Yosemite History
Yosemite National Park was established on October 1, 1890, and is the Nation's third oldest national park. The Park was established for the purpose of preservation of the resources that contribute to its uniqueness and attractiveness. Congress recognized the importance of preserving this great park for future public enjoyment when it established Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is a showcase of spectacular geological features, including the greatest concentration of granite domes in the world and the largest exposed granite monolith in the world, El Capitan.
Yosemite National Park possesses outstanding recreational values and supreme scenic attractions, including alpine and subalpine wilderness, three groves of giant sequoia trees and thundering waterfalls that are among the world's highest. Yosemite was the birthplace of the idea of the Sierra Club and plays an important role in wildlife preservation and preserving biological diversity.
Yosemite National Park is a world hertitage site which has made a significant contribution to California's cultural heritage, to the National Park movement, and to Yosemite's 4,000 years of cultural heritage by Native Americans. the Park provides solitude and inspiration and serves as an outdoor classroom for environmental education.
Yosemite national park embraces almost 1,200 square miles of scenic wild lands set aside in 1890 to preserve a portion of the central Sierra Nevada that stretches along California's eastern flank. the Park ranges from 2,000 feet to more than 13,000 feet above sea level.
There are over 60 kinds of animals and more than 200 species of birds within the Park. Bear and deer are common. Yosemite has over 30 kinds of trees and over 1,300 varieties of plants. Among the three groves of Sequoiadendron giganteum big trees, the best known is the Mariposa Grove, 35 miles south of Yosemite Valley. The grove contains the "Grizzly Giant" tree. The diameter of this tree is more than 34 feet.
While man has lived in Yosemite for thousands of years, the parks's human history is far shorter than its geological history. At one time, this area was made up of gentle rolling hills, crisscrossed with a maze of stream systems. Millions of years ago, California's Sierra Nevada was formed by a gradual series of earth upheavals. As the mountains rose, the land tilted and the westward flowing Merced River accelerated, carving deep, v-shaped river canyons. Later, massive glaciers flowed down the canyons. Cloder temperatures slowed melting and eventually the glaciers began to carve away at the v-shaped canyons, transforming them into u-shaped valleys. Tributary streams did not carve their canyons as deeply as the Merced River canyon. The glaciers sheared off these tributary canyons leaving them as "hanging valleys." The tributary creeks, which had once joined the main stream at the same elevation, now plummeted off of shear cliffs, giving birth to the Park's famed waterfalls. Eventually the glaciers receded, leaving a tall "glacial moraine" at the west end of the valley. This moraine acted as a natural dam and trapped the waters of the Merced River, forming Lake Yosemite. Sediments washed down from the high country slowly filled in the lake to form the verdant meadows of today's valley floor.
The area's first residents inhabited the region perhaps as long as 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. Various tribes of Native Americans lived in the area over the years, the most recent of which being the Miwok. The Miwok name for the valley is Ah-wah- nee, which is believed to mean "place of the gaping mouth." They referred to themselves as the Ahwahneechee.
The Ahwahneechee lived off the land, harvesting acorns, hunting and fishing. The discovery of gold in the foothills of California ended this idyllic lifestyle when some of the tribe, angered by the encroachment of the miners, attacked a trading post in the Merced River canyon. In retaliation, the miners organized the state-sanctioned Mariposa Battalion, which entered the Yosemite valley on March 27, 1851 in pursuit of the Yosemite indians. Tenaya, the Ahwaneechee chief, had been leading his people in raids on white settlers in the foothills, and was therefore captured by the Battalion. They marched the tribe to reservations in the foothills, but eventually the Ahwahneechee's were allowed to return to the valley, which has taken thier name.