March 1934

The Yosemite Museum March 1934 Volume XIII Number 3

THE PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DEPARTMENT AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION

Published Monthly Volume XIII March 1934 Number 3 Around the Year in Yosemite By Harold E. Perry

Each of the four distinct seasons contributes generously toward making Yosemite Valley one of the outstanding spectacular areas of the world. It is becoming increasingly popular as an all-year playground and those who are familiar with its grandeur in only one or two of the seasons do not know Yosemite intimately. It is not enough to enlist in the army of tourists who, during the summer months particularly, make a frantic endeavor to see everything, yet have no time for soul-developing experiences which come from communing with nature. It is difficult to ensnare the sublime in Yosemite while traveling on an over-crowded schedule.

Better fortune attends the efforts of that person who quietly searches out the secluded haunts of beauty and returns again and again to witness her varying moods.

Each day happiness is abroad. The cares of city life are far away for the early morning hiker whose shout of freedom echoes and reechoes in its descent to the valley below. Likewise, weighty and depressing problems, whether personal or national, seem trivial as the camper's goodnight song fades into the realm of happy memories and pleasant dreams.

But to know Yosemite only in summer is hardly enough.

When the shadows lengthen towards autumn and the guests of the valley hasten back to duties of home, school and office, he who is fortunate enough to remain behind discovers a new tone in Yosemite. The bustling activity of summer gives way to silent trails, drowsy waters, flaming dogwood, frosty meadows, and general preparation for bleak days to come. A feeling of peace and harmony enters into his relationship with nature.

To keep company with Yosemite in winter is to experience the thrill of a new world. The majestic walls of the valley, robed in ermine, play hide-and-seek among the clouds and present ever changing scenes of the out of-doors. Throughout to the happy pilgrim who seeks truth.

Yosemite is a busy and gracious hostess in summer. She is assisted on all sides by nature's most favored ambassadors, each of them seeming to be on dress parade. The mammals, the birds, the flowers, the trees are vibrant with messages that thrill the heart of every lover of the out of-doors.

Communion in that dazzling shrine Sunshine, moonlight, twinkling stars, and blustering storms all vie with one another in presenting fantastical portrayals of winter's fairyland.

With the approach of spring, life begins to stir in every shrub and tree and flower. The whole valley becomes attuned to the rhythmical step and the spectacle of creation unfolds anew.

The presence of spring in the Yosemite region is first noted in the Merced river canyon. As the motorist travels along the river after descending Bridalveil Hill, he is greeted by flash after flash of rich orange coloring which fairly steps up the mountain sides. The first view comes to him most unexpectedly and the succeeding displays at each turn in the highway add to the exultation. That California has chosen the poppy (Eschscholtzia californica) for its state flower is the opinion of every tourist through the Merced Canyon in spring.

However, the California poppy is not the only flower to be seen, even though it is the most vivid. Whole banks of baby-blue-eyes (Nemophila menziesii) bring a restful glow to soften the ever changing landscape. As they lift their dainty faces out of the surrounding grass and catch a delicate reflection from the sky above, they herald the arrival of spring in a quiet but impressive manner. As one continues to drive along the river, his attention is drawn repeatedly to vast sheets of white extending up the hillsides. Closer inspection reveals the presence of myriads of tiny pop-corn flowers (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus) their white heads nodding roguishly at every passing breeze, for they too herald spring. Brilliant beacons of red bud (Cercis occidentalis) line the course of the Merced river along the bottom of the canyon while a few of these colorful shrubs, more venturesome than the rest, wander a short distance up the southern slopes and add a touch to enliven the variegated greens about there.

If one is blessed with time and the inclination to wander through these Under Sonoran gardens, he can find many kinds of flowers equally attractive, though less abundant than the ones forming the magnificent carpets seen when spring approaches Yosemite. Her course is plainly marked even to her resting places, for there she spreads her influence to the tops of the surrounding hills. During the time that she lazily wends her way up the canyon, she gathers strength for a strenuous climb through the last rocky gorge into the valley. Upon reaching it, she quietly unfurls banners of dogwood (Cornus nuttalii), azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) and countless other blooms. Her warmth by night dispels the last snows of winter and her magic touch awakens slumbering waterfalls. The winter birds take on new activity as the craving for home making and feathered adventurers from southern warmth begin to arrive at the call of the Sierra. Even the bears shake off the effects of their long winter sleep and prepare for a brisk season of companionship with summer visitors. An army of tourists again takes up the march to its favorite playground, but only those who have witnessed the pageantry of its changing seasons are truly intimate with Yosemite.

Annual Yosemite Bird Census By M. E. BEATTY Assistant Park Naturalist Every year at Christmas time the kingfisher, 2; red-shafted flicker, National Audubon Society sponsors 10; Western pileated woodpecker, a nation-wide bird census. The purpose of this census is to accurately 1; California woodpecker. 48; Mode woodpecker, 3; Northern whites record the fluctuation of bird life headed woodpecker, 1; black during one fixed week at as many phoebe, 1; blue-fronted jay, 54; sites across the country as California jay, 20; short-tailed Possible. Results compiled for a mountain chickadee, 10; plain titmouse, number of years are of great value mouse, 6; slender-billed nuthatch, to the National Audubon Association and others interested in bird creeper 10; pallid wren-tit, 3; dipper, study and bird protection. An unusual 5; dotted canyon wren, 1; rock usual increase in one species might wren, 3; California brown thrasher, indicate some control necessary or 1; Northern varied thrush, 2; hermit great scarcity of another species might thrush, 1; Western bluebird, 13; might point to the need of better Western golden-crowned kinglet, 3; means of bird protection. Through Western ruby-crowned kinglet, 9; the cooperation of local bird societies, interested groups, or individual ornithologists over the country, Sacramento spotted towhee, 40; Sacramento brown towhee, country a rather complete census 30; Thurber junco, 57; Gambel's can be made each year. sparrow, 20; golden-crowned sparrow, 4; fox sparrow, 8; song sparrow. The naturalist staff of Yosemite National Park has contributed to this work during the last three years. The latest census was taken December 20, 1933. with following results: Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California. (Mirror like to El Portal), 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. Clear; seven inches of snow coverage; wind, none; temperature Red-shafted Flicker at start, 30 degrees. at. return 38 degrees. Fifteen miles. four observers. On the previous year's census working singly in four-hour taken December 20, 1932, only 24 shifts. Observers : Park Naturalist species were recorded as El Portal Park Harwell, Assistant Park Naturalists M. E. Beatty and A. E. was not included in the territory Carroll and Museum Assistant Ray covered. The greatest variation Gilmore. noted these three years is in golden-crowned kinglets. This was the A total of 40 species. 449 individuals as follows : Sharp-shinned most numerous species encountered hawk, 1; Western red-tailed hawk, in the census of 1931. This year 4; golden eagle, 1; valley quail, 8 : three individuals were found in mountain quail, 36 : Western helti. the much larger territory covered.

YOSEMITE SCHOOL OF FIELD NATURAL HISTORY

1934 Session Announced By Park Naturalist

Harwell Director of School A seven-week course of intensive nature and laboratory work. Graduates study of the interrelations of nature of this school make use of the nature, of field methods in natural training given here in various ways. history subjects, of means of interpreting trail-side phenomena and of Twenty-four graduates have been study of national park service employed by the National Park methods will be conducted in Yosemite Service as temporary or permanent this year for the tenth consecutive naturalists. Many more have served summer, from June 25 to in local or state parks or in connection August 10. with special camps and expeditions as nature councillors or nature This school conducted by the National Park Service has become school graduates have found that this well known, so that now there is course has enriched science, teaching, quite a competition for the 20 places lecturing and writing. All available each summer. are firmer lovers of nature and better Our principal purpose is to train conservationists. Friends who have students in the methods of interpret-established here prove valuable and ing living nature. The work is lasting. An alumni association almost entirely conducted in the holds reunions in various parts of field, using the Yosemite Museum the country from time to time. as headquarters for necessary lectures. Each class is limited to a group

of 20, 12 men and eight women. A covering five life zones, offers a rich minimum of three years of college field for such a course. The class work or its equivalent is required will camp a week on the edge of and preference is given those majoring in natural sciences. Special our research reserve area to carry consideration is given to those applicants whose interests offer the on careful surveys of the flora and greatest contribution in the various fauna of certain specified localities. fields of nature education. Ten days of the course will be occupied by a pack trip for collecting and research in the remote ing and research in the remote

STAFF

northern sections of the park. Student participation in the organizing The regular naturalist staff of and carrying out of such field studies Yosemite National Park will be assisted by a number of outstanding and trips as these offers a training of very practical benefit. scientists during the session. Dr. The field school students organize Harold C. Bryant, assistant director and conduct evening campfires of the National Park Service, in charge of the branch of education each week, to which visitors to the and research, will work several days with the group. Joseph Dixon valley are invited. They are given field naturalist, N. P. S., will direct opportunities to participate in the a survey in our wilderness research regular naturalist program of lecturing and guiding and are invited reserve. Dr. Ernst Cloos of Johns. to prepare NATURE NOTES or articles Hopkins, Dr. Elliott Blackwelder of for scientific journals. The entire Hopkins, Dr. Elliott Blackwelder of course is practical, rich in subject Stanford and Dr. Ralph Chaney of matter, stimulating and profitable. the University of California will instruct in geology.

NO TUITION FEE

No tuition fee is charged the students of this National Park Service school. A special camp site is reserved for the group, where personal tents may be put up or equipment rented at nominal rates. Students do their own cooking, usually in groups. An equipment fee of $5 is charged each student for use of materials furnished.

SCOPE OF THE WORK

Though specific instruction is offered in geology, botany, forestry, ornithology, mammalogy and entomology, it is our purpose to supplement university training in these branches by giving special emphasis to the interrelations of living things as they are found in nature. The Yosemite National Park, comprising 1179 square miles of the western slope of the Sierra, embracing five life zones, offers a rich field for such a course.

Pioneer Shrines in Yosemite By GRACE NICHOLS Field School, 1933 No sojourn in Yosemite can ever cabin, which he planned and built be complete without visiting some for himself, was of unique design. of the scenes made famous by the The best description of it that we men who pioneered in the valley - have was written by Muir in a letter Muir, Hutchings, Lamon, Clark, LeConte to one of his friends. and others who were associated with them. The West is as yet He says: 'This cabin, I think was too young and new for most of us the handsomest building in the valley to have any adequate conception of and the most useful and convenient the debt we owe to pioneers such for a mountaineer. From Yosemite as these who devoted their best creek, where it first gets its beaten years unselfishly to discovering the waters at the foot of the incomparable beauties of the Yosemite region and making them accessible for the pleasure and enjoyment of all who should come after them.

A small ditch [was dug and] brought a stream into the cabin, coming at one end and flowing out the other with just enough current to force it to sing and warble in low, sweet tones, delightful at night while I lay in bed. The floor was a pavement of rough slabs nicely joined and bedded in the ground. In the spring, the common brake ferns pushed up between the joints of the slabs, two of which, growing slender like climbing ferns on account of the subdued light, I trained on threads up the sides and over my window in front of my writing desk. In an ornamental arch. Dainty tree frogs occasionally climbed the ferns and made fine music in the night, and common frogs came in with the stream and helped to sing with the Hylas and the warbling, tinkling water.

My bed was suspended from the rafters and lined with [text unclear], altogether forming a delightful home in the

1. JOHN MUIR

Best known among this group is John Muir, and justly so, for without his ardent championship of the project, it is extremely doubtful that the measure to create a national park from the Yosemite country would ever have been successfully carried out. His first association with the valley was in connection with a sawmill which was erected by J. M. Hutchings near Yosemite Falls in 1869 for the purpose of taking into lumber a number of pines, some of which had been uprooted in a severe storm some years previous. He ran the sawmill for some months, living in a cabin which faced the lower Yosemite Fall.

Charming valley at a cost of only $13 or $14, and I was loth to leave it."

The site of this cabin is now marked by a bronze plaque on a glacial boulder.

The valley in the summer of 1865 guided by two Indians. There they spent "five glorious days in luxurious scenic banqueting." Returning to the valley in 1864 with his family, Hutchings purchased a claim and a frame building which was subsequently used.

During the spring and summer of 1872, after he had left his employment in the sawmill, Muir constructed a second cabin. It was subsequently known as Hutchings House, where, for the succeeding decade, he presided as "host" to a large proportion of the people who visited the valley.

Speaking of his early experiences in his book, "In the Heart of the Sierra," Hutchings says: "Accommodations in the valley were found to be very limited, as they consisted of a two-story frame building 60 by 20 feet, having two rooms, an upper and a lower. Its doors and windows were made of cotton cloth. Verily, a primitive beginning for novices in hotel keeping. When our first guests arrived the ladies were domiciled upstairs and the gentlemen down. This arrangement we felt not only had its inconveniences, but was contrary to law, inasmuch as it sometimes separated man and wife." However, he relates further: "so novel a disposition of visitors only became a subject for mirthfulness--never of censure.

Not being satisfied with these primitive arrangements, Hutchings was determined to improve them, but the nearest sawmill was 50 miles distant over almost inaccessible mountain trails and the task of attempting to bring in the necessary lumber on pack animals seemed highly impractical. Accordingly, bolts of muslin were procured and were used in partitioning off rooms. "Guests in this way were provided with apartments, it is true; but unless their lights were carefully disposed, there were also added unintentional shadow-pictures which, contributory of mirthfulness in a maximum degree, gave only a minimum degree of privacy in return.'

2. J. M. HUTCHINGS

To J. M. Hutchings belongs the distinction of having organized the first tourist party to visit Yosemite. This party, which consisted of Hutchings, Walter Millard, Thomas Ayres and Alexander Stair, entered

They came West by way of Panama, necessitating a much longer period of time than is now the case. The first shipment of berry plants was completely dried up when it arrived in the valley. A second shipment was ordered and the company, apparently determined not to have the same misfortune occur again, added so much moisture to the packing that the plants disintegrated en route. A third shipment was burnt up from too close proximity to the ship's funnel during the voyage, but nothing daunted, Hutchings sent in his order for the fourth time and received in return some small rootlets at a total cost of $4. With careful culture these increased to thousands of plants, many of which produced nearly 200 berries each.

Subsequently the sawmill which Muir ran was established and lumber was provided for necessary improvements in the building.

Finding the winter climate cool and severe on the south side of the valley, the Hutchings family erected a cabin in a "dark, rich setting of oaks" near Yosemite Falls, where they enjoyed sunshine on winter days from 9 a. m. until 3:30 p. m. "To connect the high ground near the hotel on the south side of the valley with that at the cabin on the north side, and at the same time make the Yosemite Falls and other attractions accessible to visitors, a causeway was thrown up across the intervening meadow, and an avenue of elms planted on either side, that were grown from seed sent us by the Reverend Joseph Worcester of Waltham, Mass. But few of these now survive as during my absence in the mountains on one occasion, some thoughtless young men cut them down for walking canes and carried them off. I hope when they see this they will feel their cheeks warm with shame."

The spring succeeding the completion of the cabin an orchard was planted and later a strawberry patch. Many of the trees were grown "from seeds of choice apples that had been sent us, the plants from which were afterward budded or grafted. In this way a mighty orchard of about 150 trees came into being and now bears many tons annually of assorted fruits." The berry patch, however, offered greater difficulties. After perusing numerous plant catalogs the desired varieties of plants were selected and ordered, but due to the fact that all mail those days

(Continued Next Month)

SPECIAL NOTICE

The Yosemite Museum is planning to observe the birthday of JOHN MUIR on April 21. A special program for that day is being arranged. We are now endeavoring to set up a special John Muir exhibit in the History Room. Anyone possessing, or knowing of, any relics or documents pertaining to Muir that may be secured for this special exhibit is requested to communicate with C. A. Harwell, Park Naturalist, Yosemite National Park, California.

Digitized by Yosemite Online Library Dan Anderson