On This Day: Abraham Lincoln creates Yosemite National Park

[ERIC]

President Lincoln creates Yosemite Park, June 30, 1864

By ANDREW GLASS
06/30/16 12:03 AM EDT
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/p ... 864-224818



On this day in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation giving the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the state of California “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort and recreation.”

Championed by Sen. John Conness (R-Calif.), the so-called Yosemite Grant included the first parkland the federal government ever set aside for preservation and public use. It set a precedent for the creation of Yellowstone as the nation’s first national park in 1872. The legislation to bar commercial development in the park was drafted with the aid of the General Land Office in the Interior Department.
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The need to preserve the magnificent landscape and the desire to attract tourists soon came into conflict, however. In 1865, Frederick Law Olmsted, a landscape architect who served on the Yosemite board of commissioners, warned that “the slight harm which the few hundred visitors of this year might do, if no care were taken to prevent it, would not be slight, if it should be repeated by millions.”

As Olmsted predicted, the Yosemite Valley soon became a popular vacation destination. When it became apparent that the state of California could not adequately care for the park, public pressure grew to turn over management of its natural wonders to the federal government. The campaign led to the establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1890.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt camped in the park for three days with John Muir, a Scottish-born American naturalist and explorer. On that trip, Muir persuaded Roosevelt to remove control of the nearby valley and grove from California and return it to the federal government.

Access to the park by tourists improved in its early years while facilities in the valley became more hospitable. Tourism significantly increased after the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, but the long horseback ride to reach the area still remained a deterrent. Three stagecoach roads were built in the mid-1870s to provide better access for the growing number of visitors to Yosemite Valley.

Today, the region, under the management of the 100-year-old National Park Service, encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles of the Sierra Nevada range. With elevations as high as 13,000 feet, the park includes a pristine alpine wilderness amid deep valleys, sweeping meadows, groves of ancient giant sequoias, towering cliffs, spectacular waterfalls, wildflowers and iconic rock formations.

[rlown]

Guess we should add him to the Historical Figures as well..

[ERIC]

Ha! Good point.

[Cross Country]

I was there week before last with my wife for her first visit. She like it a lot but was "impressed" with tha large number of people. I was kind of surprised at how many there were. As always it was nice to see it but wow, what a lot of people - and yes I have been there in the winter.