Historic Yosemite National Park
Pg 2 Yosemites first people called themselves the Ahwahneechee after the valley they lived in: Ahwahnee, “place like a gaping mouth. Neighboring tribes, however, and later, the first settlers, called the Valley Natives the Yosemites, which has been translated as both “those who kill” and perhaps erroneously “grizzly bear”. Ferocious translations for a tribe that most ethnographers describe as essentially peaceful but a tribe that would, when confronted, fiercely defend its homeland
Pg 13 The Mariposa Indian War was, like all American Indian Wars, rooted in the desire to possess territory and power. But amazingly, given the value place on the Yosemite Valley today, the land as a scenic wonder wasn’t the primary motivation behind formation of the Mariposa Battalion
Pg 39 Among the troops assigned to patrol the new national parks were the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American companies with their origins dating back to the Civil War. These companies were deployed westward to fight in the Indian Wars; according to the park service they were “given the name Buffalo Soldiers by the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians who saw a resemblance between their dark, curly hair and the matted cushion between the horns of the buffalo
Pg 44 In 1906 Yosemite had 5,500 visitors. In 1925 it had 210,000 visitors. In 1927, after the opening of the All-year highway linking Mariposa to El Portal and the Valley via the Merced River gorge, visitation reached 490,000. In the 1950’s visitation reached 1 million. 1987 saw 3 million visitors. Visitation broke 4 million in 1996 where the numbers have hovered ever since
Pg 56 Half Dome’s first ascent, made in 1875 by George Anderson
Pg 71 To say the giant sequoia is the largest living organism on Earth doesnt begin to describe how monumental these trees are. They arent as tall as their cousins, the coast redwoods, which can reach upward to 375 ft. The tallest sequoia reaches just more than 300ft…giant sequoias are also the oldest living things on the planet, with some trees estimated to be more than 3,000 yrs old. The oldest coast redwoods , by comparison, are at least a thousand yrs younger
Pg 164 Yosemite Falls, the fifth tallest in North America, is the “heartbeat” of the Valley
Pg 179 The fact is, visitors and elsewhere are more likely to be attacked by a deer than by any other large mammal in the park. That’s true across the United States
Pg 201 Annual Operating Budget: $29 million. NPS employees: 1,200 summer, 800 winter. Miles of trail: 840. Number of campsites: 1,530. Avg annual snowfall in Yosemite Valley: 30 inches. 90 mammal species. 30 tree species. 36,000 acres of meadowland
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