Catching up on Blog Entries--Enjoy Some Yosemite History!

Sunday morning early, April 21, we beat the crowds and visited The Pioneer Yosemite History Center (a place of pioneers who profoundly influenced the birth and growth of the national park idea), near the Wawona Information Center (and Hotel) just up from the South Entrance on CA 41.

The scenery of Yosemite is world-renowned. But what about the stories of individuals that have both changed and been changed by Yosemite. At this center, the National Park Service commemorates the efforts of people, the events they experienced, and the issues they faced during the establishment of this great park. The historic structures we found here came from different eras of Yosemite history and different locations throughout Yosemite. They were moved to Wawona in the 1950s and 1960s. What follows are different chapters in the Yosemite story. Hopefully, Yosemite history will come to life as you "travel" back in time to an era of horse-drawn wagons, covered bridges, and log cabins....

Picture this....!
In the late 1800s, Wawona was the largest stage stop in Yosemite. After hours of bouncing and bumping along uneven dirt roads, inbound stages stopped for the night at the Wawona Hotel before making the eight-hour trip to Yosemite Valley. If repairs were needed before the sixteen hour round-trip journey, a large grey barn on the premises was the place to visit. The Washburns, proprietors of the Wawona Hotel, used the barn for repairing stages.

All Yosemite-bound traffic through this area crossed the covered bridge over the South Fork Merced River, which was built in 1857 by Galen Clark. Clark opened the first waystation for visitors in Wawona and later became the first guardian of the Yosemite Grant. He sold his land along the river to the Washburns, and they covered the bridge in the style of their native Vermont. Its restoration was the first step in the creation of the Pioneer Yosemite History Center.

Artists were drawn to Yosemite, where they found inspiration in the magnificent scenery. (Aren't we still?!) Paintings, drawings,

Artists' Cabin

sketches  and photographs published and popularized Yosemite. Consequently, many people choose to travel the arduous route to Yosemite and experience the beauty firsthand. Thus, artists played a key role in increased awareness, tourism, and protection of Yosemite National Park. Painter Christian Jorgensen constructed this building around 1900, on the bank of the Merced River near Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite Valley. It served as his home. He maintained a studio nearby, and specialized in scenics. He was one of many artists who popularized Yosemite.

In 1864, the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias were granted to California as a public trust. At first, travel into these areas was only on foot or horseback. But soon, nationwide and local improvements in transportation, such as the transcontinental railroad (1869) and stage roads into Yosemite Valley (1874), made travel more practical.

Men such as Scots emigrant George Anderson provided many of these visitors' needs, serving as

Anderson's Cabin

blacksmiths, cooks and trail guides. Anderson himself built many of the trails still used in the Valley area. In October, 1876, he succeeded in scaling the back side of Half Dome, and visitors used his rope for several years thereafter to make their own ascents. Anderson used this floorless cabin as his residence at Big Meadow, northwest of Yosemite Valley, when not working elsewhere in the area.

The Homestead Act of 1862 provided for 160 ares of land to any person willing to occupy and cultivate the land for five years. The Hodgdon family,

Hodgdon Cabin

ranchers from the San Joaquin Valley, built this cabin on their homesteaded land in Aspen Valley and grazed cattle there each summer. In the late 1880s, John Muir and other preservationists grew concerned that the damage caused by cattle and sheep in the high country would impact the watershed and Yosemite's waterfalls. Muir led the movement to preserve the high country  and helped establish the expanded boundaries of Yosemite National Park in 1840.

Although Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove had been set aside by the federal government for protection by the State of California in 1864, prior claims to the land caused legal battles between residents and the government. Land claims would be fought for many years--the cabin represents such disputes.

Cavalry Office/Automobile Check Station

"First Park Headquarters..."  Yosemite was set aside as a national park in 1890, but the National Park Service was not yet created. Following the precedent set in Yellowstone, our country's first national park, the U.S. Army managed both Sequoia and Yosemite. Each summer over 200 soldiers, usually cavalry, rode from the Presidio of San Francisco to protect both parks. They patrolled trails, stocked fish, and enforced rules, such as no hunting or grazing. in 1899, 1903, and 1904, African-American buffalo soldiers served in the Sierra Nevada. All of these troopers were among the first park rangers. Their headquarters was Camp A. E. Wood, now the Wawona Campground. in 1906, the State Of California returned Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the federal government to be managed as part of Yosemite National Park, and the headquarters moved to Yosemite Valley.

In 1913 the U.S. Cavalry left Yosemite. The management of this huge park fell to a small group of cavalry
scouts. Their duties were made more difficult by the fact that automobiles had been allowed to enter the park in 1914. Buildings such as this were used as automobile check stations. Here drivers paid a fee to enter the park and were informed of regulations. (Any readers remember this...?!) Along sections of the Big Oak Flat and Wawona roads, automobiles were only permitted to go east, downgrade, on odd hours, and west, upgrade, on even hours.

So goes the history lesson!

Yes, there is MUCH to do at Yosemite!

We enjoyed this morning of adventure! We drove down to Sequoia Grove, but were turned away as there were no parking spaces, and with the dogs, we could not ride the free shuttle. We were close enough to the entrance that we decided we would come another day! Our adventure in Yosemite continues!

We hope you have enjoyed this snapshot of history!

Later!

Roving Riders