Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a 748,542-acre (303,160-ha) park, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California. The name Yosemite comes from the name of an Indian tribe, the U-zu-ma-ti, who were massacred in 1851 by soldiers sent by the governor of California for refusing to attend a reservation agreement meeting.
By the mid-1800s, Yosemite had become a thriving tourist attraction. As word of Yosemite's wonders spread back to the East Coast, public pressure led Congress to declare that the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias be held "inalienable for all time." President Abraham Lincoln signed this law on June 30, 1864, turning this land over to the state of California and thereby giving Yosemite the distinction of being the first state park. Concern about sheep overgrazing in the high meadows led to the designation of the high country as a national park in 1890.
The person most strongly associated with the protection of Yosemite and its designation as a national park is naturalist and philosopher John Muir . Muir, sometimes called the "Thoreau of the West," first came to Yosemite in 1868. He devoted the next 40 years of his life to ensuring that the ecological integrity of the region was maintained. In 1892, Muir founded the Sierra Club to organize efforts to gain national park status for the Yosemite Valley.
Yosemite National Park is famous for its awesome and inspiring scenery. Geologic wonders include the mile-wide Yosemite valley surrounded by granite walls and peaks such as El Capitan (7,569 ft [2,307 m] above sea level; 3,593 ft [1,095 m] from base) and Half Dome (8,842 ft [2,695 m] above sea level; 4,733 ft [1,443 m] from base). Spectacular waterfalls include Yosemite Falls (Upper 1,430 ft [436 m], Middle 675 ft [206 m], Lower 320 ft [98 m]), Ribbon Falls (1,612 ft [491 m]), Bridalveil Falls (620 ft [189 m]), Sentinel Falls (2,001 ft [610 m]), Horsetail Falls (1,001 feet [305 meters]), and Vernal Falls (317 ft [97 m]).
The park supports an abundance of plant and animal life. Eleven species of fish, 29 species of reptiles and amphibians, 242 species of birds, and 77 species of mammals can be found in the park. There are approximately 1,400 species of flowering plants, including 37 tree species. The most famous of the tree species found here is the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum ). The park has three groves of giant sequoias, the largest being the Mariposa Grove with 500 mature trees, 200 of which exceed 10 ft (3 m) in diameter.
Because of the high degree of development and the congestion from the large numbers of visitors (over four million per year as of 2002), some have disparagingly referred to the Valley as "Yosemite City." Yosemite has become a focal point in the controversy of whether we are "loving our parks to death." People and traffic management has become as critical as traditional resource management. At Yosemite, balancing the public's needs and desires with the protection of the natural resources is the National Park Service's greatest challenge as they enter the twenty-first century.
[Ted T. Cable ]
RESOURCES
BOOKS
Frome, M. National Park Guide. 19th ed. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1985.
OTHER
Yosemite 1992 Fact Sheet. National Park Service, U. S. Department of Interior, 1992.
ORGANIZATIONS
Yosemite National Park, P.O. Box 577, Yosemite National Park, CA 20240 (209) 372-0200, Email: [email protected], <http://www.yosemitepark.com>
National Park Service, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20240 (202) 208-6843, <http://www.nps.gov>