Next: Chapter I: Introductory THE YOSEMITE BOOK by Josiah D. Whitney (1869) • Table of Contents • List of Photographs • [List of Illustrations appearing in The Yosemite Guide-Book (1870)] • Chapter I: Introductory • Chapter II: General • Chapter III: The Yosemite Valley • Chapter IV: The High Sierra • Chapter IV: The High Sierra [additional material from The Yosemite Guide-Book (1870)] • Chapter V: The Big Trees • Map of the Yosemite Valley... by C. King and J. T. Gardner (1865). • Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley by Chs. F. Hoffman and J. T. Gardner (1863-1867). Introduction Josiah D. Whitney, 1863 California Geological Survey, December 1863: Chester Averill, assistant, William M. Gabb, paleontologist, William Ashburner, field assistant, Josiah D. Whitney, State Geologist, Charles F. Hoffmann, topographer, Clarence King, geologist and William H. Brewer, botanist (Bancroft Library). Josiah Dwight Whitney, Jr. was born 1819 in Massachusetts. He graduated at Yale and surveyed several areas in America and Europe as a geologist. In 1865, he was appointed professor of geology by Harvard in 1865 and received an honorary doctorate from Yale in 1870. In 1860 Whitney was appointed state geologist of California in 1860. Whitney, along with William H. Brewer, Clarence King, Lorenzo Yates, and others, made an extensive survey of California, including the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite region. Some California legislators though his job was just discovering gold and mineral wealth in the state. Whitney would have none of that and conducted a thorough scientific survey of the state. He published a well-regarded six-volume series Geological Survey of California (1864 - 1870), and this excellent volume, The Yosemite Book, among others. It was “among the first American books devoted entirely to photographs of landscape” (Naef and Wood, Era of Exploration, 1975). In The Yosemite Book Whitney was an early voice for conservation. He was the first known person to use the term “national park” and urged the state not to deed some land in Yosemite Valley to early settlers, but to keep the entire valley as a national park. Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continuous United States was named after him. When John Muir arrived in Yosemite in 1869, and when The Yosemite Book was first published, the conventional thinking was that of Whitney’s. That is, there were no active glaciers in the Sierra Nevada—the weather was too warm. Whitney thought Yosemite Valley was formed not by glaciers but “the bottom of the Valley sank down...” Muir discovered the first known active glacier in 1871 in the High Sierra. He also found glacier scaring and glacier moraines in Yosemite Valley. Muir published his findings and was made famous from his writings and lectures. Whitney was obstinant. He derided Muir as a “mere sheepherder” and “ignoramus.” Whitney suppressed evidence found by King and Gardiner of glaciers in Yosemite Valley. But Muir’s view eventually prevailed in the scientific community. Whitney died in 1896 in New Hampshire. He maintained, to his death, that not only there never glaciers in Yosemite Valley, but that no glaciers currently exist in the Sierra Nevada (even though several live glaciers have been discovered by Muir). 1868 (1869) and 1870 editions converted to HTML by Dan Anderson, April 2004 from copies at the San Diego Public Library. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice is left intact. —Dan Anderson, www.yosemite.ca.us Bibliographic Note Josiah Dwight Whitney, Jr. (1819 - 1896) The Yosemite Book: A Description of the Yosemite Valley and the Adjacent Region of the Sierra Nevada, and of the Big Trees of California, illustrated by maps and photographs. (New York: Julius Bien, 1868). 116 p. 28 photographic plates. 2 maps. Hardbound in either dark red-brown or blue-green cloth, gilt lettering, and morocco leather spine [Cover image]. Quatro, 32 cm. This is the first edition, released in 1869, although the date printed is 1868. Only 250 copies of the first edition were printed, as all albumen photographs, were made and tipped-in by hand. All but four of the photographs were by landscape photographer Carleton E. Watkins. Subsequent editions, from 1870, were published with the maps but without the photographs as The Yosemite Guide-Book: A Description of the Yosemite Valley and the Adjacent Region of the Sierra Nevada, and of the Big Trees of California. The Yosemite Valley map by Clarence King and James Gardner was replaced by a more-accurate map by Charles Hoffmann. The major revision for the 1870 edition was new material about the southern High Sierra, mostly in present Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, that was appended to the end of Chapter 4. The 1870 edition also added wood-cuts, but had no photographs, and the 1871 edition had no illustrations at all. The wood-cuts and additional material about the southern High Sierra has been added to the first (1869) edition presented here. The Yosemite Guide-Book was revised in 1873, and reprinted in 1874 and 1875. The maps were also corrected and updated. The 1874 edition adds a map of routes to Yosemite Valley. The Yosemite Book is available in print-on-demand, CD-ROM, and microfilm formats from: • Octavo Corporation on CD ROM. It includes high-resolution photographs and maps, additional unpublished maps, and an excellent background commentary by Jim Snyder, Yosemite National Park Historian. See The Yosemite Book (1869) at http://www.octavo.com/collections/projects/wtnyos/ • University Microfilms International (UMI) has this book available on microfilm and print-to-order paper copy. It is part of their Western Americana series (reel 89, no. 912). Use BOD order number WB1-WA16002-001. Go to http://wwwlib.umi.com/bod/fullcite?id=98695 • This book appears in the History of Photography. Monographs microfilm series by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography (Primary Source Microfilm, 1982), reel 27, no. 290, and reel 198, no. 2138. • The University of Michigan’s Making of America (MOA) digital library has images of the second edition, The Yosemite Guide-Book (1871), at http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AJL3519 You may order print-to-order copies of this book from University of Michigan from the link above. • The maps from this book, of Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada, are available as a reprint from Great West Books • The second edition (Yosemite Guide Book) was reprinted in 1971 as Whitney’s High Sierra in 1971 by Sentinel Publications, and illustrated with new photographs. • Bibliographies: Currey and Kruska 60; Farquhar 7a; Graff 4646; Howes W389; The Truthful lens 185. • LC call number F868.Y6 C2. • Copies of the first (1869) edition are available in several libaries, including: Bancroft (UC Berkeley), California Academy of Sciences, California Historical Society, California State Library, Sierra Club Library, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, San Diego Public Library (no maps), New York Public Library, University of Rochester George Eastman House Library, Library of Congress, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CALIFORNIA. J.D. WHITNEY, State Geologist THE YOSEMITE BOOK; A DESCRIPTION OF THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE ADJACENT REGION OF THE SIERRA NEVADA, AND OF THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA, ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE LEGISLATURE. NEW YORK, JULIUS BIEN. 1868. Printed by The New York Lithographing, Engraving and Printing Company. 16 & 18 Park Place. Next: Chapter I: Introductory THE YOSEMITE BOOK by Josiah D. Whitney (1869) TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Object of the present volume—its origin—the Congressional grant of the Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees to the State of California, 9; action of the Governor—appointment and names of Commissioners—surveys to establish the boundaries of the grants—acceptance of the grants by the State, 10; action of the Legislature—authority given the State Geologist to prepare a guide-book of the Valley and Grove—action of the Commissioners and the State Geologist in carrying out the directions of the Legislature, 11; photographic illustrations, how and from whom obtained, 12; Surveys made for the Commissioners—report of the Commissioners, 13; their plans and wishes—history of the settlement of the Yosemite Valley—Indian war, 14; aboriginal names of the prominent points in and around the Yosemite, 16; these names not current at present—system adopted by the Geological Survey in giving names, 18; history of the discovery and settlement of the Yosemite, 19 first visits by tourists—public houses built there, 19; settlers in the Valley—their attempt to get possession of it—action of the Legislature and Congress, 20; reason for not yielding to their demands, 21; the promises and the duties of the State of California 22. CHAPTER II. GENERAL. Sketch of the topographical features of the United States, 23, 24; the mountain system west of the 105th meridian, 25; the name suggested for it as a whole, 26; history of its exploration, 26, 27; need of good maps—sanitary value of mountain travel, 27; mountains of California, 28; the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, 29; topography and botany of the Coast Ranges, 30, 32; interesting points to be visited, 32, 33; ascent of Monte Diablo, 33; character of Coast Range scenery, 34; views from points about San Francisco, 34, 35; the Sierra Nevada, 36-44; its extent, 36; elevation, 37; heights of passes and dominating peaks, 36, 37; its geology, 38; forest vegetation, 39;