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Yosemite — the Embattled Wilderness Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness Yosemite The Embattled Wilderness YOSEMITE The Embattled Wilderness Alfred Runte ©1990, University of Nebraska Press CONTENTS NEXT >>> Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness ©1990, University of Nebraska Press runte2/index.htm — 17-Mar-2004 http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/[2/5/2013 4:47:56 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness (Table of Contents) Yosemite The Embattled Wilderness Contents Cover List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Incomparable Valley Chapter 2: First Park Chapter 3: Prophecy and Change Chapter 4: National Park Chapter 5: The Commission, the Cavalry, and the Natural Resource Chapter 6: Losing Ground Chapter 7: Changing of the Guard Chapter 8: University of the Wilderness Chapter 9: The Science of Sanctuary Chapter 10: Sanctuary on Trial Chapter 11: The Science of Sanctuary Redefined Chapter 12: Self-Interest and Environment Chapter 13: Management Adrift Epilogue: Reassessment and Future Notes A Note on the Sources Index (omitted from the online edition) Illustrations http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/contents.htm[2/5/2013 4:48:08 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness (Table of Contents) Frontispiece. Vernal Falls. Hikers pause to marvel at the power and majesty of Vernal Falls, June 1938. Photograph by Ralph H. Anderson, courtesy of the National Park Service. I. Incomparable Yosemite. Half Dome; Thomas A. Ayres's Yo-Hamite Falls; Yosemite Falls; Glacier Point; View from Glacier Point; Giant sequoias of the Mariposa Grove; Hikers at Mount Lyell; Frederick Law Olmsted. II. The Art of Promotion. Albert Bierstadt's Lake in Yosemite Valley; Thomas Hill's Yosemite Valley; Cover of Sunset magazine featuring Yosemite; Railroad pro motional brochure covers; Horseshoe Route; Firefall produce label; Yosemite Park and Curry Company promotions. III. Visitation and Development. John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt; David and Jennie Curry; Alcoholic beverages at Desmond's Camp Yosemite Yosemite Lodge; Indian Field Days; Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.; Automobiles and campers at Stoneman Meadow; Dredging paving materials from the Merced River; Bridge across Wildcat Creek; Painting the rock face above Wawona Tunnel. IV. Wildlife Management and Ecology. Ed Beatty with ice-preserved bighom sheep; Grizzly Giant; Visitors confrontation with bear; Bear capture; Feeding deer; Joseph Grinnell; Yosemite Valley "zoo"; Elk herd. V. Urban Distractions and Influence. Hetch Hetchy Valley; Ahwahnee Hotel; Bracebridge Christmas pageant; Winter Carnival; Badger Pass ski area; Freeing bear from milk can; Killing bear by lethal injection; Causes of visitors' deaths; Yosemite Valley jail; Yosemite Village Courthouse; Tioga Road; Yosemite Valley at night. Map 1. Map of Yosemite National Park Copyright © 1990 by the University of Nebraska Press. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Runte, Alfred, 1947— Yosemite: the embattled wilderness/ Alfred Runte. p. cm. Bibliography: p. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/contents.htm[2/5/2013 4:48:08 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness (Table of Contents) Includes index. ISBN 0-8032-3894-0 (alk. paper) 1. Natural history — California — Yosemite National Park. 2. Nature conservation — California — Yosemite National Park. 3. Yosemite National Park (Calif.) — Management. 4. Natural resources — California — Yosemite National Park. I. Title QH105.C2R86&nbps; 1990 508.794'47-dc20&#nbsp; 89-35128 CIP For Christine, with love; For Mary Vocelka, with gratitude; And for my brother, August, In special memory of Mom, Who showed us both the way. <<< PREVIOUS CONTENTS NEXT >>> Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness ©1990, University of Nebraska Press runte2/contents.htm — 17-Mar-2004 http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/contents.htm[2/5/2013 4:48:08 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness Yosemite The Embattled Wilderness YOSEMITE The Embattled Wilderness Alfred Runte ©1990, University of Nebraska Press CONTENTS NEXT >>> Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness ©1990, University of Nebraska Press runte2/index.htm — 17-Mar-2004 http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/index.htm[2/5/2013 4:48:13 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness (Introduction) Yosemite The Embattled Wilderness Introduction Among all of the debates affecting America's national parks, the most enduring—and most intense—is where to draw the line between preservation and use. This is an account of that classic confrontation, as told from the perspective of natural resources and environment. The focus is Yosemite, where debating environmental change is now a century and a quarter old. Yosemite, as the oldest park of its kind, has the longest history of modification. Tourists were familiar with Yosemite Valley well over a decade before the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone were even explored. The issues of park development were raised and debated first in Yosemite. Even today, no other national park more dramatically reflects America's alleged failures to reconcile nature protection with the wants and demands of the visiting public. The subject, to be sure, is by no means new or unfamiliar. The record is nonetheless incomplete, especially concerning natural scientists, their opinions, and their attempts to influence resource management. The National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 itself left every methodology for management deliberately vague, calling simply for protection of scenery and wild life "in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." But just what was meant by "unimpaired"? In effect, a definition that imprecise extended protection to park resources only by implication. It remained for each generation of Americans to bring its own perspective to the issue, invariably, if only subtly, imposing another viewpoint on existing philosophies of park management and use. Concessionaires in particular, seeking greater profits from increased visitation, consistently advocated visitor comfort and convenience over resource preservation. That contradiction, among others, forms one basis of this study. I have also examined divergent points of view about what Yosemite ought to be and what it in fact became as each generation of Americans reevaluated the park's purpose and future. The ideal of sanctuary—that Yosemite National Park should represent a vignette of primitive America—has rarely been put to greater test than in Yosemite Valley itself. It is here that the goals of preservation contrast sharply with the expectations of a mobile, affluent society. Nor have preservationists, despite their overriding commitment to the ideal of park sanctuary, been entirely free of responsibility for the effects of human change. Merely by their presence, it stands to reason, preservationists themselves have contributed to a modified environment. Regardless, studies of environmental change have largely been ignored. In the existing literature about Yosemite, most writers have traced the human history of the park, noting, for example, its colorful explorers, aboriginal inhabitants, innkeepers, and early publicists. In this volume, the social history of the national park is subordinate to the emerging debate regarding the proper management of the natural resource. What follows is an environmental history. People, buildings, and traditions are treated only as they pertain to evolving philosophies of park management and use. To reemphasize, I have focused on two issues: the ideal that Yosemite National Park ought to be managed and enjoyed as a natural sanctuary, and that ideal's simultaneous erosion, caused by http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/runte2/intro.htm[2/5/2013 4:49:24 PM] Yosemite — The Embattled Wilderness (Introduction) increased development pressures generally divorced from biological considerations. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to avoid familiar ground. I do not, for example, retrace the footsteps of John Muir. Nor is this a chronology of every person or event in the history of Yosemite National Park. If the reader's favorite individual, anecdote, or story is missing, I stress again that this is a study of the natural environment. Similarly, I have avoided giving another long account of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, except to underscore its significance as a policy and resource issue. Like biographies of John Muir, detailed histories of the Hetch Hetchy controversy are numerous and easily obtained. There would be little point in my repeating an already familiar theme. My choice of resource subjects has likewise been selective, determined in part by the importance and availability of original source materials. For example, there is much to be found on bears but considerably less for all other wildlife. My own emphasis is on bears not only because more sources are available but also because no other animal has sparked such sustained and revealing debate. Fire ecology, another important issue, receives greater attention for the earlier history of the park. Modern approaches to natural fire are extensively documented elsewhere; then too the future of fire ecology is once more in doubt, especially in the wake of extensive fires bordering Yosemite in 1987 and the outspoken reaction against fire management policies implemented in the Yellowstone fires of 1988. The issue requires more time for definitive conclusions. One thing is certain: Natural fires will be even
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