A N N U A L R E V I E W 1 9 9 1

Spring 1992Volume 54Number 2

A Journal forMembers of theYosemite Association

The Mystery Buried in Bridalveil MeadowI-lank Johnston

For nearly forty years afterits dedication in 1921, a blue-and-white metal plaque stood affixedto an upright rock near the south-eastern corner of BridalveilMeadow in Yosemite Valley.The plaque, which disappearedwithout notice sometime in thelate 1950 's, reads:

Rose and ShurbornProspectors

Killed by Indians20th May 1852Erected by the

Society of California Pioneers1921 .

Who were Rose and Shurborn,and what were the circumstancesof their untimely demise

The accounts that remain are

two short articles from a contem-porary newspaper : three para-graphs in Lafayette Bunnell 'sclassic book, Discovery of theYosemite; two brief interviewsthat contain some peripheral in-formation ; and a bizarre eyewit-ness remembrance that came tolight more than 70 years afterthe fact .'

In this article I ' ll tell you whatwe know about the BridalveilMeadow affair. Then I 'll give youmy guess as to what most likelytook place between the Indiansand the prospectors back in thatill-fated spring of 1852 (feel freeto form your own opinion) .

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YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION . SPRING 092

The Historical Context

Before the coming of the whiteman, Indians of various tribeshad roamed the Sierra Nevadafoothills for untold centuries . Na-ture supplied everything neces-sary for their culture : game, fish,berries, nuts, and acorns, alongwith a pleasant climate . The dis-covery of gold on the AmericanRiver in January, 1848, however.soon drastically changed Califor-nia's rural landscape and endedthe Indians ' nomadic way of lifeforever. During the next severalyears, thousands of eager pros-pectors swarmed over the Sierrafoothills in search of goldenriches . Most of the largely Anglo-American newcomers regardedIndians as pests to be shovedaside or exterminated . The Indi-ans, granted no legal rights andsuffering from loss of food andterritory, held a similar view ofwhite men.

Hostility between the twogroups reached a climax late in1850 in the southern miningregion of Mariposa County whenthe Indians made a final, desper-ate effort to drive out every lastminer from their traditional do-main . Working in concert, warparties from several area tribesattacked the trading posts, seiz-ing what they could ; stole horsesand cattle from the corrals ; andeven murdered a dozen or moreof the hated intruders before flee-ing back to the mountains . TheSheriff quickly formed a posse topursue the marauders, and twosmall battles were fought withindecisive results . Thus began theso-called Mariposa Indian War —really only a series of skirmishes— during which Yosemite Valleywas effectively discovered andfirst entered.

Fearing a general Indian upris-ing, local authorities appealedto the Governor of the newlyformed state for assistance . InJanuary, 1851, he authorized theformation of a volunteer militiaknown as the Mariposa Battalionto subdue the Indians . The Bat-talion consisted of three compa-nies totaling 204 officers and

men, most of whom were localminers . James Savage, a tradingpost operator well-known to theIndians, was elected major incharge . Before any formal actioncould be taken, however, threeUnited States Commissionersarrived and halted proceedingswhile they tried to persuade theIndians to sign treaties and settleon reservations . Most of thetribes accepted the offer, butseveral of the wilder bands fledto refuges deep in the SierraNevada.

On March 19, 1851, the Mari-posa Battalion set out to bringthem in . One company was de-tailed to the areas of the Kingsand Kaweah Rivers . The othertwo companies, with Savage incharge . forged through deepsnow over Chowchilla Mountainheading for a mysterious valleysaid to be the home of the Yo-semites, one of the most hostiletribes.

After establishing a headquar-ters camp several miles northof present Wawona . Savage senta messenger ahead demandingthe surrender of the Yosemitesand their relocation to a reserva-tion on the Fresno River. TheYosemite's chief, called Tenieya,soon appeared at the Battalion

This early group of hunters encoun-tered only a photographer in Yo-semite Valley. not AhwahneecheeIndians.

camp and agreed to lead Savageto his rancheria in the Valley. OnMarch 27, 1851, Major Savage and57 men set out, traveling along anIndian trail that later became thestage road between Wawona andYosemite . On the way they met astraggling group of 72 Indians,mostly old women, mothers, andchildren, coming in to surrender.Tenieya was sent back to theBattalion camp with this group,while Savage and his soldiers,suspicious because no youngmen were present . continuednorthward led by a young Indianguide.

Late that afternoon, after suc-cessfully negotiating the chal-lenging southside cliffs, the partybecame the first white men toenter Yosemite Valley. The fol-lowing day the soldiers exploredthe Valley end to end, seeing Ver-nal and Nevada Falls, but findingno Indians except an ancient wo-man. The next morning, March29, Savage and his men left theValley and returned to the head-quarters camp near Wawona . Theentire force then set out for the

Commissioners ' encampment onthe Fresno River. They arrivedempty-handed, however, fornearly all the Indians capturedby the Battalion, including ChiefTenieya and his followers, escapedin the night and scattered backinto the mountains . Thus endedthe first Yosemite campaign.

On May 5 a new expeditionof 35 men under Captain JohnBoling left for Yosemite Valleywith instructions to "surprise theIndians and whip them well, orinduce them to surrender" Reach-ing the Valley on May 9, Bolingsoon captured Tenieya and fiveof his braves . On May 22 the re-maining Yosemites were sur-prised in a village on the shoreof present Lake Tenaya . Hungryand exhausted, the weary bandof about 35 Indians surrenderedwithout incident.

Tenieya and his people weresubsequently relegated to theFresno River reservation in com-pany with other bands . Unhappywith the lowland climate and theforced cohabitation with tradi-tional enemies, Tenieya repeat-edly appealed to theagent-in-charge for permission togo back to his beloved Yosemite.Sometime late in 1851, his requestwas granted upon his promise toremain peaceful . Soon after, someof the Chief 's followers quietlyslipped away from the reserva-tion and joined him in their oldmountain home.

The First Public Notice

On June 10, 1852, the Alta Cali-fornia newspaper in San Franciscoprinted the following story.

LIORE INDIAN TROUBLE —THREE ;lLEN KILLED.G. W Steil, who runts an Ex-

press throughout the /nines south ofthe 1 iariposa, has favored us withthe foilow'iu in forr/ation : On the2Grit ~1-Jay eight mien started fromCoarse Gold Gulch on a prospectingtour to the headnraters of the Merced.After traveling sonic seventy-Peemiles, they were suddenly surroundedby a large hotly of Kuban, who at-tacked them and killed three of their

LSEMi Pi ASSOCLATIOi\, SPRING 1992

PAGE IHl:EE

THE YEOSEMOTYS INHABIT A BEAUTIFUL AND FERTILE VALLEY IN THEUPPER SIERRA NEVADA KNOWN AS YEOSEMOTY VALLEY . THIS VALLEY IS ABOUT

SIXTY MILES IN LENGTH, WITH AN AVERAGE OF THREE IN BREADTH, THESURROUND PEAKS ARE COVERED WITH PERPETUAL SNOW, AND IT IS KNOWN THAT

THERE IS GOLD IN THE VICINITY.

number; named Shtrrborn, Rose, andJoseph Tudor The remaining fi vemade their escape, aud after eudur-ing great hardships, returned toCoarse Gold Gulch . They had beenfive dab's in the mountains withoutprovisions . The names of four of themu vere Grover; Peabody Aitdr, andBabcock . At the time of the attacktheir arms and anununition Ii'erenet, and they were suable to defendthemselves. Only one Indian tt'askilled On the 2nd last, a party ofthirty-five miners started from CoarseGold Gulch for the prnyose ofchas-:ising those Indians.

A week later, on June 18, a sec-ond article, credited to the SanJoaquin Republican, appeared inthe Alta California . According tothis new account, only Rose andShurborn were killed : Joseph Tu-dor was seriously wounded.

A party of foal melt mustewd andStarted out to chastise the Indians.Thee found the bodies of the tiro'sundered men and buried them, theIndians all the time taunting themwith threats ofdefiance from across:he river: The river being very high,:he party did not wish to pursue

rem farther airy returned. . . . Capt.Gore's Company of US Infantry

stationed at Tort :1 li//c,; on the Sanaquin, is not, enroute for the scene

_t the murders- . . .The Yeosenroti's inhabit a beauti-

•ul and fertile railer' in the upperSierra Nevada knolr'n as Yeosenroty

it/let: This valleir is about sixtyrules in length, tritlr an average ofthree in breadth, the surround peaksare covered with perpetual smolt; andit is known that there is gold in thees-mite

Bunnell 's Narrative

A similar version of the Bridal-veil Meadow attack appeared inLafayette Bunnell's book, Discov-cry of the Yosemite and the IndianWar of 1854 Which Led to ThatEvent .' According to Bunnell, asmall party of French minersstarted out on a prospecting tripearly in May, 1852, with the in-tention of making a visit to Yo-semite Valley Their curiosityabout the Valley had beenaroused by descriptions of it

made by some former membersof the Mariposa Battalion whowere also mining at Coarse GoldGulch at the time.

Equipped with a rough mapprepared by the ex-soldiers, theparty proceeded northward fromCoarse Gold, prospecting along

Lafayette H . Bunnell, whose writ-ings are the basis for most of whatis known about early Yosemitehistory.

the way in the Merced SouthFork and streams tributary to it.While camped somewhere nearpresent Wawona, they were vis-ited by a small group of beggingYosemite Indians, who appearedfriendly but let the miners knowthat the territory they were inbelonged to them. The miners ig-nored their claim, knowing thatthe Government had taken overthe area the previous year.

" Unsuspicious of danger froman attack,i' Bunnell wrote, "theyreached the Valley, and while en-tering it on the old trail, wereambushed by the Indians frombehind some rocks at or near thefoot of the trail, and two of theparty instantly killed . Anotherwas seriously wounded . butfinally succeeded in making hisescape . The names of the twomen killed were Rose and Shur-bon ;' the name of the woundedman was Tudor.''

Bunnell then provides us witha report of the aftermath of theepisode . A small company of sol-diers from the Regular Army sta-

tioned at Fort Miller on the SanJoaquin River was dispatched toYosemite early in June under thecommand of Lieutenant TredwellMoore, USA, to capture or pun-ish the Indians responsible for thekilling of the miners . A volunteerscout named Augustus " Gus "Gray, a friend of the murderedmen who had been a member ofboth Yosemite campaigns of theMariposa Battalion, served asguide for the punitive expedition.Bunnell says he obtained the par-ticulars of the mission directlyfrom Gray

The soldiers entered the Valleyat night and surprised andcaptured a party of five Indians.In the morning, the naked bodiesof Rose and Shurbon (Bunnell'sspelling) were found and buriedon the edge of the little meadowbelow Bridalveil Fall . Upon ex-amination of the five prisoners,it was discovered that each ofthem had some article of clothingbelonging to the murdered men.With this evidence, along withthe captives ' admission that theyhad killed the miners to preventwhite men from coming to theirvalley. Lieutenant Moore orderedthe five Indians executed by avolley of musketry'

Moore failed, however, to re-capture Chief Tenieya, who withhis few remaining followers madea quick retreat from their Yosem-ite hiding places to take refugewith the Monos across the Sierra.Bunnell says that he subsequentlylearned of Tenieya 's fate fromremnants of the tribe with whomhe had dealings at his mining op-eration near the Merced NorthFork in 1853-54.

According to these Indians, Fe-nieya remained with the Monosuntil the late summer of 1853when he decided it was safe toreturn to Yosemite Valley. Soonafter, some of the young Yo-semites raided the Mono Lakecamp of their former hosts, steal-ing a band of horses that theMonos had taken from whitesettlers to the south . They drovethem to Yosemite Valley over aroundabout route, hoping in this

way to escape detection . Sometime later, while the Yosemiteswere feasting on the stolen deli-cacies, the Monos suddenlypounced on them, stoning Te-nieya and many of his followersto death . Eight young menescaped by fleeing down theMerced Canyon. The youngwomen and children whosurvived the attack were madecaptives and taken back toMono Lake.

Grover 's Reminiscence

in 1926 the contents of a mostremarkable manuscript writtenby Stephen Grover a memberof the unfortunate prospectingparty, came to public attention ina California Historical Society (Quar-terly article by Carl Russell, ChiefNaturalist of Yosemite NationalPark . According to Grover. agroup of eight miners consistingof himself, Babcock, Peabody. Tu-dor, Sherburn (Grover' s spelling),

Stephen Frealon Grover (1830-1907).

Rose, Aich . and an unnamed Eng-lishman, left Coarse Gold Gulchon April 27, 1852, on a prospect-ing expedition into the SierraNevada . The party travelednorthward for five days, passingthrough the Mariposa Grove ofBig Trees enroute, thus becomingthe first white men to enter there.On May 2, the adventurers en-tered Yosemite Valley and set upcamp in an open area south ofthe Merced River. Aich, Grover,

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"WE COULD SEE THE OLD CHIEF TEIEIEYA [SIC]," GROVER WROTE, "WAY UP INTHE VALLEY IN AN OPEN SPACE WITH FULLY ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY

INDIANS AROUND HIM, TO WHOM HE GAVE HIS ORDERS WHICH WERE PASSEDTO ANOTHER CHIEF JUST BELOW US, AND THESE TWO DIRECTED THOSE

AROUND THEM AND SHOUTED ORDERS TO THOSE ON THE TOP OF THE BLUFFWHO WERE ROLLING THE ROCKS OVER ON US.

and the Englishman remained incamp while the others went upthe Valley prospecting and hunt-ing for game.

Suddenly screams and firingwere heard, and Peabody stag-gered into camp wounded by ar-rows in his arm and neck . Hewas quickly followed by Bab-cock, both men drenched to theskin from plunging into thestream below Bridalveil Fall whilefleeing from attacking Indians.Sherburn and Tudor were killedin the first encounter. Tudor be-ing dispatched with an ax thatthe party had taken along for cut-ting wood . Rose fell . " apparentlywith a death wound; on the op-posite side of the stream from thecamp. Sherburn's demise is notdescribed.

The five survivors, armed withtwo rifles, attempted to escapeup the trail by which they hadcome, but were cut off by a largegroup of Indians, "whooping andyelling, and constantly firing ar-rows at us ." The beleagueredminers then managed to scram-ble up to a " shelf-like projection "which was secure from rocksbeing hurled down by Indiansfrom above, but still subject toa constant shower of arrowsfrom below.

"We could see the old ChiefTeieieya [sic] ;" Grover wrote,'`way up in the Valley in an openspace with fully one hundred andfifty Indians around him, towhom he gave his orders whichwere passed to another Chief justbelow us, and these two directedthose around them and shoutedorders to those on the top of thebluff who were rolling the rocksover on us . Fully believing our-selves doomed men, we never re-laxecl our vigilance, but with thetwo rifles we still kept them atbay, determined to sell our livesas dearly as possible . . . . All of asudden the Chief just below us,about fifty yards distant, sud-denly threw up his hands andwith a terrible yell fell over back-wards with a bullet through hisbody Immediately the firing ofarrows ceased, and the savages . .

began to withdraw and we couldhear the twigs crackle as theycrept away."

Grover then describes at lengthhow the frightened survivorsworked their way hack to civili-zation, all the while fearinganother deadly attack by the In-dians . The party retraced its orig-inal route, passing once morethrough the Mariposa Grove.They felt secure only when they" gained the ridge above Chow-

At Coarse Gold Gulch,Grover's brother, Whitney Gro-ver, quickly formed a company oftwenty-five men and started forthe Valley guided by Aich . Thevengeful miners found the bodiesof Sherburn and Tudor but sawno Indians . They buried the deadmen where they lay, designatingthe graves with "such marks aswere at hand at that time ."

Six days after returning toCoarse Gold Gulch, Grover heardthat Rose was in the generalvicinity reporting that the rest ofthe party had been killed by Indi-ans and that he alone had escapedby hiding behind Bridalveil Fall.When he learned that Grover andhis companions had survived,Rose shortly disappeared.

"We thought his actions andwords very strange ;" Grover said."At the time of the attack he wasthe first one to fall, right amongstthe savages, apparently with hisdeath wound, and now he ap-pears without a scratch, tellinghis version of the affair and dis-appearing without seeing any ofus . We all believed he was notthe honest man and friend wetook him to be . He took posses-sion of the gold mine in which heheld a one-third interest withSherburn and Tudor,, and sold it"

The Leidig Story

Charles Leidig, the first whiteboy born in Yosemite Valley(1869) and a pioneer resident ;'gave a hearsay account of themurder of the prospectors to aPark Naturalist in 1933.

According to Leidig, a smallparty of miners was camped bya large rock on the edge of Bri-

Charles Leidig at the site of theLeidig Hotel, June 6, 1939.

dalveil Meadow when the groupwas suddenly set upon by Indi-ans about 3 am . The assault tookthem by surprise, as they hadmade friendly contact with thesame Indians during the previousday Two of the prospectors werekilled instantly A third was des-perately wounded but managedto flee some distance over therocks of the terminal moraine tothe east before succumbing to hisinjuries . He was later buried onthe top of the moraine facing theriver.

The site was identified foryears by a pile of rocks, Theother two victims were buried inBridalveil Meadow, their gravesmarked by a crude wooden signnear the subsequent location ofthe blue-and-white plaque men-tioned earlier in this article . Leidigsaid he received his informationfirst-hand from a member of theparty who escaped . The survivorreturned to the Valley some yearslater and pointed out these placesto Leidig.

Maria Lebrado 's Interview

Maria Lebrado (Indian name,Totot'a), a granddaughter of ChiefTenieya, was a young girl aboutten or twelve when the MariposaBattalion entered Yosemite in1851 . She left the Valley that sameyear but remained in MariposaCounty for the rest of her life.

In 1928 . when she was nearlyninety, Carl Russell questioned

Maria Lebrado, granddaughterof Tenieya.

her about Tenieya's final days.Her version of the Chief's deathdiffered sharply from Bunnell'saccount, related earlier in thisarticle . According to Maria,speaking through her daughter'sinterpretation, no Indians died inYosemite Valley at the hands ofother Indians . Instead, Tenieyaand his family went to MonoLake at the invitation of the Pai-utes who lived there . A violentquarrel developed during a gam-bling game . In the deadly skir-mish that followed, five YosemiteIndians were killed by Paiutes.Some Paiutes were also killed.

" The Indian, Tom Hutchings,was present during the fight,"Maria told Russell . "He burnedthe bodies of the Yosemite Indi-ans and brought some of their

Indian Tom Hutchings who tookthe family name of early hotel-keeper, James Mason Hutchings .

~E`,9ITF. ASSOCIAPION . SPRING Ixi2

PACE FIVE

burned hones back to YosemiteValley He told the other Yosem-ite Indians about what had hap-p ened . Tom was half Paiute.Tenieya was one of the five Indi-ans killed.

'` Hite 's Cove mine had justbeen opened . My half-sister Lucyived with Mr. Hite and wasalways known as Lucy Hite . TomHutchings took Tenieya 's bonesto Hite's Cove for burial . On theway, Tom stopped with YosemiteIndians and other Indians whowere friendly to the Yosemites atthe South Fork, where a big crywas held . This cry lasted twoweeks . After the cry the honeswere taken down the South Forkto Hite's Cove . In the month thatfollowed some white prospec-tors killed an Indian boy In retali-ation, some Yosemite Indianskilled two white men in Yosem-ite Valley. They killed them witharrows . Very few Yosemite Indi-ans had guns ."

Conclusions

So far as I know, that 's the sumof information about what wenton in Yosemite Valley in the sum-mer of 1852 . Several of the re-ports are clearly in conflict.Others, on close analysis . seemcontrary to fact . The problem iswhat exactly to make of it all.

The Miners' Party : Grover 's-Reminiscence' and the contem-porary stories in the Alta Califor-nia agree that eight men madeup the group from Coarse GoldGulch, namely,, Rose . Grover,Peabody. Babcock, Tudor, Aitch(Grover says '' Aich " ) . an un-named Englishman, and Shur-born (Grover says " Sherburn;"Bunnell says "Shurbon").

The Dates Involved : Thosegiven in the Alta Cali fvrnia ac-counts are most likely correct(Ieft Coarse Gold Gulch on May20 and returned on June 1 or 2).The Indian attack probably tookplace on May 26 or 27- Grover 'sstarting date of April 27 is muchtoo early in relation to the firstnewspaper report, publishedon June 10 . It took about aweek for news to be carried

from the hinterlands to the city.The Route Taken : Grover 's

description of the route pursuedby his party is confusing, to saythe least. The Mariposa Grovewould have been well out of theway for the group, especially onthe return trip . Grover may pos-sibly have mistaken some bigtrees near Miami Mills for theMariposa Grove . or he may sim-ply have invented the claimmany years later to get credit fordiscovering the Grove.

Bunnell says that the minerswere guided by an outline mapprepared by ex-members of theMariposa Battalion . No one in theBattalion knew of the Big Trees.If Aitch led the posse of minersfrom Coarse Gold Gulch hack toYosemite over the trail he hadjust traversed as Grover implies,surely news of the MariposaGrove would quickly have be-come a topic of great interest inthe nearby mining camps . Bun-nell, who knew the area as wellas anyone . states that the exist-ence of the Big Trees was notgenerally known before GalenClark and Milton Mann exploredthe Grove in 1857.

Who Buried the Bodies?:The second Alta Calif runt story

The two men were buried on theedge of the little meadow near theBridal Veil Fall.

says that the party of men whowent back to Yosemite Valley onJune 2 buried the two murderedmen, Rose and Shurborn. Groversupports this account except thathe maintains it was Tudor andShurborn who were buried . Bun-nell . on the other hand, makes nomention at all of the party of vin-dictive miners . Instead, he quotesGus Gray, an eyewitness who ac-companied Lieutenant Moore'spunitive Army expedition intothe Valley. Gray told Bunnell thatthe soldiers found the naked bod-ies of Rose and Shurborn and" buried them on the edge of thelittle meadow near the BridalVeil Fall ."

Which version is correct Theanswer will doubtless never beknown with certainty. It seemsreasonably sure, however, thatthe dead men were Rose andShurborn, not Tudor and Shur-born . The deceased men werewell known to members of boththe miners ' burial party and Lieu-tenant Moore 's force . So regard-less of who buried them, thecorpses of Rose and Shurborn

would doubtless have been cor-rectly identified at the time.

What About Tudor? : Thefirst Alta California story says thatTudor was one of three minerskilled by the Indians . The secondarticle, appearing a week later, re-ports that only Rose and Shur-horn were dead . Joseph Tudor isdescribed as wounded . Bunnellsays that Tudor was "seriouslywounded, but finally succeededin making his escape :' (Grover, aswe know, has Tudor, not Rose asone of the murdered men .) Thereis no further mention of Tudor 'sfate in any account, nor doesBunnell explain how Tudor couldhave traversed 75 rugged mileson foot across the mountains toCoarse Gold Gulch in five daysafter being "seriously wounded"

Charles Leidig's story offersanother possibility. Leidig said hewas told that two men werekilled by Indians and later buriedin Bridalveil Meadow . A thirdman (Joseph Tudor=) . althoughbadly wounded, fled to the rockmoraine near Bridalveil Fall be-fore falling dead . It is conceivablethat Tudor's remains, lying in therocks some little distance fromBridalveil Meadow. might havebeen missed by the burial parties.Tudor's ultimate destiny thus re-mains an enigma : he may wellhave escaped to live a full life, orhe may very possibly lie in anunmarked grave under the rocksnear Bridalveil Fall.

Grover's RomanticizedStory: Many elements of Gro-ver's " Reminiscence " do not agreewith known facts . In addition tohis dubious claim of discoveringthe Mariposa Grove, Grover pre-sents an obviously embroidereddescription of being attacked byan immense war party.

Most authorities sayy, however.that the Yosemite tribe consistedof only about 200 memberswhen the white man first arrivedin 1851 . Probably two-thirds ofthese were mothers, children,and old people . By the followingspring, after two confrontationswith the Mariposa Battalion, theYosemites had become widely

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YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SPRING 1992

scattered — some families re-turning to their original tribes,others still on the reservation orhidden in the foothills . At thetime the miners were attacked,Tenieya 's local following mostlikely numbered fewer than threedozen Indians in all, with someof these being women, children,and elders.

It therefore seems probablethat a small group of renegadeYosemites carried out the ambushof the miners to steal their pos-sessions . The fact that LieutenantMoore found five Indians stillpresent in Bridalveil Meadow amonth later strongly suggeststhat these were the only ones in-volved . It is entirely possible thatTenieya didn 't even know aboutthe murders at the time.

Grover's implication that Roseset up the whole affair to doaway with his mining partners,Shurborn and Tudor, is anintriguing but entirely implausi-ble proposition . To accept it . onemust assume that Rose somehowsecretly negotiated a 150-mileround trip through strange andhostile country from CoarseGold Gulch to Yosemite Valley,then struck a deal with Chief Te-nieya to kill Tudor and Shurbornat a later date . Tenieya hadalready suffered two painful ex-periences at the hands of thewhite man 's soldiers . He wouldhardly have conspired with Rosein anything that was sure to pro-voke a third . Moreover, no ac-count save Grover ' s mentionedRose 's miraculous survival, anevent that would have indeedbeen news at the time.

So why did Grover,, writingsome 50 years after the incident,concoct such a quixotic descrip-tion of the Indian attack' Was it amatter of self-aggrandizement fora man late in life, or was he slylytwitting historians yet to come?

Which leaves us with MariaLebrado and her story of themurder of the Indian boy, which,she claimed, provoked a retalia-tory attack on the miners . Maria 'sfull interview, given to Carl Rus-sell more than 75 years later, is so

fraught with questionable infor-mation that it is hard to acceptany part of it as absolute .' Boththe newspaper stories and Groversaid that one Indian was killedduring the assault on the miners.Maria 's "Indian boy" might havebeen an unlucky young man whowas shot during the ambush.Surely the prospectors, whowere admittedly apprehensiveabout the Indians, would nothave risked inciting them by gra-tuitously murdering a child.

Where's the Plaque?

There is one last unexplainedevent in the matter of the Indiansand the prospectors that mightyet be resolved : Who removedthe blue-and-white metal plaquefrom its appointed rock inBridalveil Meadow in the late1950 's, and where is it now. Ifanyone reading this can providethat answer, I ' d very much liketo hear about it.

Notes and ReferencesI . Three other reports that add

nothing to our knowledge of whatwent on also exist. Elliott 's History ofFresno County (1881) inexplicably con-tains two different versions of the in-cident in the same volume . The firstsays that a band of Indians attackedthree unnamed Frenchmen near Yo-semite Valley in August, 1852 . killingtwo . The third escaped . Some pageslater, a second account, apparentlyderived partly from Stephen Grover(see footnote 5), says there were fivegold hunters who were set upon by

Late spring at Lake Tenaya . 1991,named after the last of the Ahwa-neechee chiefs, Tenieya.

Indians . Two of them named " Sher-man and Tudor" were killed, but theothers reached safety after a lengthyfight with their attackers . JamesHutchings, pioneer Yosemite inn-keeper and publicist, reiterates Elli-ott's second version with minorchanges in his 1886 book, In the Heartof the Sierras. He credits Elliott for thematerial.

2. Bunnell's hook is our principalsource of knowledge about earlyevents in Yosemite history. Bunnellwas an observant young private withthe Mariposa Battalion during the In-dian campaign of 1851 . Afterward heremained active in the Yosemite-Mariposa region with various mining,trading, and surveying projects untilhe returned home to Wisconsin in thefall of 1856 . In 1880, " to correct exist-ing errors relative to Yosemite Valley "Bunnell brought out the first of foureditions of his magunn opus, Discovers'of the Yosernite, the last published post-humously in 1911 . For further infor-mation about Bunnell, see HankJohnston, Yosemite' 1csterdars, Volume11, Flying Spur Press, 1991.

3. In the Yosemite Associationedition of Bunnell's Discover' of the Yo-semite, his original spelling of " Shur-bon" has been changed to "Shurborn .'The author's earlier editions all used"Shurbon ;" which very well may becorrect.

4. According to Bunnell, LieutenantTredwell Moore, an 1847 graduate ofWest Point, received some severe crit-icism for his " display of autocraticpower in ordering the five Yosemitesshot :" Bunnell said that Moore wrote

a letter to the .lIanpoca Chronicle some-time in 1854 in which he describedthe expedition and attempted to jus-tify his actions . Unfortunately, nocopy of that rare issue seems to exist.

5.Stephen Frealon Grover (1830-1907) came to California during thegold rush from his native Mainewhere he had been engaged in thelumber business . He subsequentlyjoined with his brother Whitney in alumbering operation in the SantaCruz mountains near Soquel . Heachieved considerable financial suc-cess, eventually building a fine housecalled the Grover Mansion on WalnutStreet in Santa Cruz. He also had astreet named after him in the samecity. Sometime in his later years.Grover wrote out his " Reminiscence ;'which he left with his daughter. Mrs.A . E . Chandler, likewise a Santa Cruzresident . She sent the manuscript toGalen Clark in Yosemite in 1901 . OnClark's death it passed to the Yosem-ite photographer George Fiske . OnFiske 's death the paper was acquiredby the National Park Service for safe-keeping . In 1926 Carl Russell wrotean article . "Early Years in Yosemite ;'for the California Historical Society,in which he presented Grover' s ac-count of the Indians ' attack on theminers . He later printed the manu-script in his book, One HundredYears in Yosemite„ first published inApril, 1932.

6.Charles Leidig lived in Yosemitefrom his birth on March 8, 1869, until1916, when he moved to Hayward inthe Bay Area . He spent some years asa guide and scout for the U .S .Cavalryand also served as a Special ForestAgent while the troops were absentin the winter. He was one of twoguides assigned to Teddy Rooseveltand John Muir during their historiccamping trip in May. 1903 . Leidig leftGovernment service in 1907 and be-came a teamster for the YosemiteStage & Turnpike Company From1916 until retirement he was em-ployed by the Hayward City ParkDepartment . He died in 1956 at theage of 88.

7 The missing plaque gave May 20as the date of the murders . That wasactually the date the party left CoarseGold Gulch, according to contempo-rary news stories . Grover said it tookabout seven days for the prospectorsto reach Yosemite Valley and approx-imately five or six days for the returntrip to Coarse Gold Gulch . Theattack therefore must have occurredon May 26 or 27

Continued on page 16

1991was significant for starting Yosemite's second century as a national park . And while it sponsoredno gala events to mark this milestone, the Yosemite Association quietly continued its traditionof over seventy years of service to Yosemite, the National Park Service and the visitor.

The following report demonstrates the health and viability of our varied activities, and givestestament to the strength of our educational program . Thousands ofpersons were in one way or anotheraffected by our work, thousands ofhours ofvolunteer labor were contributed at the park, and thousandsofdollars were donated to the National Park Service in support of its interpretive efforts.

This success is the result ofa committed and hard-working staff and board, ofa steadfast and gener-ous membership, ofa cooperative National Park Service staff and of scores of individuals and busi-nesses who have contributed in impressive ways. The Yosemite Association is built upon this foundationofsupport which could not be stronger.

Once again we extend our thanks to our friends, members, and supporters who have given our orga-nization such vigor and who have made working to benefit Yosemite so enjoyable .

PAGEt]CHL ++1 ANNUAL REVIEW

YOSEMII L ASSOCIATION . SPRING 1992

YA '91

Park Highlights

January

The Yosemite Park & CurryCo ., Yosemite 's main concessionoperation, was sold by Matsu-shita Corporation of Japan to theNational Park Foundation . Thesale will take effect in 1993.

February

Chief Ranger Roger Rudolphwas transferred to OlympicNational Park as Assistant Super-intendent, and Chief of Conces-sions, Wayne Schulz, retired fromthe NPS.

Between February 28 andMarch 5 a major storm droppedalmost 8 inches of rain on Yosem-ite, bringing much-needed relieffrom the drought .

March

A 40-ton boulder closed theBig Oak Flat Road from CraneFlat to the road 's intersectionwith Highway 140.

April

Ticketron ceased operationand was later replaced by Mistixas the company handling camp-ground reservations in YosemiteNational Park.

May

The Tioga Road first openedon May 23, closed again due toroad surface problems, thenreopened on May 26.

On May 26 (Memorial Dayweekend) the Traffic Manage-ment Plan (turning away carswithout lodging or campingreservations from YosemiteValley) was implemented fortwo hours .

July

A congressional oversight hear-ing on park transportation andhousing was held at the MarriottHotel in Fish Camp.

Seven members of an environ-mental activist group known as" Sierra Green" attempted toblock construction of new parkhousing being built at HodgdonMeadow.

August

Secretary of the Interior Man-uel Lujan visited Yosemite.

Attorney Melvin Belli initiated21 tort claims against the NPSarising from the Foresta fireof 1990.

September

Mark Wellman and Mike Cor-bett climbed Half Dome to bene-fit the Boy Scouts.

The new Hetch Hetchy Camp-ground was dedicated .

October

The Centennial time capsulewas buried on the Yosemite Vil-lage pedestrian mall, marking anend to the previous year 'sCentennial Celebration.

November

Tioga Road was closed for theseason on the 18th.

Campgrounds, tents and otherhousing units were evacuated for15 hours when Yosemite Valleyexperienced 40 mile per hourwinds .

I Ii

SOC i i ;N . SPR :N( _ib2

NU;1I . REVIEW. PACE'. N[NE

YA '91

Board of Trustees

The board of YA experiencedone change in 1991 when long-time board member Carlo Fowlerwas unseated in the annual elec-tion by Kathleen Orr. The otherincumbent, David Robertson,was re-elected.

Kathleen Orr has long beeninvolved in Yosemite, most re-cently as a YA volunteer in boththe membership booth and themuseum. She has visited the parkevery year since 1934, and con-siders Yosemite a very specialplace . She is a retired elementaryschool teacher, a former book-store owner, and the mother offour grown children .

Mr. Robertson will begin hissecond term as a trustee . He hasparticipated in a number of YAprojects and activities, notablyserving as Chair of the Grantsand Aid Committee and as amember of the Publications Com-mittee . He was also elected Vice-Chair of the full board . Robertsonis the author of two Associationpublications : West of Eden andYosemite As 1P1' Saar It . He has astrong interest in and concernabout Yosemite's future.

Carlo Fowler performed ablyas a board member for elevenyears. He was closely involved inthe rapid growth of the Associa-tion, and participated in the de-velopment of the fundraisingprogram which later became theYosemite Fund . His contributionsto our organization and Yosemitehave been substantial and aredeeply appreciated .

YA '91

Sales andPublicationsYA's success with its publica-tions program continued through1991 . Our gross sales grew toover $1,568,000 — the highestfigure ever. Keys to this growthwere new wholesale markets andbetter distribution of YA publica-tions outside the park.

It was a banner year for newproducts . Included among themwere the reprint of LafayetteBunnell 's Discovery of the Yosemite,The Complete Guidebook to YosemiteNational Park by Y.A .'s own Ste-ven P. Medley, the long-awaitedTradition & Innovation – A Historyof' the Indians of the Yosemite-il lonoLake Area, a pair of plastic SierraNevada Field Cards illustrating themost common birds and mam-mals of the area, The AIap andGuide to kd%airona and the .1lar-rposaGrove produced in conjunctionwith Rufus Graphics of San Fran-cisco, and a set of full color notecards featuring images of Indianbaskets from the Yosemite Mu-seum collection.

The guidebook proved its pop-ularity almost immediately withsales of over 10,000 copies withinthe first seven months of itsrelease . It continues to sell well.Reviews of Tradition cC Innovationhave been excellent, and nearlythree-quarters of the first run of2,000 books are gone . A reprint iscontemplated . And the new mapand guide to the Wawona area

has long been needed and shouldprove very useful to visitors tothe south end of the park.

With our high level of sales,we kept a very busy reprintschedule . Eighteen different titleswere reprinted, pointing out thelong-term popularity and stayingpower of the books we publish.The A lap and Guide to .SsetrriteValley just went to a third printing— over 45,000 copies have nowbeen sold.

At the park, our sales outletscontinued strong . Notableincreases were made at HappyIsles Nature Center (up 82%),and at the Museum Shop (up142%) . We also opened a cooper-ative visitor information centerand sales outlet at Briceburg (onHighway 140 just outside thepark) in conjunction with theBureau of Land Management.Sales at the Valley Visitor Centerexceeded $800,000 for the firsttime . Wholesale orders grew25% to almost $350,000 (alsoan all-time high).

Our book rack program hasprospered . We now maintain al-most 50 racks of YA publicationsin various stores, restaurants,motels and other establishmentson the different entry routes tothe park.

YA personnel also representedthe organization at trade exhibitsthroughout the year including theNorthern California Bookseller 'sAssociation Convention in Oak-land and the San Francisco BayArea Book Festival .

YOSF,MITE ASSOCIATION . sFI m C ; 1992

YA '91

Membership1991 was a busy, productiveyear for the Yosemite Associa-tion's membership program.Membership totals hit the 6,000mark with over 700 new mem-bers joining as a result of the sum-mer volunteer booths locatedboth in Yosemite Valley and Tu-olumne Meadows . These boothsgive out an abundance of generalpark information to visitors, inaddition to membership materi-als . In the Valley. these folks alsostaff the park's Museum Gallery,enabling it to he open to the pub-lic — over 120,000 people viewedthe exhibit there last year. In Tu-olumne, the volunteers also hostthe seminar campground . Lastyear,, thirty faithful Y.A . membersvolunteered approximately 3,700hours of work as part of thisprogram.

The YA summer Work Tripsare another popular way thatmembers provide much neededlabor for Yosemite . Underwrittenby the Yosemite Park & CurryCo . and conducted in coopera-tion with the Yosemite Instituteand the National Park Service.three week-long trips took placein 1991 . Forty-five members gen-erously gave about 1 .400 hours oftheir hard work as crews for nu-merous revegetation projects inboth the Valley and TuolumneMeadows .

There were three very suc-cessful member events in 1991.Close to 500 people attended theSpring Forum held in the Valleyon March 23rd and listened totalks on the infamous A-Rockand Steamboat fires of 1990, thepossibilities of a park-wide lightrail system, and the distressingdecline in Yosemite's songbirds,among many other topics . In Sep-tember in Tuolumne Meadows,approximately 350 membersturned out for a beautiful fallweekend in the high country andthe Sixteenth Annual Members 'Meeting . Wilderness traveler andwriter, Peter Browning (YosemitePlace Aanres, John A Inn. hi HisOue'u Words) addressed the groupand signed books.

Finally, in October, about 200YA members, staff and boardgathered at the Filoli estate inWoodside for the first NorthernCalifornia members event . Theyenjoyed tours of the beautifullylandscaped gardens, a picniclunch, and a talk by MartinRosen of the Trust for PublicLand . This event came at the re-quest of the YA Board for meet-ings to be held each year outsideof the park . A southern Califor-nia Y.A. member gathering is inthe planning stage for fall of 1992 .

YA '91

Seminars983 people enrolled in YA fieldseminars during 1991 . With theassistance of qualified instructors,they investigated a range of di-verse topics within the natural,outdoor classroom we know asYosemite . Subjects offered in-cluded botany. bit-cling, geology,human history astronomy,nature photography and art . Par-ticipants strolled, hiked,backpacked, skied andsnowshoed throughout the parkto appropriate study areas . Thefour seasons allowed class atten-dees to enjoy such naturalphenomena as snow crystals,lush spring flowers, starry nightskies, and the rich color of fallvegetation.

Several new courses were of-fered in 1991— the 13-day PlantDiversity Study Backpack taughtby Steve Botti, The Life of theTuolumne River taught by AldaronLaird, William Trush and Eric Lar-son, and Trees of Yosemite taughtby Jim Paruk .

The on-going drought contin-ued to affect the Sierra, so YAcourses were planned for areasnear lakes and rivers . AutumnRambles in the nigh Couutnscheduled for October,, ran rightinto the fall season's first bigsnowfall . Unfortunately, thecourse had to be cancelled be-cause no one could drive to thescheduled meeting place on theeast side of the Sierra! Changeswere made to the Literary Natural-ist Workshop (different locationand class content), and it provedto be a great success . Backpacktrips filled to capacity, and begin-ner birding students flocked tocourses!

The country's recession af-fected seminar attendance, butoverall, the program was healthy.Both returning and new studentstook part in classes — fromlearning how to make Miwoksoaproot brushes to keying outsome of the composite flowersfound in the park . The goals ofthe seminar program (to providehigh quality,, in-depth interpreta-tion and to serve as an extensionof the park 's education program)were met in 1991, and in meetingthose goals, YA benefitted thepublic and the park .

YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SPRING 1992

Ng. ANNLAI REVIEW. PACE ELEVEN

Contributions to

Research Grantthe NPS and BLM Program

YA '91

Other ProgramsArt Activity Center. Free, infor-mal, outdoor classes in painting,photography and sketching wereoffered daily most of the year un-der the joint sponsorship of theNational Park Service, YosemitePark and Curry Co ., and the Yo-semite Association at the Art Ac-tivity Center in Yosemite Valley.These classes started in 1980 andhave drawn artists from all overthe U .S . Participants have comefrom every corner of the world.

High Sierra Loop Trips . Thisyear the loop trips not only pro-vided added services to the parkvisitor, but were used for trainingnew interpreters in the MatherDistrict . Giving the participantsan in-depth "educational " experi-ence in the backcountry has, it ishoped, increased awareness ofpark values . Trips this year werecoordinated by Ginger Burley(NPS), and Claire Haley (YA).

Yosemite Theater Program.Every year the theater programchanges to include new and inno-vative shows . This year ConnieStetson joined the troupe withher stage show, Sarah HaivikinsContemplates a Fourth Alarriage:The Dian of a Pioneer Wonsan.Also, Jo Diotelevi came fromHawaii with her magical puppetsto spread the recycling message.Tom Bopp sang and played Vin-tage Songs of Yosemite from theyesteryears of Camp Curry. GailLynne Dreifus added a new di-

mension to her music with AnnieBoucher and Kristin Ramsey inHome Planet Hootenamn : Lee Stet-son captured the park 's specialsignificance through the personaof John Muir in his two shows,Conversations With a Tramp andThe Spirit of John Aluit: Thetheater also had veteran BobRoney narrating his two shows,Black Bears, Big Horn Sheep andPeregrine Falcons and Yosemite andthe High Sierra.

Film Assistance Program.Yosemite Association assistedwith a variety of film projectsin 1991 including a Japanese chil-dren 's television program, a mu-sic video, and documentary andcommercial work . Filmmakerspay fees to YA for location scout-ing and photography in advanceof actual filming, for models, foron-site project assistants, andfor other related services . Onedonation of $500 was received inaddition to the fees paid for assis-tance rendered.

Special Trips . The number ofrequests for special trips contin-ues to grow . Most are for a singleguided hike or presentation for asmall private group . At least twogroups used several leaders forall-day programs ; Y.A. also pro-vided a guide for a bus tour ofYosemite Valley for French-speaking visitors . Some schoolgroups have begun to call on usfor children's walks . YA is paid afee for providing the various nat-ural history instructors ; in addi-tion, some groups have madedonations .

With its net revenues, YA ben-efits a wide variety of endeavors,but primarily donates funds tothe National Park Service for itseducational, research and envi-ronmental programs . With theopening of the new Briceburg In-formation Center outside thepark, YA also made contributionsin 1991 to its partner in that ven-ture — the Bureau of Land Man-agement.

During the year direct aid tothe National Park Service totalled$266 .151, and an additional$32 .833 was made available toindependent scientists and re-searchers . The Park Service dona-tions grew by 8°0 over 1990 totheir highest level ever. Direct aidto the Bureau of Land Manage-ment was $6,771.

Contributions by category :

Expenditures for grants to in-dependent researchers weremade in the amount of $32,833during 1991 . A variety of projectswere undertaken with the moneyincluding age-dating of a SierraNevada meadow, the YosemitePhotographic Survey an effortto control exotic hull thistle inYosemite Valley,, a study of In-dian burning practices, and apopulation status survey of theYosemite Toad . It was the fourthsuccessful year for the ResearchGrant Program which is ongoing.

Direct Aid to NPS from Y41986—1991

'86 '87 '88 '89 '90 '91 '92

YA '91 YA '91

Interpretive Programs $52,794Museum 36,545

Free Publications 12,806 $275,000

Interns 43,665250,000

Research Library 4,618Audio-Visual Equipment 1,008 200,000

Research & Archeology 6.569175,000

Resource Projects 220Information Assistance 35,290 150,000

Administration Support 30,433125,000

Miscellaneous 2,203100 .000

Total for 1991

$266,151

PAGE TWELVE. FM ANNUAL REVIEW

YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION . SPRING 1 993

Statement of Activity 1991

Support and Revenues

Operating Fund

Publication Sales

$1,568 .131

Seminars

102,193

Membership

189,878

Gifts

Investment Income

18,246

Theater

98,851

Auxiliary Activities

136,200

Film Program

3,570

Restricted Funds

126,952

63,482

Plant Fund Total

$1,568,131

102,193

189,878

126,952

18,246

98,851

199,682

3,570

Total Revenues

$2,117,069 $190,434 $2,307,503

Expenses

Support Services:

Management & General

277,213 10,699 287912

Membership

108,653 1,130 109,783

Cost Ot Sales c.t? Auxiliary Activities :

11,208 1,128,205Publication Costs

1,116,997

Seminars

83,930 441 84,371

Theater

80,427 122 80,549

Auxiliary Activites

108,869 315 109,184

Film Program

1,938 1,938

Total Expenses

$1,778,027 $23,915 $1,801,942

Excess of Revenues

$ 339,042 $190,434 ($23,915) $ 505,561Over Expenses

.t O l / Donations to NP.S:

$266,151Miscellaneous

Administrative Support

InformationAssistance

Resource Projects

Research & Archeology

Audio Visual Equipment

Research Library

Interns

iSV 1TTE ASSOC :ATtON . SPRING 1992

:ANNUAL REVIEW 'AGE THIRTEEN

Balance Sheet, 1991

For year ending December 31, 1991

Operatirz

huh/ Restricted Funds Plant Fund Total

Cash $200,818 $106,684 $307,502

Accounts Receivable 46,348 46,348

Prepaid Expense 7110 7110

Inventories at Cost 576,088 5,605 581,693

Equipment 169,562 169,562

Accumulated Depreciation ( 77467) ( 77,467)

Total Assets $830,364 $112,289 $ 92,095 $1,034 .748

Liabilities

Accounts Payable $66 .908 $66,908

Loan Payable 2,000 2,000

Accrued Taxes 5,732 5,732

Vacation Payable 20,182 20,182

Deferred Restricted Gifts 112,289 112,289

Royalty Payable 8,226 8,226

Total Liabilities $103,048 $112,289 $215,337

Fund Balances

Invested in Equipment $92,095 $92,095

Unappropriated $727,316 727316

Total Fund Balances $727,316 $92,095 $819,411

Total Liabilities and $830,364 $112,289 $92,095 $1,034,748Fund Balances

.Board of TivsteesferrateRobert s . RItoinman

. iiliamAJsurBeverlyBarrieBarbara DeWittCarlo S Fowler

FWvard C HardyRich sard ReitnauerDavid RobertsonAi,cc Scluxider

Thomas I ShepardJean .'Watt

Phvilis WeberDaniel Woih.:s

Leonard 'N Mel< e N S kGJorar ?1;dan

Mir-bad V Finley; "STS Rec>rscneaubeis€tery V Laphnui, i1 officio

flvira Nishkiar, To a ] oo

Richard C Ctttrr,F_;

PAGE FOURTEEN

YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION . SPRING 1992

Concession Plan Update

The Concessions Services Plan(CSP) for Yosemite is moving to-ward a final version following aseries of public hearings on theplan's first draft and the submis-sion of some 4,000 letters com-menting on its substance.Hearings were held in Fresno, SanFrancisco, and Yosemite Valley atthe end of January. Comments onthe draft plan were acceptedthrough February 28.

There was far from universalacceptance of the plan' s proposalsat the three hearings . Contro-versy surrounded the plan's callto remove the Yosemite Valley icerink, to increase park restaurantservices, and to build year-roundmotel units to replace tent cabins.Other criticisms of the plan werethat it failed to include relatedtransportation and housing stud-ies, and that it did not address theissue of limiting visitation.

There have also been sub-sequent allegations that the CSPviolates federal guidelines underthe National Environmental Pol-icy Act for environmental review.These charges, leveled by theSierra Club Legal Defense Fund,have been denied by NationalPark Service officials . `It is ouropinion that the plan complieswith NEPA," said Acting Park Su-perintendent Kevin Cann.

National Park Service person-nel working on the plan havebeen analyzing both writtencomments and those from thepublic hearings and makingchanges to the CSP accordingly.At the end of March, WesternRegion Concessions SpecialistSteve Crabtree reported that hewas headed for Washington, D .C.with several pages of proposedamendments to the plan for theconsideration of the NPS Direc-tor. A revised, " final " draft of theConcession Services Plan isexpected sometime in June.

In the meantime, approxi-mately 80 firms have written tothe NPS expressing their interestin the next concessions contractat Yosemite . Those companieshave been asked to submit"Phase One" bids to the Park

Service by June 8th . The bidswill essentially set forth the qual-ifications of each bidder to oper-ate a concession of this size,detailing the experience of amanagement team, etc . Withintwo to three weeks after that,the NPS will select those firms ithas determined to be eligible for"Phase Two" when the actualdetails and monetary figures ofthe hid will be covered.

While the bidding process getsunderway, there continue to bequestions asked about the eco-nomic feasibility of the conces-sion operation in light of themajor debt that will be assumedby the next concessioner and ofthe expectations of the NPS forsizable contributions by the con-cessioner to capital improvementaccounts to help implement theGeneral Management Plan.

With the release of the finalConcession Services Plan and anarrowing of the pool of poten-tial concession bidders, manyof these uncertainties will be re-solved . One thing is certain atthis time, however. Decisionsreached through this processwill have critical, long-lasting im-pact on Yosemite National Park.Both the level of concession oper-ation and the entity selected torun it will influence greatly thepark experience that visitorswill have and the health of thevery resources which attractthose visitors .

Sightings ofMountain LionsIncreasingGene Rose

Sightings of mountain lionsare becoming more frequent inYosemite National Park . the Na-tional Park Service said, confirm-ing that three adult lions wereseen at the end of March near theBig Oak Flat entrance station.

In addition to those sightings,two more lions were seen earlierin the month in the Wawona sec-tion of the park . On March 2, apark ranger saw an adult moun-tain lion watching a resident whowas barbecuing steaks, unawareof the lion's presence.

Steve Thompson, a Yosemitewildlife biologist, said the parkservice is getting more reportsof mountain lion activity withinthe park.

While no one has been attackedor stalked, he said the mountainlion population appears to beincreasing.

" We are evaluating the situa-tion ; we are discussing mountainlions attacking people . . . butwhat we need to remember isthat the mountain lion is not thevillian ;' he said.

Wawona Ranger Pat Hattawaysaid there have been several otherlion incidents over the past twoyears in the southern seciton ofYosemite.

During the 1990 A-rock fire, a

fire crew spotted a mother lionand two cubs on the Glacier PointRoad . Another sighting of a loneadult was made in the same arealast year.

In another incident, a lionstrolled through the busy Wa-wona campground last summer,apparently unconcerned aboutthe visitors who trailed behind,taking pictures . Also last year, amountain lion killed a coyotenear the south entrance stationwhile two foreign visitorswatched, Hattaway said.

Bob Brueggeman, wildlife biol-ogist with the California Depart-ment of Fish and Game, said thatsince 1986 there have been fourmountain lion attacks on humansin the state, with one fatality.

The movement of people intothe foothills and other rmountainlion habitat also has increased thenumber of attacks on householdpets and farm animals.

Mountain lions are tawny-colored cats that can grow upto 5 feet long with a 30-inch tailand weigh up to 165 pounds.

Much of the increase in themountain lion population is at-tributed to bans and moratoriumson hunting in many westernstates . In 1990 California votersapproved Proposition 117 whichbans mountain lion hunting.

Gene Rose has lout; reported onYosemite for the Fresno Bee . Thisarticle originally appeared in thatpaper and is r'epr'inted with per-mission of- the author

PAGE FIFTEEN':'OSEMiTE ASSOCIATION . SPRJNG 1992

YA Honored with9 Publishing Awards

At the recent National ParkService Cooperating AssociationPublications Competition ban-quet in San Antonio . the Yosem-ite Association was the bigwinner with a total of nineawards including the highest

CorrectionA photograph which accompa-nied the article about gifts to theYosemite Museum in the summerissue of Yosemite was improperlycredited . The photograph ofDonald Stillman donating his fa-ther 's baskets was taken by Vir-ginia Adams Stillman . We regretthe error and any confusion itmay have caused .

Lion for the Director' s Award.The judges believed that TheComplete Guidebook to YosemiteNational Park demonstrated over-all excellence in writing, designand production . The book waswritten by Y.A . President SteveMedley. designed by Jon Good-child of the San Rafael DesignGroup, edited by Mary Vocelka,

July 5-11, 1992 : Member WorkTrip, Yosemite ValleyJuly 19-25, 1992 : Member WorkTrip, Yosemite ValleyAugust 2-8, 1992 : MemberWork Trip, Yosemite ValleyAugust 23-29, 1992 : MemberWork Trip . Tuolumne MeadowsSeptember 12, 1992 : AnnualMeeting, WawonaMarch 27, 1993 : Spring Forum,Yosemite Valley

and printed by Overseas Printingof San Francisco.

Judges for the competition in-cluded Howard Paine, former ArtDirector, National GeographicMagazine, Frances Smyth, Editor-in-Chief . National Gallery of Art,John Michael, printer and typog-rapher, Acorn Press . Dr. DavidSparks, University of Maryland,John Burwell, professional pho-tographer, and Bill Perry, freelancewriter/naturalist.

209-379-2317If you 're planning a trip to Yo-semite and have questions, giveour Members ' phone line a callbetween the hours of 9 :00 amand 4:30 pm Monday throughFriday. We don' t make reser-vations . but we can give the ap-propriate phone numbers andusually lots of helpful advice .

Take a YosemiteSeminar!Do you still have the seminarcatalog mailed in December' Re-member, it 's the only one you 'llget this year. Give us a call and letus sign you up for one of these:

Geology of Yosemite Valley,July 1--12 ; The Life of the Tuol-umne Rivet; August 21–23;Mountain Wildflowers for theRelaxed Botanist, July 13–17;Starry Skies Over Yosemite, July19–23 ; Return of the BighornSheep, August 7–9 ; TeachingAbout California Indians, July16–19 ; Miwok Indians as AncientCultivators, August 16–18.

Backpack trips still open:Beginning Backpack for Women,July 3–5 : Yosemite Creek Back-pack, June 19–21 ; Yosemite ValleyNorth Rim Backpack . June 11–15 ;.The Tuolumne Meadows FamilyCamp is scheduled for August14–16, and includes meals andcampsite.

Photography and artcourses : Photographing Tuol-umne Wildflowers, July 25–26;Finding & Photographing Wild-life . June 6–8 ; Yosemite ByWatercolor, July 16–20 ; LiteraryNaturalist Workshop, August3–6.

If you don' t have your catalog,give us a call at 209/379-2321,and we ' ll mail you another.

Yosemite NeedsOur Help!YA Member Work Trips willprovide much-needed crews thissummer for NPS revegetationprojects in the park . Work tripparticipants camp together inspecial sites, have their mealsprovided, and have good timeswhile restoring Yosemite 's na-tural beauty. There are someopenings in the Valley trips:July 5-11 and August 2-8 . CallHolly for more information.209-379-2317

honor, the Director' s Award, forThe Complete C1/0e/took to Yosemite.\rational Park . Recognized withFirst Place prizes were Tradition tC'Innovation – A Basket history of theIndians of the Yosemite-el lo/to LakeArea (Scholarly Book category),The illap LC' Guide to Yosemite Val-ley (joint Venture category), andThe Complete Guidebook (GeneralPark Guide category).

Winning Honorable MentionAwards were Yosemite : A Journaltor Members of the Yosemite Associa-tion, A Catalog; of Publications fromthe Yosemite Association, SierraNevada Field Cards, the YosemiteHeld Seminars Catalog, and Yosem-ite : A Landscape of Life . Of the tenentries submitted by YA, eightreceived prizes.

After the judges decided onwinners in 16 different categoriesfrom among 150 entries, theychose one outstanding publica-

Association Dates

PAGE SIXTEEN

YOSEMITE PiSSOCIATION . SPRING 1992

New Backcountry Group Limits

In an effort to improve thewilderness experience in areas ofthe Central and Southern SierraNevada Mountain Range in Cali-fornia, the U .S . Forest Serviceand the National Park Service an-nounced new group and stocklimits for wilderness areas in theInyo, Sequoia . Sierra, Toiyabe,and Stanislaus National Forests,and Sequoia/Icings Canyon andYosemite National Parks . Thenew limits culminate a two yearstudy of appropriate party sizeand stock use within the 16wilderness areas administeredby these agencies.

Effective January 1, 1992, astandardized maximum groupsize of 15 people/25 head ofstock was instituted in thesewilderness areas . This has beendone to improve social condi-tions, provide consistency in ad-ministration of wilderness areasby different agencies . and to al-low users to be able to plan amulti-area wilderness trip underthis policy. In the past, the maxi-mum group size allowed on dif-ferent forests and parks rangedfrom eight to 25 people, and cre-ated confusion when the groupcrossed a forest and/or parkboundary. The group sizes arethe numbers preferred by the

majority of those using thesewilderness areas.

As of January 1, 1992, the For-ests and Parks have designated amaximum group size of 15 peo-ple, limited the use of campsitesto a maximum of 15 people, anddesignated a maximum numberof pack and saddle stock of 25head per party. Areas withouttrails in Yosemite and the Saw-tooth Ridge Area will not be af-fected by this change.

The 1992 season will be a" phase-in " period, allowing usersthe opportunity to adjust plans,procedures, or client bookings tomeet the new size limitations.New maximum party size limitswill be waived up to pre-existingIevels If required however, it ishoped that groups will attemptto comply with the new partysize this year. In 1993, exceptionsto the 15 people/25 stock limitwill be granted for specialcircumstances involving publicpurpose only by the respectiveForest Supervisor or Park Super-intendent.

For assistance in coordinatingthe new limits in respect to tripplanning, please contact yournearby National Forest or Na-tional Park headquarters .

The First Yosemite

Fund Award

Albert Gordon was recognizedas the first recipient of TheYosemite Fund Award in a cere-mony on Saturdayy. March 7 forhis unequaled generosity in shar-ing his knowledge of Yosemitehistory with others and for hisefforts to preserve the historicalrecord of Wawona.

Gordon has worked withthe historical society to free Wa-wona's pioneer cemetery of ob-trusive concrete slabs, and hefought successfully to keep thehistoric rail fence and apple trees

planted by the Washburn familyHe is not only helping to pre-serve Yosemite 's history, but isan important part of it.

He was born in Wawona onApril 26, 1918 . As a young boy,Gordon patrolled the WashburnDitch to break up ice and cleardebris from the channel whichran from Stella Lake to a powerhouse . producing Wawona 's elec-tricity. In winter he helped cut iceat Stella Lake for cold storage.Gordon shucked corn for the Wa-wona Hotel, drove the local milkrun . fired the hotel's boiler, ranthe Shell Station at Wawona,worked on the Blister Rust pro-gram and was a crew boss forconstruction of the YosemiteLodge . He was a volunteer fire-man and chief for 14 years andpresident of the Water Associa-tion for two years . Today, after

his daily mail run from Wawonato Yosemite Valley, Gordon's timebelongs to anyone who needs hishelp and knowledge of the park.

The Yosemite Fund Councilof Directors presents the first Yo-semite Fund Award to AlbertGordon for his generosity ofspirit and abiding love for hiscommunity and Yosemite . Theyrecognize Al Gordon as an un-sung keeper of Yosemite's cul-tural heritage.

The MysteryContinuer/ Pont page h

8 . Maria Lebrado was one of the 72Indians captured along the trail by theMariposa Battalion on March 27, 1851.during the volunteers' first invasion ofYosemite Valley. She later married afellow Yosemite Indian by whom shehad a daughter and four sons . Afterher husband's early death, Maria set-tled at Hite 's Cove, about ten milessouthwest of Yosemite Valley. whereothers of her people lived . She latermarried Lebrado Yderte, a Mexicanminer who worked for John Hite.The couple had four daughters . Sheand Yderte homesteaded acreage andbuilt a small cabin near Bear Creeknortheast of Mariposa where Mariaresided for the rest of her long life.

In 1928 she gave Carl Russell theinterview that appears in this text.Some historical writers have seizedupon her story as proof that Tenieyawas not killed in Yosemite Valley inretaliation for horse stealing by hisbraves as Bunnell describes . Thereare, however. several reasons to beskeptical about Maria's account . Forone thing . she says that Tenieya waskilled some months l'erore the attackon the miners in May, 1852 . All otherreports agree that the Chief was notmurdered until the late summer orfall of 1853.

In addition, she says that IndianTom Hutchings told the other Yosem-ite Indians about Tenieya's death atMono Lake after a gambling quarrel,which he witnessed . Tom then burnedthe bodies of the five dead Yosemitesand carried their remains hack to theSouth Fork where a great two-week"cry" was held . If true, this wouldhave meant that Indian Tom crossedthe Sierra on foot near the dead ofwinter — a practical impossibility.Moreover, one cannot help wonder-

oil page la

YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION . SPRING 191;2

PAGE SEVENTEEN

C .ALI FORNIr15

Eastern Sierra T A L o GA VISITOR'S GUIDE

25370The ;Vainly/list'sPath — Bt roil*

the Study o f Nature by CathyJohnson. A handbook for dis-covering, enjoying and mak-ing the outdoor world morefamiliar, this is a unique workby a well-known artist andnaturalist . She bridges art and

nature through the use ofa notebook, a pencil andone 's own powers ofobservation . The bookstresses the importanceof keeping a field jour-nal and the necessity ofusing all of one 's sensesin the study of nature.220 pages, illustrated.A Special Selection ofthe Nature Book Soci-ety.

Paper, S14.95.

Michael J . Caduto and Joseph 13

Foreword by Vine neluda, by

Illustrations by Iobn Kahianhes Fadden

21915Keeper, of theAnimals – Native

Annricau Stories,znd WildlifeActivities for Children byMichael J . Caduto and JosephBruchac . This companion vol-ume to the hugely successfulKeeper. of- the Earth is a gather-ing of carefully selected Na-tive American animal storiesand related activities for kids.The twenty-four stories de-monstrate the power and im-portance of animals in NativeAmerican traditions, and pro-mote responsible stewardshiptoward all animals on Earth.The activities have been ex-tensively field-tested and in-volve children in creativearts, theater, reading, writing,science . etc . For ages fivethrough twelve . The 266 pagebook is profusely illustratedin black and white . FulcrumPress . 1991.

Hardbound, 519.95.

California's East-ern Sierra -- A

1'isita's (_;aide by Sue Irwin.This is a new guide to therenowned landmarks and nat-ural wonders of the EasternSierra including Mount Whit-ney the Mammoth area, Dev-ils Postpile, Mono Lake andmore . A handsomely designedfull-color book, it offers cover-age of ghost towns, geologicsites, historic places, and mu-seums. There 's history naturalhistory. 165 color photos, and7 color maps . For lovers of theEastern Sierra this volumeshould prove to be quite help-ful with explorations in thisextraordinary region . 144pages . Cachuma Press, 1991.

Paper, $15 .95.

1603

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26025 Oafs of C ik,tia by Pavlik,

Muick, Johnson and Popper.This book celebrates theunique place of oaks in Cali-fornia's natural and culturalheritage . Combining a read-able text with many colorphotographs, it presents thenatural history of the state'snative oaks and oak land-scapes . Chapter topics includeindividual species, ecology,oaks in history, and nativeuses of oaks . There's also atravel guide to 110 of the bestplaces to view native oaksthroughout the state . The 184page volume features colorplates, maps . tables andcharts . Cachuma Press, 1992.

Paper, $19.95 .

PAGE ElM ITEEN

YOSEMITE ASSOC .̀ATION . SPICING 1992

29160Rto;alPa sby Michael Frome. The prem-ise of this new hook by vet-eran park commentator Fromeis that due to overcrowdingand commercialization, ournational park officials make

managing visitors a higherpriority than protecting nat-ural systems . He contendsthat the NPS has been trans-formed from a professional toa political agency, and that itis betraying its key mandates.On the occasion of the 75thanniversary of the NationalPark Service, the book givesus plenty to consider aboutthe future of the agency andthe prospects for our treas-

---------------------------------Credit card orders call:

Order Form (209) 379 2648 Monday- Friday. 8:30am - 4:30pm

Iuzm#

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ured national parks . 291 pages.University of Arizona Press,1992.

Paper, $19.95

14475°ur tytnnoncrlPaiL by Ansel

Adams . This new book pre-sents legendary photographsof over forty national park andmonuments in the UnitedStates, along with a samplingof Adams ' impassioned letters,speeches . and writings (all outof print or never before pub-lished) . These insightful andcontroversial writings aboutcritical issues facing the parksystem still ring true . Thephotos span six decades andrepresent some of the bestwork of this ardent championof the parks . 127 pages, blackand white photos . Little,Brown, 1992

Paper, $16 .95.

07516I,setni`` ' .,s

-our Patclr. ur Association logo is embroideredon colorful, sturdy fabric forplacement on daypacks, shirts.blue jeans . jackets . or wherever!The newly designed patch isavailable in three attractive col-ors : dark blue, forest green . andmaroon.

$3 .00 (please specify color)

07800'Bennie LnanrelN. Designed

especially for the Association,our enameled metal pin is awork of art . Each of the 10 dif-ferent glazes is hand placed andseparately fired . The result . fromWilliam Spear Design, is an eye-catching and colorful piece . Themetal enamel pins are relief en-graved in a

x 2" size.$11 .95 .

favorite trail mix! The pouch isdesigned with front snap fasten-ers on the straps . This allowscomfortable positioning on yourbelt — even between beltloops : no need to take your beltoff first . The material is highquality Cordura pack cloth witha waterproof coating on oneside . Beige with the dark brownand white Yosemite Associationpatch . the Pelican Pouch mea-sures 8 x 5x inches.

$11 .95.

07510Y'serttite .~lsse~tto.Mug, . This

distinctive and functional heavyceramic mug feels good withyour hand wrapped around it.Available in two colors (greenand maroon), it's imprinted withour logo and name in black andwhite . Holds 12 ounces of yourfavorite beverage.

$6 .50.

07505li, ,trit :l>< : t -ricer B~rselratll-Sn'le

Cah. After long being out ofstock . our Y.A . caps are availableonce again . The new versionis made of corduroy with anadjustable strap at the hack sothat one size fits all . The cap isadorned with a Y.A . logo patch,and comes in dark blue, forestgreen and maroon colors . Thecap is stylish and comfortable,and wearing it is a good way todemonstrate your support forYosemite.

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0770 PelLattPouch, bY't7dertress Belt Bag. The

Pelican Pouch is not only perfectfor carrying field guides . butalso offers instant access to allthe small items that are usuallyburied in your pack — pocketcamera . lenses, maps, or your

YOSEMITE ASSOCIAI ION . SPRING 1992

New MembersVe would like to welcome to the

Yosemite Association the followingfine persons who became memberswithin the past three months . Yoursupport is greatly appreciated.

Regular MembersDave & Judie Andersen, MiltAndreasen, Jon Michael Aoki,Martha L Ayres . Toni Ayres . RobertaBaker, Patricia S Ballengee, Robert &Tracy Barnes, Stella A Bates, David LBlockus, Anne N Bonnet, Jane Bow-ers, Arlene Brennan, Larry & LindaBrown . Holly Burkett. Rod & KelleyButcher, Harry & Beth Byrne, Calif StLibrary, Julie Carville, Mr & MrsDavid Chan. Ellen Clark . JohnColford . Thomas & Helen Connolly,Leigh Davenport, Jay & Jan Duffus.Cheryl Duhme, Richard Edelstein,Leonard & Bella Feldman, PatriciaFlanders, Robert D Ford, John WFowler, Mary R Gale . Matt Gallagher.Mrs Peter R Gallagher. Pete Garcia.Susan Ghirardelli, John Gibson, PabloGrahiel, Donna & George Griset . Ca-role A Hansen, William G HaywardJr. Robert & Sheryl Hickle, BarbaraHogan, Mr & Mrs Clark Howe, Mau-vareen Jackson, Julie A Jarrett, WarrenJarvis . Gaylyn Johnson . Donna Keck,Joseph Kendrick, Cynthia & JamesKing, T Tachovsky & K Knudson, Sue& Vince Kovacevich, Lloyd & MarthaKramer, Samuel D Krutz, Sivn & GusLarsen, James E Leap . Barbara Lems.A Carrasco & J Lindquist, RonaldLockyer. Gloria Lotten . HarrietManke, Thomas V Martin, DonnaMaykut, Glynn & Barbara McArn,Gail Yee McCaffrey, DeAnn KMcF.wen, Tim Messick, Gary Muerle,Brian Nafziger. Rick Nelson . JacksonNg, Fred & Debbie Nicholson, FrankP Notarianni, Tony & Mary EllenOliveira . Jack Olney. Elizabeth AOlson, S Jefferies & M Olson, LindaA Paquette . Nayana & Arun Parikh.Patricia M Paulsen, Suzanne Peck,George Proper. Ralph Richardson.Don Ridgway, Jason Rubinsteen,Margaret M Rust, Karen Salomon,Donald & Marilyn Sanders . GwenScott, Craig Sears, Sarah Serrano-Hill,Devi Sharp . Robert G Shepler, AllanShields, Suzanne H Shockley, L H Sil-ver, Gary I . Simms . Jan Sinnick . DorisSloan, Anne C Spencer. Ann Stein . CRonis & S Steinman, Craig S Struble,K A Szymanski, Jan & Bill Terry.Marie J Traub, Bob & Vermont Triebig,Jeffrey Trust . Lisa Wainwright . BettyB Webster, Jane RI Nelson Weller,Kenneth & Anna Weller, MatthewWerner, Vikki Whiteside-Brown.Karen A Wiese, Douglas J Wiktor.Ann Witman . Alicia Woodall . SharonWoodward, Mary & Steve Worth.Lilly Yasuhara

Supporting Members

Robert Ackerman, Eric & Jan Archer,Brenda Jane Baker, Barbara Bristow,Donald W Campbell . Howard HChapman . Michael Hannigan . Lynn

& Nancy Higbee . Michael MMcCuiston . Yvonne Medina Mojica.Ralph Nichols, Dr Karen Nissen, CBeckham & R Prater. Mr & MrsRobert Rudzik, William & AnnShockley. Terry Staler, Pete Tracy

Contributing Members

Jim & Sallie Bearden . Pat & JimBurnes, La Merle Fridley, Patricia &Robt Hess, J Gruhe & K Kearney,Robert T Konig, Lewis Norton,Steven C l'eeters, Wm & Carmel Pe-terson . Daniel E & Nancy S Sutton.Ron Sylvester, R Jater & R Taylor.Cary & Wendy stout. Lynne Withey

Centennial Members

Carol Barnes, Mr & Mrs T Galligan.Kate Killebrew, David A Raimondi

Life Members

Mr & Mrs 'I homas W Foote, PatKessler, Martha Miller. David &Yvonne Turner

Participating Life Members

Frederic & Nancy Leykam . RichardYoung Watts

International Members

Mrs Elizabeth Gaubert . United King-dom ; Hiroshi Hosoda, Japan ; Toshiolrino . Japan

Recent Donations to YA

Dr Joan Aldous, Betsy Crowder,Margie Garrison, Robert Meador, Or-ange County Sierra Singles . Mary Ja-nis Robinson, Barton Stebbins

In ,nc,norr of Jon Kinney : Mr & Mrs HL Kinney

In rnernory of john Packel : Family andfriends

hr ;nerwort' o f Stephan Schaie : K WarnerSchaie

In honor of 11' 'a& Suitt? : The Morrison& Foerster Foundation

Friends of theAssociation, 1991The following fine people andcompanies made generous contri-butions of their time . money. orenergy during the past year. Wethank them copiously, and apolo-gize to anyone whose name wasinadvertently omitted.

Jeanne & Michael Adams, BarbaraAllen . Kat Anderson . Pat Anderson.Steve Anderson, Ansel AdamsGallery, Paula Artac . Sue Austin

Mark Bachalder. Gary Baier. TheBob Bangham Family, Craig Bates,Karen Batten, Bob Beck . Kay Beeley.Henry & Eileen Berrey, BarbaraBeroza . Otto Best. Mike and MedsieBolin. Tom Borchardt . Annette Bat-taro-Walklet, Annie Boucher, DarrellBoyers . Marjorie Brooks. PeterBrowning, Ginger Burley. MarthaButterfield

Barbara Cady, California Data Mar-keting, Dan Card, Scott Carpenter,Hugh & Lou Carter, Cedar LodgeRestaurant, I-es Chow, Inka Chris-tiansen, Mary Christiansen . EmilyClarillos, Norman Clayton . Arnold &

Carole Compolongo, Mike Corbett,Terry Craddock . Norma Craig. John DCramer. Julie Cross, Crown Printing

Renee . Dan & Geri Daniels . LisaDapprich . Eston & Ethel Davis,Diane Dawson, Frank Dean, HelenDeCoster, Vivian Deland . RachelDelalorre, Dave DeSante, DumontPrinting

Linda Eade, Larry & Susan Early.Bob Eckart, El Portal Market, Jon Else,Brian Empie . Judy Ernst

Don Fay, Frank Fimbrez, Mike Fin-ley, Fred Fisher, Michael and JudyFisher, Catherine Fittro, Terry & BillFlanders, Roger Folk, Tom Fong . Wal-ter Ford . Dave Forgang, Ed Franzen,Glenn Fredy Patty Frost. Robert Fry,Michael Frye . Henry Fukuhara

Paul Gallez, Bill Germany, DeanGlenn, Jon Goodchild, Hannah Gos-nell, David M Graber, Helen Groene-kamp, Brian Grogan, Karl & SusanGuhm . Jack & Jane Gyer

Susan Haggerty, Lee Haley JoyceHalley, Oneida Hammond . BobHansen, Janet Harvey. Helen & Eve-rett Harwell, Merrie Hinson, N KingHuber. Pat Hunter. Stan Hutchinson

Tom Jackson, Barbara Janusz, DanJensen . Bob Johnson . Jay Johnson.Mark Johnson, Bill Johnston, HankJohnston . Bob Jones

Nan Kaeser, George Keirns, Wil-liam & Mamie Kimes, Kinderlings,Inc , Muriel King, Herb KinneyDorothy Kirkpatrick, Jim Kistergaard,Patrick Kraft . Dennis Kruska, BenKudo . Bill Kumagai

Marla LaCass . Diane Lando. LouisLanzer. Aldaron Laird . Eric Larson.Joe Latuada, Martha J Lee, CarolynLekki, Dana Leonard, William LeRoy.Julie Limberg, Katherine M Littell,Tim Ludington, Marlene Luna,Stephen Lyman

Ron Mackie, Mike Maderious,Dale Maharidge . Marriott's TenayaLodge, Marciano Martinez, JayMather, Liz Maxwell . Dana McBride.Anne McDonald . Bridget McGin.niss.Marilyn & Ray McKeever, LenMcKenzie, Pamela McKernan, SkipMcLaughlin, Pam McMillan, NancyMenken . Peggy Merica . Tim Messick.Tom Meyer, Hank Miller, MarthaMiller, Mono Lake Committee, PeggyMoore . Russell Morimoto, Olga Mor-ris, Mountain Light Books, LaurelMunson-Boyers . Sally Murray

Roderick Nash, Bill Neill, JeffNicholas, Jim Nortman

Oakhurst Frameworks & Gifts.Oly Olson, Kathleen Orr, MichaelOsborne, Michael Osborne Design

Gene Paletta, John Palmer, RobertPavlik, Cherry Payne, Jacqueline Pen-ney, Magda Pergrine, Barbara Phillips,Jack Phinney Richard Pier, Pines Re-sort . John Poimiroo, Tino Pontrelli.Lorraine Potter, Alex Powers

Elizabeth QuinnKristin Ramsey. Anne-Jeanette

Rankin, Paul Rauscher. The Red-woods, Glen Reid, Jack & Gay Rei-neck, Jackie Reis, Horst Remmling,John Reynolds . Mary Janis Robinson.Diane Roedenbeck, Roberta Rogers,Bob Roney, Gene Rose, MartinRosen, Michael Ross, Galen Rowell,Roger Rudolph, William Ryan

Maren Sampson . San RafaelDesign Group, Kaye Santos, ShirleySargent . Jeffrey Schaffer. Scope Enter-prises, Kay Peters Sermon . Carl Shar-

smith, Glen Shellcross . Dean Shenk,Allan Shields, Sierra Designs, SierraPress, Doris Sloan, Jim Snyder, DavidStarkweather. Barton Stebbins, NancySteckley Harry Steed, Carl Stephens,Lee & Connie Stetson, Pat Stoneman,Christopher Swan, Dean Swickard,Dick Sykes

Carole Thickstun . Billy Thomas,Steve Thompson . Barry Thomson,Paul Tidwell . Karen Tomasovic, CaryC Wendy Trout, William Truth, NeilTuthill

John Ulmer. UnisourceValPrint, Linda Vanderwater, Jan

Van Wagtendonk . John Van Winkle.Derrick Vocelka

Sharon Walker, Keith Walklet,Carol Warner. Mary Watt . ChristineWeidler, Robert Weishurg, HowardWeamer. Jim Weinel . B Weiss, MarkWellman, Claudia Welsh, OscarWhittington, Steve Wight, Jack Wilk-erson . Bob & Jinny Wilson, JimLynn Wilson, Billy Wymore

Steve Ybarra . Yosemite Bank . Yo-semite Institute, Yosemite Mountain-Sugar Pine Railroad . Yosemite Park &Curry Co

Karen Zaller, Zellag the Beast

The MysteryContinued from ['age In

dig why Indian Tom . who laterbecame an employee and devotedmember of the James Hutchings fam-ily (he even took the family name).never mentioned this important eventto his close friend Hutchings (Hutch-ings gave Bunnell 's version of Ten-ieya 's death in his 1886 book. In theIlean of the Sterns).

'Ilse most obvious incongruity,however, is Maria 's description ofHite 's Cove : "Hite's Cove mine hadjust been opened . My half-sister Lucylived with Mr. Hite and was alwaysknown as Lucy Hite . Tom Hutchingstook Tenieya ' s hones to Hite 's Covefor burial" Lucy Hite, who was achild about Mania 's age at the time.didn 't take up with John Hite until atleast a decade later. It is a matter ofrecord that Hite found his gold minein 1862 . long after the events Maria isdescribing occurred.

Since Bunnell was living in thelower Merced Canyon when Tenieyawas killed and based his account onreports from the Yosemite Indiansfleeing from the massacre, his story ismore likely correct. There seems tobe no reason to suppose that eitherBunnell or the Indians would invent ashameful end for Tenieya . Perhapsthe old Chief and his band were dri-ven from Mono Lake after a fightover a gambling game, then stole thehorses out of anger rather than greedand were subsequently massacred asBunnell says.

Harts` Johnston, a 20-year residentof Yosemite, is the author of 13books on California histort : Hismost recent works are Yosemite 'sYesterdays and Yosemite ' s Yester-days, Volume II .

Address correction requestedl ont'arzlhtg muf return postage guaranteedYOSEMITE

ASSOCIATION

Yosemite AssociationPost Office Box 230El Portal, CA 95318 .

Non-profit OrganizationU .S. POSTAGE

PAIDYosemite Association

...rnrl. o1..o

Dn1r't. .

i_,,_ . . .i..

Main l.,_ .i. b r : i`

CA 94720

.c A Yosemite Association decal:and

* Special membership gifts asfollows:

Supporting .1 lender:: A selection of8 handsome notecards (with envel-opoes) featuring beautifulphotographs of Yosemite;

Contributing; Member: A Yosemiteassociation mug — new design;

Sustain/ng ;1 ieinber: A copy of theaward-winning video, Yosemite : Thetine of Ilcro'eie

Life lem1 ,er : Matted color photo-graph by Howard Weamer of aYosemite scene ; and

ParticipatingLife .1/ember : AnselAdams Special Edition print . archi-vally mounted .

YosemiteAssociationBoard of Trustees

President

Lennie Roberts .

Steven F Medley

Sales

Patricia Wight.

Secretary/Cashier

Anne Steed

Consultant

Henri' Bcrrcy

William AlsupBeverly BarrickBarbara DeWittEdward C Hardy ,Kathleen OrrRichard ReitnauerDavid RobertsonAnne SchneiderThomas J Shephardj ean WattPhyllis WeberDaniel Wolf usLeonard W McKenzie.

\PS /err. . nt.¢iia

MembershipMichael V Finley.

Coordinators.\T> RcIsticl ti ''

Jeffery C Lapham.cttia e

Hvira Vishkian.Ex cf//cio

Richard C Otter

Gail ['es:

Mary t:bcelka.

SeminarCoordinator

Bookkeeper/Office Manager

Join the YosemiteAssociation

You can help support the workof the Yosemite Association bybecoming a member. Revenuesgenerated by the Association's ac-tivities are used to fund a variety ofNational Park Service programs inYosemite . Not only does the Yo-semite Association publish and sellliterature and maps, it sponsorsfield seminars, the park's Art Activ-ity Center. and the Ostrander LakeSki Hut.

A critical element in the successof the Association is its mem-bership . Individuals and familiesthroughout the country have longsupported the Yosemite Associa-tion through their personal com-mitments . Won't you join us in our

effort to make Yosemite an evenbetter place:

Member Benefits

As a member of the YosemiteAssociation, you will enjoy thefollowing benefits:

,t Yosemite, the Association bul-letin, published on a quarterly ba-sis:

.c A 15°-o discount on all books,maps, posters, calendars and pub-lications stocked for sale by theAssociation;

.c A 10°'o discount on most of thefield seminars conducted by theAssociation in Yosemite NationalPark;

A. The opportunity to participatein the annual Members' Meetingheld in the park each fall . along

Membership dues are tax-with other Association activities :

deductible as provided by law.

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Yosemite Association . edited bt' Stolen P._11er/let : a gue produced I t'Jan Gooddriil/Sctn RafaeMesian Co . . Coptriglu C) 1992Yosemite Association . Sul'ntiscian of

manuscripts photographs . awl otter mate-

rials is welcomed.

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Digitized byYosemite Online Library

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Dan Anderson