Yosemite National Park-新.doc

Yosemite National Park 1 2 Miwok Indians in front of Umacha teepee, Yosemite National Park, 1925 For thousands of years, the Ahwaneechee Indians occupied the area we know today as Yosemite. In 1851, the first white men entered the Yosemite valley searching for Indians with the aim of driving them from their homeland. One of the men, a young doctor named Lafayette Bunnell, was struck by the astonishing beauty of the place. He named the area Yosemite, mistakenly believing it to be the name of the tribe living there. In 1855, a second group of white people led by James Mason Hutchings entered Yosemite Valley. Hutchings hoped to make a fortune by promoting Californias scenic wonders and running a tourist hotel in the valley. In 1859, Hutchings returned to Yosemite with a photographer. News and images of the incomparable beauty of Yosemite quickly spread, bringing more tourists to the area. Hutchings Hotel, Yosemite National Park In those early days, visiting Yosemite required a two-day trip from San Francisco to the nearest town, followed by a grueling two- to three-day trek along rocky mountainsides either by foot or on horseback. Between 1855 and 1864, only 653 tourists made the arduous journey. When Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York Citys Central Park, visited Yosemite, he wrote that it was the greatest glory of nature... the union of the deepest sublimity with the deepest beauty. There was a growing sense that the area needed to be legally protected if it was to survive through the ages. The cavalry was given the task of protecting the national parks. Under Captain Charles Young, the first black man to be put in charge of a national park, soldiers built the first trail to Mount Whitney and erected protective fences around the big trees. Senator John Conness Merced River and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, circa 1865, Carleton Watkins photograph John Muir, circa 1860 On May 17, 1864, Senator John Conness of California, acting at