On June 30, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln...
signed the Yosemite Land Grant, Senate Bill 203. The legislation provided California with 39,000 acres of the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove "upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation." The newly-appointed Yosemite Board of Park Commissioners confronted the dual task of preserving the magnificent landscape while providing for public recreation. With amazing foresight, board member and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted noted these goals could conflict. In his August 9, 1865 Draft of Preliminary Report upon the Yosemite and Big Tree Grove, Olmsted warns "the slight harm which the few hundred visitors of this year might do, if no care were taken to prevent it, would not be slight, if it should be repeated by millions."His concern about overuse of the park was ignored by the Board of Commissioners, and the Report never reached the State Legislature.
As Olmsted predicted, the Yosemite Valley and the Big Tree Grove quickly became a "must see" vacation destination. In the 1870s, California tourist Mary Cone traveled by ferry, railroad, stagecoach, wagon, and horseback to reach the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. In Two Years In California she describes eating her lunch "under the shadow and protection of one of these great kings of the forest."
At about the same time, travel writer Caroline Churchill estimated that a week-to-ten-day trip to Yosemite cost $150 dollars including transportation. Although exceedingly expensive, Churchill notes:
It is a subject of much regret among the traveling public, that the question of the quality of food served to the unfortunate traveler cannot be made a matter of special legislation. A race of men must deteriorate when fed upon refuse food . . . I sincerely believe that this . . . is half the cause of there being so much intemperance in this State.Caroline Churchill,
Over the Purple Hills, or Sketches of Travel in California, Embracing All the Important Points Usually Visited by Tourists, pages 127-128.
"California as I Saw It," 1849-1900
However, cost and discomfort were forgotten
when great Yosemite Valley first breaks upon the vision, with a realizing sense of its grandeur. Here the rocks lift their towering heads so loftily to the sky, and the precipices are so fearfully deep, that mighty streams all turn to tears when rushing by, because of taking such a leap.Over the Purple Hills . . ., page 133.
"California as I Saw It," 1849-1900
By 1890, public sentiment demanded return of the park to the federal government. Naturalist John Muir was among Yosemite's most eloquent and outspoken supporters. His articles and books describing the park's natural wonders inspired public support for establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1890 and expansion of the park in 1905. In the highly popular Our National Parks (1901), Muir devoted six chapters to Yosemite. This passage is typical of his reverence for the park:
Today, Yosemite National Park encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles of the central Sierra Nevada mountain range. With elevations as high as 13,000 feet above sea level, the park preserves alpine wilderness, groves of Giant Sequoias and the Yosemite Valley's splendid cliffs, waterfalls, wildflowers, and impressive rock formations.
Learn more about the Conservation Movement in American Memory:
