Tennessee. In the spring of 1833, Benjamin Bonneville sent a party of men under Joseph Walker to explore the Great Salt Lake and to find an overland route to California...

may have seen Yosemite Valley in the autumn of 1833. Walker approached a valley rim as he led his party across the Sierra Nevada, but he did not enter it. A member of the group, Zenas Leonard, wrote in his journal that streams from the valley rim dropped "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." The Walker party probably visited either the Tuolumne

Tuolumne Grove

Tuolumne Grove is a sequoia grove located near Crane Flat in Yosemite National Park, at . It is about west of Yosemite Village on Tioga Pass Road...

or Merced Grove

Merced Grove

Merced Grove is a giant sequoia grove located near Crane Flat just inside the western boundary of Yosemite National Park north of El Portal and the Merced River, at [elevation ]. It is in the small valley of Moss Creek, accessible by short hike. It has 40 sequoias over 5 feet in diameter including...

s of Giant Sequoia, becoming the first non-indigenous people to see the giant trees, but journals relating to the Walker party were destroyed in 1839, in a print shop fire in Philadelphia.

The part of the Sierra Nevada where the park is located was long considered to be a physical barrier to European American settlers, traders, trappers, and travelers. That situation changed in 1848 after gold was discovered in the foothills west of the range. Travel and trade activity dramatically increased in the area during the ensuing California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

. Resources depended upon by local Native Americans were depleted or destroyed, and disease brought by the newcomers spread rapidly through indigenous populations. Extermination of native culture became a policy of the United States Government, which acquired California from Mexico in 1848.

The first confirmed sighting of Yosemite Valley by a non-indigenous person occurred on October 18, 1849 by William P. Abrams and a companion. Abrams accurately described some landmarks, but it is uncertain whether he or his companion actually entered the valley. In 1850, one of three brothers, Joseph, William, or Nathan Screech, became the first confirmed non-indigenous person to enter Hetch Hetchy Valley

Hetch Hetchy Valley

. Joseph Screech returned two years later and spoke with the Native Americans living there, asking them what the name of a grass-covered seed meal was and was told, "hatch hatchy."

The surveying crew of Allexey W. Von Schmidt conducted the first intentional and systematic exploration of any part of the Yosemite area backcountry in 1855. Topographic surveys performed by Lieutenant Montgomery Macomb, under George M Wheeler's Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, were completed in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

Mariposa Wars and legacy

James Savage's trading camp on the Merced River

Merced River

, 10 miles (16.1 km) west of Yosemite Valley, was raided by Native Americans in December 1850, after which the raiders retreated into the mountains. An appeal to the governor of California

Governor of California

The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...

to put an end to this and other raids led to the formation of the Mariposa Battalion

Mariposa Battalion

in 1851, and the start of the Mariposa War

Mariposa War

.

Savage led the battalion into Yosemite Valley in 1851, in pursuit of around 200 Ahwaneechees led by Chief Tenaya. On March 27, 1851, the company of 50 to 60 men reached what is now called Old Inspiration Point, from where Yosemite Valley's main features are visible. Chief Tenaya and his band were eventually captured and their village burned, fulfilling the prophecy an old and dying medicine man

Medicine man

"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...

had given Tenaya many years before. The Ahwahnechee were escorted by their captor, Captain John Bowling, to the Fresno River Reservation, and the battalion was disbanded on July 1, 1851. Life on the reservation was unpleasant and the Ahwahneechee longed for their valley. Reservation officials consented and allowed Tenaya and some of his band to return on their own recognizance.

A group of eight miners entered Yosemite Valley in May 1852, and were allegedly attacked by Tenaya's warriors; two of the miners were killed. Regular army troops under the direction of Lt. Tredwell Moore retaliated by shooting six Ahwahneechee who were in possession of white men's clothing.

Tenaya's band fled the valley and sought refuge with the Mono, his mother's tribe. In mid-1853, the Ahwahneechee returned to the valley, but they subsequently betrayed the hospitality of their former Mono hosts by stealing horses that the Mono had taken from non-indigenous ranchers. In return, the Monos tracked down and killed many of the remaining Ahwahneechee, including Tenaya; Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake is a lake in Yosemite National Park, located between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows.Tenaya Lake was created by the Tenaya branch of the Tuolumne Glacier as it passed through Tenaya Canyon. The lake is supplied by a network of creeks and springs including Murphy Creek to the...

is named after the fallen chief. Hostilities subsided and by the mid-1850s local European American residents started to befriend Native Americans still living in the Yosemite area.

Members of the battalion proposed names for the valley while they were camped at Bridalveil Meadow. The company physician who had been attached to Savage's unit, Dr. Lafayette Bunnell

Lafayette Bunnell

Lafayette Houghton Bunnell was an American physician, explorer, author, and an explorer of Yosemite Valley, born in Rochester, New York.-Biography:...

, suggested "Yo-sem-i-ty", after what the surrounding Sierra Miwok tribes, who feared the Yosemite Valley tribe, called them. Savage, who spoke some native dialects, translated this as "full-grown grizzly bear." The term, which was possibly derived from or confused with the similar uzumati or uhumati, meaning "grizzly bear," is the Southern Sierra Miwok word Yohhe'meti, meaning "they are killers." Bunnell named many other local topographic features on the same trip.

Bunnell drafted an article about the trip, but destroyed it when a newspaper correspondent in San Francisco suggested cutting his 1,500- foot (460 m) height estimate for the valley's walls in half; the walls are in fact twice the height that Bunnell surmised. The first published account of Yosemite Valley was written by Lt. Tredwell Moore for the January 20, 1854, issue of the Mariposa Chronicle, establishing the modern spelling of Yosemite. Bunnell described his awestruck impressions of the valley in his book, The Discovery of the Yosemite, published in 1892.

Artists, photographers, and the first tourists

Forty-eight Non-Indian people visited Yosemite Valley in 1855, including San Francisco writer James Mason Hutchings

James Mason Hutchings

James Mason Hutchings was an American businessman and one of the principal promoters of what is now Yosemite National Park....

and artist Thomas Ayres

Thomas Ayres

Thomas Ayres was a British born South African ornithologist. In 1850 he migrated with his family to Natal where he started to collect birds. In 1865 he and his brother Jack moved to Potchefstroom, where they hunted and traded with the Boer settlers...

Hutchings wrote an article about his experience that was published in the July 12, 1855, issue of the Mariposa Gazette and Ayres' sketch of Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls is the highest measured waterfall in North America. Located in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California, it is a major attraction in the park, especially in late spring when the water flow is at its peak....

was published in late 1855; four of his drawings were presented in the lead article of the July 1856 and initial issue of Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine. Ayres returned in 1856 and visited Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows is a gentle, dome-studded sub-alpine meadowy section of the Tuolumne River, in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park. Its approximate location is . Its approximate elevation is 8619 feet .-Natural History:...

in the area's high country. His highly detailed angularly exaggerated artwork and his written accounts were distributed nationally and an art exhibition of his drawings was held in New York City. Carleton Watkins

Carleton Watkins

Carleton E. Watkins was a noted 19th century California photographer.Carleton Emmons Watkins was born in Oneonta, upstate New York. He went to San Francisco during the gold rush, arriving in 1851...

exhibited his 17 by Yosemite views at the 1867 Paris International Exposition.

Hutchings took photographer Charles Leander Weed

Charles Leander Weed

Charles Leander Weed was an American photographer, who was born in New York state in 1824, and died in 1903. He is perhaps best known for being one of the earliest photographers, if not the first photographer, to enter and photograph what is now Yosemite National Park.In 1854, during the...

to Yosemite Valley in 1859; Weed took the first photographs of the valley's features, which were presented to the public in a September exhibition held in San Francisco. Hutchings published four installments of "The Great Yo-semite Valley" from October 1859 to March 1860 in his magazine and re-published a collection of these articles in his Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California, which remained in print into the 1870s.

Photographer Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....

made his first trip to Yosemite in 1916; his photographs of the valley made him famous in the 1920s and 1930s. Adams willed the originals of his Yosemite photos to the Yosemite Park Association, and visitors can still buy direct prints from his original negatives. The studio in which the prints are sold was established in 1902 by artist Harry Cassie Best.

Milton and Houston Mann opened a toll road to Yosemite Valley in 1856, up the South Fork of the Merced River. They charged the then considerable sum of two dollars

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

per person until the road was bought by Mariposa County

Mariposa County, California

Mariposa County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It lies north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,251 up from 17,130 at the 2000 census...

, after which it became free.

In 1856, settler Galen Clark

Galen Clark

discovered the Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove

of Giant Sequoia at Wawona

Wawona, California

Wawona is a census-designated place in Mariposa County, California. It is located east of Mariposa, at an elevation of 3999 feet...

, an indigenous encampment in what is now the southwestern part of the park. Clark completed a bridge over the South Fork of the Merced River in 1857 at Wawona for traffic headed toward Yosemite Valley and provided a way station for travelers on the road the Mann brothers built to the valley.

Simple lodgings, later called the Lower Hotel, were completed soon afterward; the Upper Hotel ,later renamed Hutchings House and eventually known as Cedar Cottage, was opened in 1859. In 1879, the more substantial Wawona Hotel

Wawona Hotel

The Wawona Hotel is a historic hotel located within Yosemite National Park. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.Wawona Hotel is one of the oldest mountain resort hotels in California and a classic of Victorian era resorts. The Victorian style hotel was built in 1876 to serve...

was built to serve tourists visiting the nearby grove of big trees and those on their way to Yosemite Valley. Aaron Harris opened the first campground business in Yosemite in 1876.

Forming the state grant

Visitation and interest in Yosemite continued to grow through the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

minister Thomas Starr King

Thomas Starr King

Thomas Starr King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic...

visited the valley in 1860 and saw some of the negative effects that homesteading

Homesteading

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...

and commercial activity were having on the area. Six travel letters by King were published in the Boston Evening Transcript
Boston Evening Transcript
The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...

in 1860 and 1861; King became the first person with a nationally recognized voice to call for a public park at Yosemite. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...

and John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...

read and commented on King's letters and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

was prompted by the warnings to visit the Yosemite area in 1863.

Pressure from King and Olmstead, photographs by Carleton Watkins

Carleton Watkins

Carleton E. Watkins was a noted 19th century California photographer.Carleton Emmons Watkins was born in Oneonta, upstate New York. He went to San Francisco during the gold rush, arriving in 1851...

, and geological data from the 1863 Geological Survey of California prompted legislators to take action. Senator John Conness

John Conness

John Conness was a first-generation Irish-American businessman who served as a U.S. Senator from California during the American Civil War and the early years of Reconstruction. He introduced a bill to establish Yosemite National Park and voted to abolish slavery...

of California introduced a park bill in 1864 to the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

to cede Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to California.

The bill easily passed both houses of the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

, and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

on June 30, 1864. The Yosemite Grant, as it was called, was given to California as a state park for "public use, resort and recreation". A board of commissioners, with Frederick Law Olmsted as chairman, was formed in September 1864 to govern the grant, but it did not meet until 1866.

Managing the state grant

The commission appointed Galen Clark as the grant's first guardian, but neither Clark nor the commissioners had the authority to evict homesteaders. Josiah Whitney

Josiah Whitney

Josiah Dwight Whitney was an American geologist, professor of geology at Harvard University , and chief of the California Geological Survey...

, the first director of the California Geological Survey, lamented that Yosemite Valley would meet the same fate as Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...

, which at that time was a tourist trap

Tourist trap

A tourist trap is an establishment, or group of establishments, that has been created with the aim of attracting tourists and their money...

with tolls on every bridge, path, trail, and viewpoint.

Hutchings and a small group of settlers sought legal homesteading rights on 160 acres (64.7 ha) of the valley floor. The issue was not settled until 1874 when the land holdings of Hutchings and three others were invalidated and the state legislature appropriated $60,000 ($ as of ) to compensate the settlers, of which Hutchings received $20,000.

Conditions in Yosemite Valley and access to the park steadily improved. In 1878, Clark used dynamite to breach a recessional moraine

Moraine

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

in the valley to drain a swamp behind it. Tourism significantly increased after a Sacramento

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

to Stockton

Stockton, California

Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...

extension of the First Transcontinental Railroad

First Transcontinental Railroad

The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...

was completed in 1869 and the Central Pacific Railroad

Central Pacific Railroad

The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...

reached Merced

Merced, California

Merced is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 78,958. Incorporated in 1889, Merced is a charter city that operates under a council-manager government...

in 1872.

The long horseback ride from Merced remained a deterrent to tourists. Three stagecoach

Stagecoach

A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

roads were built in the mid-1870s to provide better access; Coulterville Road (June 1874), Big Oak Flat Road (July 1874), and the Wawona Road (July 1875). A road to Glacier Point

Glacier Point

was completed in 1882 by John Conway, and the Great Sierra Wagon Road was opened in 1883, which roughly followed the Mono Trail to Tuolumne Meadows.

Clark and the sitting commissioners were removed from office by the California Legislature in 1880, and Hutchings became the new guardian. Hutchings in turn was replaced as guardian, in 1884, by W. E. Dennison. Clark was reappointed as guardian in 1889 and retired in 1896.

In 1900, Oliver Lippincott became the first to drive an automobile into Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Valley Railroad

Yosemite Valley Railroad

The Yosemite Valley Railroad was a short-line railroad operating from 1907 to 1945 in the state of California, mostly following the Merced River from Merced to Yosemite National Park, carrying a mixture of passenger and freight traffic...

, nicknamed "the short line to paradise," arrived at nearby El Portal, California

El Portal, California

El Portal is a census-designated place in Mariposa County, California. It is located west-southwest of Yosemite Village, at an elevation of 1939 feet . The population was 474 at the 2010 census....

in 1907. Numerous hiking and horse trails were cleared, including a walking path through Mariposa Grove.

Concessionaires

Yosemite's first concession was established in 1884 when Mr. and Mrs. John Degnan established a bakery and store. The Desmond Park Service Company was granted a twenty-year concession in 1916; the company bought out or built hotels, stores, camps, a dairy, a garage, and other park services. Desmond changed its name to the Yosemite National Park Company in December 1917 and was reorganized in 1920.

The Curry Company was started by David and Jenny Curry in 1899; the couple also founded Camp Curry, now known as Curry Village. The Currys lobbied reluctant park supervisors to allow expansion of concessionaire operations and development in the area.

Administrators in the National Park Service felt that limiting the number of concessionaires in each national park would be more financially sound. The Curry Company and its rival, the Yosemite National Park Company, were forced to merge in 1925 to form the Yosemite Park & Curry Company (YP&CC).

John Muir's influence

Immediately following his arrival in California in March 1868, naturalist John Muir

John Muir

set out for the Yosemite area, where he found work tending to the sheep owned by a local rancher, Pat Delaney. Muir's employment provided him with the opportunity to study the area's plants, rocks, and animals; the articles and scientific papers he wrote describing his observations helped to popularize the area and to increase scientific interest in it. Muir was one of the first to suggest that Yosemite Valley's major landforms were created by large alpine glaciers, contradicting the view of established scientists such as Josiah Whitney, who regarded Muir as an amateur.
Alarmed by over grazing of meadows, logging of Giant Sequoia, and other damage, Muir changed from being a promoter and scientist to an advocate for further protection. He persuaded many influential people to camp with him in the area, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

in 1871. Muir tried to convince his guests that the entire area should be under federal protection. None of his guests through the 1880s could do much for Muir's cause, except for Robert Underwood Johnson

Robert Underwood Johnson

Robert Underwood Johnson was a U.S. writer and diplomat. His wife was Katharine Johnson.-Biography:A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson joined the staff of The Century Magazine in 1873...

, editor of Century Magazine. Through Johnson, Muir had a national audience for his writing and a highly motivated and crafty congressional lobbyist.

Muir's wish was partially granted on October 1, 1890, when the area outside the valley and sequoia grove became a national park under the unopposed Yosemite Act. The Act provided "for the preservation from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said reservation, and their retention in their natural condition" and prohibited "wanton destruction of the fish and game and their capture or destruction for the purposes of merchandise or profit."

Yosemite National Park included the entire upper drainages of two river watersheds

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

. Preservation of watersheds was very important to Muir, who said "you cannot save Yosemite Valley without saving its Sierran fountains." The State of California retained control of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. Muir and 181 others founded the Sierra Club

Sierra Club

in 1892, in part to lobby for the transfer of the valley and the grove into the National Park.

Army administration

Like Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

before it, Yosemite National Park was at first administered by various units of the United States Army

United States Army

. Captain Abram Wood

Abram Wood

Captain Abram Epperson Wood was the first acting Military Superintendent of Yosemite National Park.-Education:Wood was a West Point graduate and served in the American Civil War and various Indian wars.-Career:...

led the 4th Cavalry Regiment

U.S. 4th Cavalry Regiment

The 4th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment, whose lineage is traced back to the mid-19th century. It was one of the most effective units of the Army against Indians on the Texas frontier. Today the regiment exists as separate squadrons within the U.S. Army...

into the new park on May 19, 1891, and set up Camp A.E. Wood (now the Wawona Campground) in Wawona. Each summer, 150 cavalrymen traveled from the Presidio of San Francisco

Presidio of San Francisco

The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...

to patrol the park. Approximately 100,000 sheep were illegally led into Yosemite's high meadows each year. The Army lacked legal authority to arrest the herders, but instead escorted them several days' hike from their flock, which left the sheep vulnerable. By the late 1890s sheep grazing was no longer a problem, but at least one herder continued to graze his sheep in the park into the 1920s.

The Army also tried to control poaching. In 1896, acting Superintendent Colonel S. B. M. Young stopped issuing firearm permits after discovering that large numbers of game and fish were being killed. Poaching continues to be an issue in the 21st century. The Army's administration of the Park ended in 1914.

Galen Clark retired as the state grant's guardian in 1896, leaving Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees under ineffective stewardship. Pre-existing problems in the state grant worsened and new problems arose, but the cavalry could only monitor the situation. Muir and the Sierra Club continued to lobby the government and influential people for the creation of a unified Yosemite National Park. The Sierra Club began to organize annual trips to Yosemite in 1901 in an effort to make the remote area more accessible.

Unified national park

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

camped with John Muir near Glacier Point

Glacier Point

for three days in May 1903. During that trip, Muir convinced Roosevelt to take control of the valley and the grove away from California and give it to the federal government. On June 11, 1906, Roosevelt signed a bill that did precisely that, and the superintendent's headquarters was moved from Wawona to Yosemite Valley.

To secure congressional and State of California approval for the plan, the size of the park was reduced by more than 500 square mile, which excluded natural wonders such as the Devils Postpile

Devils Postpile National Monument

Devils Postpile National Monument is located near Mammoth Mountain in extreme northeastern Madera County in eastern California. It was established in 1911, and protects Devils Postpile, an unusual formation of columnar basalt.-Geography:...

and prime wildlife habitat. The park was again reduced in size in 1906, when logging began in an area around Wawona. Acting superintendent Major H. C. Benson said in 1908 that "game is on the decrease. Each reduction of the park has cut another portion of the winter resort of game." The various changes meant that the park was reduced to two-thirds of its original size.

About 12000 acres (4,856.2 ha) between the Tuolumne and the Merced big tree groves were added to the park in 1930 through land purchases by the federal government and matching funds provided by industrialist John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller

John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...

. Another 8765 acres (3,547.1 ha) near Wawona were added in 1932. The Carl Inn Tract, close to the Rockefeller purchase, was secured in 1937 and 1939.

Fight over Hetch Hetchy Valley

San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan

James D. Phelan

James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader and banker.-Early years:Phelan was born in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy during the California Gold Rush as a trader, merchant and banker. He graduated from St...

hired USGS engineer Joseph B. Lippincott in 1900 to perform a discreet survey of Hetch Hetchy Valley

Hetch Hetchy Valley

, located north of Yosemite Valley in the national park. His report stated that a dam of the Tuolumne River

Tuolumne River

The Tuolumne River is a California river that flows nearly from the central Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley...

in the Hetch Hetchy Valley was the best choice to create a drinking water reservoir for the city. Water right

Water right

Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentious...

s to Tuolumne River and rights to build reservoirs at Hetch Hetchy and Lake Eleanor

Lake Eleanor

Lake Eleanor is a reservoir located in Yosemite National Park at an altitude of . The reservoir has a capacity of and a surface area of 953 acres...

were sought by Lippincott on behalf of Phelan in 1901. These requests were rejected in 1903 by Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock

Ethan A. Hitchcock (Interior)

Ethan Allen Hitchcock served under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.-Early life:...

, who felt the application was "not in keeping with the public interest."

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...

tipped the balance in favor of granting the city the right to build the dam. Rights to Hetch Hetchy were granted to the City of San Francisco in 1908 by Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield

James Rudolph Garfield

James Rudolph Garfield was an American politician, lawyer and son of President James Abram Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield. He was Secretary of the Interior during Theodore Roosevelt's administration....

, who wrote: "Domestic use is the highest use to which water and available storage basins ... can be put."

A nationally publicized fight over the dam project ensued; preservationists like Muir wanted to leave wild areas wild, and conservationists like Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania...

wanted to manage wild areas for the betterment of mankind. Robert Underwood Johnson and the Sierra Club joined the fight to save the valley from flooding. Muir wrote, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for watertanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." Pinchot, who was director of the U.S. Forest Service, wrote to his close friend Roosevelt that "the highest possible use which could be made of it would be to supply pure water to a great center of population."

Roosevelt's successor, Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

, signed the Raker Act

Raker Act

The Raker Act was an act of the United States Congress that permitted building of the O'Shaughnessy Dam and flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, California. It is named for John E. Raker, its chief sponsor...

into law on December 13, 1913, which authorized construction of the dam. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a reservoir in Yosemite National Park, about northeast from the city of Merced, California. The reservoir has a capacity of and is formed by the concrete gravity O'Shaughnessy Dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River...

grew as the valley was flooded behind the O'Shaughnessy Dam

O'Shaughnessy Dam

The O'Shaughnessy Dam is a curved gravity dam on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of California's Sierra Nevada. The dam is located in Yosemite National Park, and creates the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It is named for former San Francisco chief engineer and the original chief engineer of...

in 1923. The Raker Act also gave the city the right to store water in Lake Eleanor and Cherry Lake, both located northwest of Hetch Hetchy in the park.

Shortly before Muir died he expressed the hope that "some compensating good must follow" from the Raker Act. The fight over the dam strengthened the conservation movement by popularizing it nationally.

National Park Service

The administration of Yosemite National Park was transferred to the newly formed National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

in 1916, when W. B. Lewis was appointed as the park's superintendent. Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and Tioga Pass Road, along with campgrounds at Tenaya and Merced lakes, were completed the same year; six hundred automobiles entered the east side of the park using Tioga Road that summer. The "All-Weather Highway" (now State Route 140

California State Route 140

State Route 140 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, 102 miles in length. It begins in the San Joaquin Valley at Interstate 5 near Gustine, and runs east into the Sierra Nevada, terminating in Yosemite National Park....

) opened in 1926, ensuring year-long visitation and delivery of supplies under normal conditions.

Completion of the 0.8 miles (1.3 km)-long Wawona Tunnel

Wawona Tunnel

The Wawona Tunnel is a highway tunnel in Yosemite National Park, which carries Wawona Road through a mountain on the south side of the Merced River...

in 1933 significantly reduced travel time to Yosemite Valley from Wawona. The famous Tunnel View is on the valley side of the tunnel and Old Inspiration Point is above it. A flood, reduced lumber and mining extraction, and greatly increased automobile and bus use forced the Yosemite Valley Railway out of business in 1945. The present day Tioga Road, now part of California State Route 120

California State Route 120

State Route 120 , in northern California, runs between the Central Valley near Manteca, through Yosemite National Park, and ends at U.S. Route 6 in Mono County.-Route description:...

, was dedicated in 1961.

Interpretive programs and services for national parks were pioneered in Yosemite by Harold C. Bryant and Loye Holmes Miller in 1920. Ansel F. Hall became the first park naturalist in 1921 and served in that role for two years. Hall's idea to have park museums act as public contact centers for interpretive programs became a model followed by other national parks in the United States and internationally. Yosemite Museum

Yosemite Museum

The Yosemite Museum is located in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in California. Founded in 1926 through the efforts of Ansel Franklin Hall, the museum's displays focus on the heritage and culture of the Ahwaneechee people who lived in the valley...

, the first permanent museum in the National Park System, was completed in 1926.

The Ahwahnee Hotel

Ahwahnee Hotel

The Ahwahnee Hotel is a destination hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, constructed from stone, concrete, wood and glass, which opened in 1927...

, in Yosemite Valley, is a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

. Built in 1927, it is a luxury hotel designed by the architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood

Gilbert Stanley Underwood

Gilbert Stanley Underwood was an American architect best known for his National Park lodges. Born in 1890, Underwood received his B.A. from Yale in 1920 and a M.A. from Harvard in 1923. After opening an office in Los Angeles that year, he became associated with Daniel Ray Hull of the National...

, decorated in Native American motifs. For many years it hosted an annual pageant produced by Ansel Adams. During World War II it was used as a rehabilitation hospital for soldiers.

Restoration and preservation

Large floods covered Yosemite Valley in 1937, 1950, 1955, and 1997. These floods had a flow rate of 22,000 to 25,000 cubic feet (620 to 700 m³) per second, as measured at the Pohono Bridge gauging station in Yosemite Valley.

All the structures in Old Yosemite Village, except for the chapel, were either moved to the Pioneer Yosemite History center in Wawona or demolished during the 1950s and 1960s. Other structures in the park were also moved to the history center. Cedar Cottage, the oldest building in Yosemite Valley, was demolished in 1941 along with others, even though they had not been flooded. Little regard was given to historic preservation, as the priority was thought to be the preservation and restoration of natural scenery.

Congress set aside about 89 percent of the park in a highly protected wilderness area through passage of the Wilderness Preservation Act of 1964. No roads, motorized vehicles (except rescue helicopters and other emergency vehicles), or any development beyond trail maintenance are allowed in this area. The Act also created Ansel Adams Wilderness

Ansel Adams Wilderness

The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. The wilderness is part of the Sierra and Inyo National Forests. The wilderness spans...

and John Muir Wilderness

John Muir Wilderness

The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA for , in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist John Muir, it contains...

, adjacent to the Yosemite National Park. These protected areas include regions removed from the park immediately before it was unified with the state grant in 1906.

The Yosemite Firefall
Yosemite Firefall
The Yosemite Firefall was a summer time ritual that lasted from 1872 until 1968 in which burning hot embers were dropped a height of about 3000 feet from the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park down to the valley below, and from a distance looked similar to a glowing water fall because...

, in which the embers from a bonfire were pushed off a cliff near Glacier Point to create a spectacular effect, was ended in 1968 because it was deemed to be inconsistent with park values. The firefall was occasionally performed in the 1870s and became a nightly tradition with the founding of Camp Curry.

Since the late 1960s

Broader tensions in American society surfaced in Yosemite when a large number of youths gathered in the park over the summer of 1970, triggering a riot on July 4 after rangers tried to evict visitors from camping illegally in Stoneman Meadow. Rioters attacked the rangers with rocks, and pulled mounted rangers from their horses. The National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

was brought in to restore order.

The Yosemite Park and Curry Company was bought by Music Corporation of America

Music Corporation of America

MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...

(MCA) in 1973. In 1988, concessionaires brought in $500 million ($ as of ), and paid the federal government $12.5 million ($ as of ) for the franchise. Delaware North Companies

Delaware North Companies

Delaware North Companies is a global food service and hospitality company headquartered in Buffalo, New York The company operates in the lodging, sporting, airport, gaming and entertainment industries. The company employs over 50,000 people worldwide and has over $2 billion in annual revenues...

became the primary concessionaire for Yosemite in 1992. The agreement it signed with the National Park service increased yearly park revenue from concessionaires to $20 million ($ as of ).

In 1999, four women were killed by Cary Stayner

Cary Stayner

Cary A. Stayner is an American serial killer currently on death row for the 1999 murders of four women in Mariposa County near Yosemite, California.-Early life:Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California...

just outside the park. That same year a large rockslide originating at the east side of Glacier Point ended near the Happy Isles

Happy Isles

Happy Isles is a group of small isles in the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. They are located at the easternmost end of the Yosemite Valley floor...

of the Merced River, creating a debris field larger than several football fields. Tourism dropped a little after those incidents, but soon returned to its previous level.

Human impact

Plans for reducing human impact on the park were released by the Park Service in 1980. The General Management Plan specified a reduction of 17 percent in overnight accommodations, a 68 percent reduction in staff housing and removal of golf courses and tennis courts by 1990, yet there were still 1,300 buildings in Yosemite Valley and 17 acres (6.9 ha) of the valley floor were covered by parking lots in the late 1990s. The goals were not met, but flooding in January 1997 destroyed park infrastructure in Yosemite Valley. The Yosemite Valley Plan was later established to implement the General Management Plan and over 250 other actions.

Forests and meadows

The Awahnechee and other aboriginal groups changed the environment of the Yosemite area. Parts of valley floors were intentionally burned each year to encourage the growth of acorn-bearing black oaks. Fire kept forests open, reducing the risk of ambush, and the open areas helped to expand and maintain meadows.

Early park guardians drained swamps, which reduced the number and extent of meadows. In the 1860s there were over 750 acres (303.5 ha) of meadows in the valley compared to 340 acres (137.6 ha) by the end of the 20th century. The remaining meadows are maintained by manually clearing trees and shrubs. The Park Service has prohibited driving and camping in meadows, a common practice in the 1910s to 1930s and cattle and horses are no longer allowed to roam freely in the park.

Fire suppression encouraged the growth of young coniferous trees, such as ponderosa pine

Ponderosa Pine

Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the Ponderosa Pine, Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, or Western Yellow Pine, is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington near present-day Spokane...

and incense cedar; adult conifers create enough shade to inhibit the growth of young black oak trees. By the 20th century, fire suppression and the lowering of water tables by draining swamps led to the establishment of dense conifer forests where mixed and open conifer-oak woodlands had previously grown. Fire suppression polices have been replaced by a fire management program which includes the annual use of prescribed fires. Fire is especially important to the Giant Sequoia groves, whose seeds cannot germinate without fire-touched soil.

Logging used to be carried out in the area. Over one-half-billion board feet of timber were felled between World War I and 1930, when John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...

and the federal government bought out the Yosemite Lumber Company.

Increases in visitation

Muir and the Sierra Club initially encouraged efforts to increase visitation to the park. Muir wrote that even the "frivolous and inappreciative" visitors were on the whole "a most hopeful sign of the times, indicating at least the beginning of our return to nature – for going to the mountains is going home."

The first automobile entered Yosemite Valley in 1900, but growth in car traffic did not increase significantly until 1913, when they were first officially allowed to enter; the next year, 127 cars entered the park.

Park visitation increased from 15,154 in 1914, to 35,527 in 1918, and to 461,000 in 1929. Two-thirds of a million visited in 1946, 1 million in 1954, 2 million by 1966, 3 million in the 1980s, and 4 million in the 1990s.

Recreational activities

Half Dome

Half Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, located in northeastern Mariposa County, California, at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley — possibly Yosemite's most familiar rock formation. The granite crest rises more than above the valley floor....

is a prominent and iconic granite dome that rises 4737 feet (1,443.8 m) above the floor of Yosemite Valley. It was first climbed on October 12, 1875, by the Scottish blacksmith of Yosemite Valley, George C. Anderson. A rope that Anderson laid was used by six men, including 61-year-old Galen Clark, and one woman, to scale the last 975 feet (297.2 m) of Half Dome. Anderson's rope was repaired several times and was replaced in 1919 by a stairway built by the Sierra Club.

Sunnyside walk-in campground, better known as Camp 4

Camp 4 (Yosemite)

Camp 4 is a campground in Yosemite National Park. It became notable after World War II as the hangout for rock climbers with many spending months there . It is located near Yosemite Falls, on the north side of the valley. There is a single parking lot at the campground, and no driveways connecting...

, was built in 1929. Rock climbers

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

, who started to scale the cliffs of Yosemite in the 1950s, camped there. In 1997, a flood in Yosemite Valley destroyed employee housing in the valley. The Park Service wanted to build dormitories next to Camp 4, but Tom Frost

Tom Frost

Tom Frost is a rock climber from California, best known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He is also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer.-Rock climbing and mountaineering:...

, the American Alpine Club

American Alpine Club

The American Alpine Club, or AAC, was founded in 1902 by Charles Ernest Fay, and is the leading national organization in the United States devoted to mountaineering, climbing, and the multitude of issues facing climbers...

and others succeeded in killing the plan. Camp 4 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

on February 21, 2003, because of its role in the development of rock climbing as a sport.

Badger Pass Ski Area

Badger Pass Ski Area

Badger Pass Ski Area is a small ski area located within Yosemite National Park. Badger Pass is one of only three lift serviced ski areas operating in a US National Park...

was established in 1935. The 9-hole Wawona Golf Course opened in June 1918 in a meadow adjacent to the Wawona Hotel. A golf course was later built near the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley, but was removed and converted into a meadow in 1981.

Introduced and invasive species

Introduced animals and diseases had impacted the park area by the late 19th century. Galen Clark noted in the mid-1890s that native grasses and flowering plants in Yosemite Valley had been reduced in number by three-quarters.

White pine blister rust, a fungal disease that infects conifer trees, was accidentally introduced in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

in 1910 and had reached California by the 1920s. It has since infected many sugar pine trees in the Yosemite area. The rust is managed by removing plants belonging to the ribes

Ribes

Ribes is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants native throughout the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually treated as the only genus in the family Grossulariaceae. Seven subgenera are recognized....

genus, which act as carriers of the fungus.

Trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

were introduced in Yosemite streams and lakes to promote fishing. Tadpole predation by the introduced fish reduced frog populations. Lakes and streams are no longer stocked in the park.

Current park managers focus on controlling nine high-priority invasive plant species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

of noxious weeds

Noxious weeds

A noxious weed is an invasive species of a plant that has been designated by country, state or provincial, or national agricultural authorities as one that is injurious to agricultural and/or horticultural crops, natural habitats and/or ecosystems, and/or humans or livestock...

: Yellow star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis); Spotted knapweed

Centaurea maculosa

Centaurea maculosa, the spotted knapweed, is a species of Centaurea native to eastern Europe.It has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an invasive plant species in much of the western United States and Canada. In 2000, C. maculosa occupied more than in the US.Knapweed is a...

(Centaurea maculosa); Himalayan blackberry

Rubus armeniacus

Rubus armeniacus, Armenian Blackberry or Himalayan Blackberry, is a species of Rubus in the blackberry group Rubus subgenus Rubus series Discolores Focke. It is native to Armenia in southwest Asia, and widely naturalised elsewhere...

(Rubus armeniacus); Bull thistle

Cirsium vulgare

Cirsium vulgare is a species of the genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe , western Asia , and northwestern Africa...

(Cirsium vulgare); Velvet grass

Yorkshire Fog

Yorkshire Fog or Velvet Grass, Holcus lanatus, is a perennial grass in the Poaceae Family. 'Lanatus' is latin for 'wooly' which describes the plant's hairy texture....

(Holcus lanatus); Cheat grass

Drooping Brome

Drooping brome or Cheat Grass, Bromus tectorum, is a grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia and northern Africa.-Description:...

(Bromus tectorum); French broom (Genista monspessulana); Italian thistle

Carduus pycnocephalus

Carduus pycnocephalus is a species of thistle native to the Mediterranean region of Europe and Asia which has become a noxious weed in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and North America, especially in California, where it is a C-listed weed by...

(Carduus pycnocephalus); and Perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium). In 2008, the park began to use the herbicides glyphosate and aminopyralid

Aminopyralid

Aminopyralid is a selective hormone-based herbicide manufactured by Dow AgroSciences for control of broadleaf weeds on grassland, such as docks, thistles, and nettles...

to augment manual methods to manage the most threatening plants.

Wildlife

Grizzly bears, featured prominently in Miwok mythology

Miwok mythology

The mythology of the Miwok Native Americans are myths of their world order, their creation stories and 'how things came to be' created. Miwok myths suggest their spiritual and philosophical world view...

and were the top predators in the region until the 1920s, when they became locally extinct. A sketch of a Yosemite grizzly by Charles Nahl adorns the flag of California

Flag of California

The Bear Flag is the official flag of the state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag.-Design:...

.

American black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

s were a common attraction by the 1930s, but in 1929 alone 81 people required treatment for bear-related injuries. Troublesome bears were marked with white paint before being relocated to other parts of the park, and repeat offenders were killed. Bear feeding shows were stopped in 1940, but the Park Service continued to kill bears that habitually raided camps; 200 were put down between 1960 and 1972. Park visitors are now educated about proper food storage.

To supplement their incomes, the rangers trapped predators such as coyote

Coyote

The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...

, fox

Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

, lynx

Lynx

A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...

, mountain lion, and wolverine

Wolverine

The wolverine, pronounced , Gulo gulo , also referred to as glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae . It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more closely resembling a small bear than other mustelids...

for their furs, a practice that survived until 1925. Predator control continued however; 43 mountain lions were killed in Yosemite by the state lion hunter in 1927. Cooper's hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk is a medium-sized hawk native to the North American continent and found from Canada to Mexico. As in many birds of prey, the male is smaller than the female...

and sharp-shinned hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is a small hawk. In fact, "sharp-shins" or "sharpies" are the smallest to reside in USA and Canada, though some Neotropical species are smaller...

were hunted to local extinction.

Bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep

The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...

, which were driven locally extinct through hunting and disease, have been reintroduced in the east of the park. The Park Service and the Yosemite Fund have also helped peregrine falcon

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...

s and great gray owl

Great Grey Owl

The Great Grey Owl or Lapland Owl is a very large owl, distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. In some areas it is also called the Great Gray Ghost, Phantom of the north, Cinereous Owl, Spectral Owl, Lapland Owl, Spruce Owl, Bearded Owl and Sooty Owl.-Description:Adults have a big, rounded...

s to re-establish themselves. Tule elk

Tule Elk

The tule elk is a subspecies of elk found only in California, ranging from the grasslands and marshlands of the Central Valley to the grassy hills on the coast. The subspecies name derives from the tule that it feeds off of, which grows in the marshlands...

, which had been hunted almost to extinction, were housed in a pen in Yosemite before being moved to the Owens Valley

Owens Valley

Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin section...

in eastern California.

External links

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