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Yosemite National Park
KNOWLEDGE OF Yosemite National Park
The incredible beauty of Yosemite began about 130 million years ago when a 400-mile fault line, along what is now the eastern edge of the Sierras, broke lose, and the ground on the western side was forced up to heights of over 10,000 feet. During the Ice Age, Yosemite Valley lay under 6,000 feet of ice, the Tuolumne Meadows Visitors Center under 2,000 feet. Over the millions of years since, the ice and erosion sculpted the Yosemite area into the spectacular scenery you see today.
Some 4,000 years ago, Native Americans moved into the Sierras from the east, probably looking for game and water in dry years. Later, Miwok-speaking people moved into the same area from California's central valley. Gradually the two groups merged, and for centuries they were a peaceful people living a "hunter-gatherer" life in the greater Yosemite area, including the Mono Lake region, where the group came to be known as the Paiutes. They spent summers in Yosemite Valley, which they called "Ahwahnee" and moved to the lowlands when winter came.
European-Americans came to the area in the 1850s looking for gold. They forced the Miwoks out of the central valley and into the mountains, despite the harsh climate. As the search for gold continued, clashes between the Native Americans and European Americans increased, with the European Americans rounding up bands of Indians and forcing them into the Mono Lake and other areas beyond the mountains. By the 1870s, there were fewer than 50 Miwoks in Yosemite Valley and the area around it. Today, visitors can hear this story at the Indian Village of Ahwahnee.
Word of the wonders of Yosemite spread quickly. In 1855, James Mason Hutchings brought the first group of tourists to the valley from San Francisco. Artist Thomas Ayres was one of the visitors and his sketches spread the fame of the area even more rapidly. Hutchings continued to promote the area, and soon roads and crude hotels were built, allowing for more and more visitors.
Early conservationists, I.W. Raymond and Fredrick Law Olmstead (the landscape artist who later created New York's Central Park) visited Yosemite and believed it should be preserved. They worked with Congress to protect the area. On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that granted Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to the State of California, effectively creating the world's first national park and limiting development in those two, small areas.
Rampant growth, however, continued outside the protected areas. Many, including Hutchings, scrambled to create hotels and other services to profit from the growing number of tourists. Logging, mining and stock grazing boomed as well, threatening to degrade the area.
Some 4,000 years ago, Native Americans moved into the Sierras from the east, probably looking for game and water in dry years. Later, Miwok-speaking people moved into the same area from California's central valley. Gradually the two groups merged, and for centuries they were a peaceful people living a "hunter-gatherer" life in the greater Yosemite area, including the Mono Lake region, where the group came to be known as the Paiutes. They spent summers in Yosemite Valley, which they called "Ahwahnee" and moved to the lowlands when winter came.
European-Americans came to the area in the 1850s looking for gold. They forced the Miwoks out of the central valley and into the mountains, despite the harsh climate. As the search for gold continued, clashes between the Native Americans and European Americans increased, with the European Americans rounding up bands of Indians and forcing them into the Mono Lake and other areas beyond the mountains. By the 1870s, there were fewer than 50 Miwoks in Yosemite Valley and the area around it. Today, visitors can hear this story at the Indian Village of Ahwahnee.
Word of the wonders of Yosemite spread quickly. In 1855, James Mason Hutchings brought the first group of tourists to the valley from San Francisco. Artist Thomas Ayres was one of the visitors and his sketches spread the fame of the area even more rapidly. Hutchings continued to promote the area, and soon roads and crude hotels were built, allowing for more and more visitors.
Early conservationists, I.W. Raymond and Fredrick Law Olmstead (the landscape artist who later created New York's Central Park) visited Yosemite and believed it should be preserved. They worked with Congress to protect the area. On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that granted Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to the State of California, effectively creating the world's first national park and limiting development in those two, small areas.
Rampant growth, however, continued outside the protected areas. Many, including Hutchings, scrambled to create hotels and other services to profit from the growing number of tourists. Logging, mining and stock grazing boomed as well, threatening to degrade the area.
Chapi