Yosemite Valley’s first residents were American Indians who inhabited the region perhaps as long as 6,000 years ago. By the time Euro-Americans entered the Yosemite area in the mid-19th century, the Valley was inhabited by peoples who called Yosemite Valley, “Ahwahnee,” which loosely translates into “Place of a Gaping Mouth.” The Indians of Yosemite Valley called themselves the “Ahwahneechee.” They harvested black oak acorns, hunted and fished, and traded these and other items native to Yosemite Valley, with the Mono Lake Paiute people for obsidian, rabbit skins and pine nuts.
Few non-Indians knew of the existence of Yosemite Valley prior to 1851. The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 1848 brought thousands of gold seekers to the area.
old school miner
The drive for federal protection of the Yosemite region began shortly after the first non-Indian settlers arrived and before conservationist John Muir first visited in 1868. Abraham Lincoln provided this protection when he signed the Yosemite Grant on June 30, 1864.
honest abe
This grant is considered the foundation upon which national and state parks were later established. The grant deeded Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to the state of California. In 1889, John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson planned a campaign to make the high country surrounding Yosemite Valley into a national park.
John Muir
On October 1, 1890, the U.S. Congress set aside more than 1,500 square miles of “reserved forest lands” soon to be known as Yosemite National Park. It included the area surrounding Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. However, it took a meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir in 1903, and the effective lobbying of railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, to have Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove ceded from the state of California’s control and included with Yosemite National Park in 1906.
so now you know . . .
-MM
History of Yosemite
Yosemite
Yosemite Valley’s first residents were American Indians who inhabited the region perhaps as long as 6,000 years ago. By the time Euro-Americans entered the Yosemite area in the mid-19th century, the Valley was inhabited by peoples who called Yosemite Valley, “Ahwahnee,” which loosely translates into “Place of a Gaping Mouth.” The Indians of Yosemite Valley called themselves the “Ahwahneechee.” They harvested black oak acorns, hunted and fished, and traded these and other items native to Yosemite Valley, with the Mono Lake Paiute people for obsidian, rabbit skins and pine nuts.
Few non-Indians knew of the existence of Yosemite Valley prior to 1851. The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 1848 brought thousands of gold seekers to the area.
old school miner
The drive for federal protection of the Yosemite region began shortly after the first non-Indian settlers arrived and before conservationist John Muir first visited in 1868. Abraham Lincoln provided this protection when he signed the Yosemite Grant on June 30, 1864.
honest abe
This grant is considered the foundation upon which national and state parks were later established. The grant deeded Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to the state of California. In 1889, John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson planned a campaign to make the high country surrounding Yosemite Valley into a national park.
John Muir
On October 1, 1890, the U.S. Congress set aside more than 1,500 square miles of “reserved forest lands” soon to be known as Yosemite National Park. It included the area surrounding Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. However, it took a meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir in 1903, and the effective lobbying of railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, to have Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove ceded from the state of California’s control and included with Yosemite National Park in 1906.
so now you know . . .
-MM