Yosemite Valley

The outline of this chronicle was to make at least a half-hearted attempt at putting these landmarks in the order they were visited. So, to clear up a few loose ends and account for ten landmarks visited before attempting to go to every state landmark became ‘offical’ in 1993, the clock goes back to 1950 and a warm August day in Yosemite Valley and the ‘first’ landmark. 

  

While walking about and looking for dear a bear comes from the woods for some face to face time and my mother abandons me for the safety of the car. Apparently my experience with large dogs in my first and previous three years prepared me for the situation and to stand my ground till my aunt came to the rescue…..at least that’s the family story. They say we can recall a precious few of the highlights of our first years…and this wasn’t one of them, just photos. Now Babe Didrikson latest golf conquest over the radio of the ’46 Chevy that day is another story.

(grandparents on Overhanging Rock - 1922)

(grandfather on Balancing Rock - 1922)

(Christmas day - 1922)

Father did his baby time here as the grandparents pulled up stakes in Long Beach to live and work here at Camp Curry. Year round Yosemite life in those days meant you rode out the winter in place and had God’s best handiwork to yourself.



Though they eventually returned to Long Beach, the memories of the valley planted the seeds that grew to a family presence in the San Jacinto Mountains near Idyllwild that remains today. From the deck of his mountain home, grandfather would recollect with Ansel Adams clarity how he’d toss the burning brush from atop Yosemite Falls, yet somehow at the same time be calling ‘Let the fire fall!” from below.  

NO. 790 YOSEMITE VALLEY - On June 30, 1864, in an act signed by President Abraham Lincoln, the United States granted the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the State of California to 'be held for public use, resort, and recreation . . . inalienable for all time.' This, the first federal authorization to preserve scenic and scientific values for public benefit, was the basis for the later concept of state and national park systems. In 1906 the State of California returned the land, considered the first state park in the country, so that it could become part of Yosemite National Park.

Location: Mounted on entrance wall of auditorium bldg, Visitor Center, Yosemite National Park