Yosemite at a Glance:
Park History

Exploitation of Yosemite Valley continued. In the early 1860s a group of influential California businessmen sought the advice of Senator John Conness about enacting legislation to protect Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

Geology
Waterfalls

Protection is Sought

Due to the enormous pressures of the Civil War, Conness encouraged the group to draft their own bill, which he could then send through the General Land Office and on to Congress.

Israel Raymond, a powerful San Francisco shipping magnate, was instrumental in drafting the bill with the support of other influential businessmen. Raymond also sent along photographs of the Yosemite landscape taken by Carleton Watkins to emphasize his point.

In 1864, President Lincoln signed the bill into law as the Yosemite Grant. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias were granted to the state of California as a public trust. Never before had land been set aside simply for recreation and enjoyment.

Development continued to increase in Yosemite Valley. John Muir felt that the state commission was guilty of poor management of the Yosemite Grant and believed that federal protection was needed. Muir joined forces with Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, and together they sought federal protection for the Tuolumne watershed, which was threatened by grazing and mining operations.

In October 1890, due largely to the efforts of John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson, over 1,400 square miles of the Tuolumne River watershed and the Ritter Range became the Yosemite Forest Reservation. The reservation was later designated Yosemite National Park by Secretary of the Interior John Noble. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove continued to be administered by the state until 1905 when California ceded them to the federal government as part of Yosemite National Park.