Yosemite and its history, young to old the story of an area of land that is doomed to be mined, forcibly stripped naked of its natural resources. In 1864 Yosemite land grant was signed into act by president Abraham Lincoln, the first area of land set aside for preservation and protection. Yosemite being a very important historical plot of land, some time ago president Theodore Roosevelt visited the park managing to disappear from the secret service with John Muir. Through the years the contrast of ideas between the industrialists and the preservationists have clashed, Yosemite’s history both interesting and mysterious but more importantly inevitable .
Yosemite a plagiarism of the garden of Eden, in the first place Yosemite was inhabited by native Indians, Awahneechee tribe who called the land Awahnee “ place of a gaping mouth”. The “white man” came and took the land from the Awahneechee burning down any Indian homes found, after the destruction of the Awahneechee tribe the “white man” before leaving the park decided to name the land. Yosemite, thought to be the name of the tribe that inhabited the land, the industrialists, only interested in making money and violence, thought that driving out the native Indians from the land would prove an effective idea. The destruction of the Awahneechee Indians would give the men free roam of the land with no native interference, also giving free treatment of the land to their will. the name Yosemite in native tongue means “people who should be feared” meaning “they are killers”. A few years after the group of “Mariposa Battalion” left another group of “white men” came, but they were not armed for violence, but were tourists (The National Park: America‘s Best Idea). The industrialists raping the land, not simply picking flowers from the meadow, destruction, a literal hell in paradise. The only thing they have interest in was their on selfish wants, the land, the money, the irresistible hunger for power. Man has always been eager to make his way to the top, not caring who he brings down, steps on, humiliates, or even ruins. Man a beast, extremely hard to control like a mad bull in a china shop destroying everything in its path, only receiving the circumstances at a later date. Man has always been tricked, whether by human or beast it always ends the same way, with disaster.
The early 1860’s brought a “steady trickle” of tourists to Yosemite, the trip would take several days by train, stagecoach, or house.
In the 1800’s into the early 1900’s a man named John Muir began to explore the western American lands. He traveled down South and up North. But, when he reached Yosemite Valley, his life changed. As said in John Muir’s Wild America, written by Tom Melham, “Following the forest-lined mountain trails, Muir climbed higher into the Sierra Nevada: suddenly, a deep valley enclosed by colossal steeps and mighty water falls yawned before him. Spell bound, he entered Yosemite Valley” (79). Muir’s travels and adventures, highlighted in Melham’s book, explain this man’s love of the wilderness. Yosemite Valley was like a wide, open home to Muir, who, lived alone and discovered new landings and important later landmarks that create the aura of Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley was given to the state of California in 1864, part of the continuous idea of Manifest Destiny, later, in 1890; Yosemite became one of the first National Parks (“World Book”). Uniquely, the longer Muir stayed the more that he...
5 John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierras. ( Boston, New York: Houghton, Milffin Company, 1911)pg.196.
"Yosemite Flora (Plants & Flowers)." Yosemite Trees, Plants & Flowers. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. .
Last Fall my family visited Shenandoah National Park. It is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It is only 75 miles outside of the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. The first traces of humans on the land that would later become the park are estimated to be almost nine thousand years ago. Native Americans visited these Appalachian Mountains seasonally to hunt, collect nuts and berries, and to gather stone to construct tools. Europeans did not start to settle the land prior to three hundred years ago. First came hunters and trappers, then people began to settle in the lower valleys close to rivers that run through the park. In the early 20th century congress called for more national parks in the east, but Shenandoah wouldn’t be established
[6] Ellis, Henry. From the Kennebec to California; Reminiscences of a California Pioneer. Part 5.
In 1629, a group of Franciscans stationed at the village of Oraibi named the giant mountains they saw San Francisco, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi . Opinions over the use of the peaks by Native tribes and this new influx of culture are as far apart as the names they call the mountain itself. At over a mile high, the San Francisco Mountains tower over the predominantly Anglo town of Flagstaff to the south. The mountain range was actually formed by a volcano that is now inactive. These peaks have long been considered sacred ground by thirteen Native American tribes, including the Hopi and the Navajo. As the importance of the use of the peaks has intensified among both recreationally and economically for the city of Flagstaff so too has the controversy generated more heat among Native tribes. Opening in 1937, the Arizona Snowbowl is one of the oldest running ski resorts in the country. Since that time the Snow Bowl has created adversity everywhere from environmentalists to Native Americans. The only way to understand the legitimacy of these Native American claims is to take a closer look at how the peaks relate to their religion and way of life. This will be done through the two most dominant voices of the battle, the Navajo and Hopi. This comprehension is necessary in order to fully understand the hardships and tribulations many spiritual Natives have endured in trying to protect their sacred land, even when the law is seemingly on their side.
In 1839 a man by the name of John Sutter arrived in California. Sutter appeared to be somewhat of a drifter, and had failed to establish himself before arriving in California. However, in the land of great promise, he planned to establish an empire for himself. Sutter was granted eleven square leagues, or 50, 000 acres, in the lower Sacramento area. This was a common land grant for the times. Sutter got to work and began to improve his land. He went on to build a fort, accumulated over 12,000 cattle and hired hundreds of workers to hel...
Hi all! I just returned home from a quick trip through Yosimite (ProTip: Avoid Yosimite while the traditional school is out of session, visit the park as soon as school goes back into session to avoid overcrowding), so I would like to discuss the highly recognisable landform known as Half Dome (I did not hike/climb the feature this trip, but have in the past).
Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?
First, one must understand the concept of a nation park and wilderness. Yellowstone became the first national park. President Ulysses S. Grant designated Yellowstone, as a national park in 1872. The law establishing Yellowstone as the first National Park declared the area would be preserved "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." All "timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders" would be kept "in their natural condition" (McNamara, 2014). The natural state of the park is a wilderness area. Although wilderness is often taken to mean a wild or untamed area people have held various perspectives of wilderness throughout history. Some of these historical perspectives of wilderness in the United States are: 1."The Puritan model encouraged an aggressive and even antagonistic attitude toward wilderness. The wilderness must be tamed” (Dejardins, page 154). Wilderness was, as an area to be feared but yet an area where one could escape from oppression. 2. “The Lockean model sees the wilderness as real estate, a commodity to be owned and used” (DesJardins, page 154). 3. “The romantic model views the wilderness as a symbol of innocence and purity” (DesJardins, page 155).
Yosemite National Park is a place that exists in a sunshine state, California. One of the many tributes to the incomparable beauty of the Yosemite Valley was the fact that it was the first area in the United States to be designated by the federal government as a park, and this beautiful piece of nature is located in the northern California area. Almost as important in the history of conservation as Yosemite Park itself was the personality of John Muir, who writes in his first book, The Mountains of California. “Climb the
United States. National Park Service. "Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011)." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
Yosemite National Park has a long and political history behind its creation. The area was originally named Ahwahnee but is now named after an American Indian tribe that was forced out of the territory by the Mariposa Battalion. It was not until 1851 that Americans began to even explore Yosemite, and only did so to seek out American Indians that had supposedly attacked gold miners. The captain of the pursuit came back and told everyone about the beautiful land he had encountered. This inspired others, including an editor of Hutchings Magazine, to see it for themselves. The editor, James Mason Hutchings, wrote that Yosemite offered, “"to the dyspeptic denizens of our larger cities … recreation and medicine … pure, free air, and … ice-cold water." (Adam Wesley Dean, 2010). He viewed Yosemite as an object that could benefit America as a nation and help the country to compete against Europe’s tourist sites. Frederick Billings, a lawyer who focused on land claims, also visited and wrote about the valley. However, he opposed the idea of making it into a public park and instead agreed with it coming under private ownership. Others began to advocate that all areas of such natural beauty should be preserved as state parks. With
At first glance, Yosemite’s natural beauty is easy to observe. Beyond all that beauty lies a story about different people in Yosemite, whis is written on the very same landscape. It tells that story of how different culture created what we now know as Yosemite National Park. This parks unique human history paints a picture of the conflict, dreams, diversity, hardships, adventures, and preservation of what life was really like in one of the world’s first national parks, Yosemite.