July 1952

YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES VOLUME XXXI • NUMBER 7 JULY 1952

Yosemite Falls from near Base of Lower Fall —Ansel Adams

Joseph S. Dixon Cover Photo: Yosemite Falls from near Base of Lower Fall. By Ansel Adams from "My Camera in Yosemite Valley." Reproduction by kind permission of Virginia Adams and Houghton Mifflin Company.

THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DIVISION AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION, INC.

P. Russell, Superintendent D. E. McHenry, Park Naturalist H. Hubbard, Assoc. Park Naturalist N. B. Herkenham, Asst. Park Naturalist W. W. Bryant, Junior Park Naturalist

VOL. XXXI JULY, 1952 NO. 7 DEATH OF JOSEPH S. DIXON

By Carl P. Russell, Park Superintendent On June 23, 1952, Joe Dixon passed away at his home near Escondido, California.

For many years he had been active in national parks wildlife research. There was a research unit set up with California. Since the early years of the support of Mr. Wright's personal interpretive work in national parks, funds—the forerunner of the wildlife Dr. Dixon made many and varied branch of the National Park Service. contributions to the success of the This private undertaking launched program. He is properly identified by Mr. Wright resulted in Mr. Dixon's a pioneer in park naturalist work, withdrawal from the Museum of especially as a research specialist. Vertebrate Zoology and his subsequent alignment with National Park Vertebrate Zoology, University of Service programs. When Mr. Wright California, he assisted in the field moved his administrative and research offices from Berkeley, California, to the National Park Service work and the compilation of that offices in Washington, D.C., Mr. classic work, Animal Life in the Yosemite, 1924, which was produced by his chief, Dr. Joseph Grinnell, and by Tracy I. Storer. Joe also was a the field and in the regional office. author with Dr. Grinnell and Jean M. Linsdale in the writing of a similar volume on the zoology of summer for 9 years he endeared Lassen Volcanic National Park, himself to successive classes of students as well as to his co-workers in Invertebrate Natural History of the Yosemite National Park organization. He was a field man by choice Northern California through the Lassen Peak Region, 1930, and with Grinnell and Linsdale he produced and he had the gift of interesting the important Fur-Bearing Mammals of others in field work. Probably this California. His contribution to the leadership was as important as any zoological literature of many west of the splendid work done by Mr. national parks and national Dixon. He continued to serve as field monuments was quite voluminous. biologist until his retirement in In 1928 George Wright, who had served as Yosemite's assistant park naturalist for a number of years, employed Mr. Dixon as a wildlife technician within the newly organized unit. He continued this work until his retirement in March 1946. Since that time he has

enjoyed his ranch home in Escondido this same trip, a Harvard University where a wonderful variety of avocados expedition, that he found a variety of ptarmigan which was guaranteed production in every month of the year. named for him. Joe was 68 years old. His first The National Park Service owns a childhood home was near Galena, remarkable series of negatives made Cherokee County, Kansas. With his by Mr. Dixon, who was an expert in parents he came to California in 1888 animal photography. Some of the and the family settled upon the lands best pictures were published in the near Escondido which Joe again government publication, Wildlife called home in his later years. He Portfolio of the Western National Parks was a graduate of Escondido High While working in Yosemite he gave School and did some work of college particular attention to the life history grade at Throop Polytechnic Institute of the deer. In 1934 he published in Pasadena. It was at Throop that he informative work, "A Study of the met Dr. Joseph Grinnell and there Life History and Food Habits of Mule began the friendship and associa- Deer in California." This work appeared in tion which later took him to the California Fish and Game, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology as a 1934, pages 181-282 and 315-354. staff member with Dr. Grinnell, its Two sons and two daughters by director. his deceased wife survive him. His One of the highlights in Joe's career widow, Ethel Bernice Dixon, resides was his discovery of the first rein the Escondido home. Joe 's burial corded nest of the surf bird at Mount took place in Oak Hill Cemetery on McKinley National Park. It was on June 26.

PARKER AND HUBBARD CHANGE POSITIONS

By Donald E. McHenry, Park Naturalist With the last handclasp of their interpretive work at Crater Lake Yosemite friends at the close of the National Park. farewell party given for Associate Harry Parker, a member of the Park Naturalist and Mrs. Harry 1936 class of the Yosemite Field Parker at the Rangers' Club on July School, enters upon his new responsibilities with a wealth of training in 3, a 12-year tour of duty of productive various fields, notably in zoology and and dedicated work with the museology. He has grown in stature naturalist division here came to an interpreter of natural history, close. Packing their gift of a beautiful first during his experiences in water-color painting by Gunnar Olympic National Park, where he Widforss of Yosemite's Castle Crags, was a ranger doing part-time naturalist work, and then during his years Harry and his family left the following with the Yosemite naturalist staff before morning for his new assignment as park naturalist in charge of the 'Yosemite Nature Notes, 20(1):4-5, January 1941; 21(12):100, December 1942; 25(8):104, August 1946.

ing in November 1940. For much of the latter period he served as business manager of the Yosemite Natural History Association, Inc., and of Yosemite Field School. His exercise of good business acumen is reflected in the sound financial status of both organizations. His ability as an instructor in the Yosemite Field School has been recognized by its students, many of whom are now working on a seasonal basis either with the National Park Service or for the California state park system. Harry has had a valuable companion in his wife Katherine, known as Kit to her many friends in the park. A Field Schooler herself, of the class of 1941, she was a graduate of Radcliffe and a participant in a Wellesley geological field trip for the study of glaciers. Her training and skill as a cartographer have resulted in a number of outstanding maps and charts which she has drawn from time to time for use in regular and special issues of Yosemite Nature Notes. The best wishes of their Yosemite friends for all possible success Douglass H. Hubbard Harry C. Parker in their new functions go with the Parkers and their two charming children, Harry Mac and Betsy. As the Parkers leave us we feel fortunate in welcoming the Hubbards to Yosemite to take over the duties of associate park naturalist. Douglass H. Hubbard, more familiarly known as Doug, comes from Hawaii National Park where he has been in. charge of his own naturalist program since 1948. He entered on duty as assistant park naturalist in Hawaii in 1947 by advancing from the position of ranger at Millerton Lake National Recreation Area. He had served a short tour of duty in 1941 as ranger naturalist at Sequoia National Park. It was at this latter place that Doug met the lodge program director, Fran Christianson, whom he married. They now have a delightful family of youngsters made up of Douglass Jr., age 7, Janet, age 5, and Joan, age 3, all of whom have already found a place in the Yosemite community. Doug Hubbard is also a Field Schooler, a member of the 1940 class.

In 1937 he was employed here as in Hawaii where he has had a a museum assistant and is therefore taking part in the growth and development no stranger to Yosemite. He is a of one of the outstanding museums in the National Park Service. native Californian, having lived in He was also responsible for a superior Fresno. He received his A.B. degree publications program in connection with in zoology from the University of this interpretive work on the Islands. It California in 1940, and his M.S. is evident that he will make many degree in 1942 from Texas A. & M. noteworthy contributions in these and College. Doug worked as a patrol other fields in his new position in inspector with the U.S. Border Patrol Yosemite National Park. from 1941 to 1944, after which he was a Naval Reserve officer on a destroyer-escort in the Pacific from 1944 to 1946. As we bid farewell to the Parkers, Doug brings with him a rich experience we all join in extending a most from his previous position cordial welcome to the Hubbard as new Yosemite neighbors.

THE 7,000-YEAR MISTAKE*

By Peter M. McLellan, Field School, 1951 Just how long have people been living in Yosemite Valley? In the entire park? These are questions now foremost in the minds of some National Park Service officials.

Robert McIntyre was assistant park naturalist in Yosemite (1948 to 1950) he compiled data of the known archeological sites in the park in an effort to plot each one accurately on a master map. His survey revealed that at least 154 sites exist within the park and an additional 8 just outside the boundary (3). More sites have been discovered since then. The majority of these are believed to be relatively recent. It is now believed that the Miwok Indians used the Yosemite area only in the summer for seasonal food gathering (1). For this reason their structures were not of a permanent type, the winter climate being too severe for their comfortable existence. These summer campsites are frequently encountered throughout the park, and there is strong possibility that permanent ones will be found. During the time in which Mr.

These sites range from below 4,000 feet to about 11,000 feet in elevation. The most common artifacts encountered are bone awls, clam shell disc beads, knives, mortars in bedrock granite, pestles, olivella shells, projectile points, and scrapers (3).

Yosemite National Park, as a summer hunting and gathering ground, was also an area of many major trails crossing the Sierra Nevada, *An introduction to the archeology of Yosemite National Park, and an analysis of the "Yuma" spear point found in the Yosemite Falls Indian Cave described by Mr. McLellan in "The Caves of Yosemite Valley, " Yosemite Nature Notes, December 1951. The numbers in parentheses appearing in the text correspond to references in the bibliography at the end of this article.—Ed.

Yosemite Valley Indian village diorama, in Yosemite Museum, because of its central position in California in respect to both geography and the culture. It is believed for this reason that few permanent habitation sites have been found.

A site in Pate Valley may have been permanent, for there is evidence of 12 depressions in the ground, and these are characteristic of habitation remains. Similar house pits (21) may be observed throughout the San Joaquin Valley and into Oregon, through Washington and to southern British Columbia (17). A series of pictographs are visible on the granite cliffs above the Pate Valley site. A dart point made of black obsidian, identified by the Southwest Museum (19) as a possible early Paiute point, was found at this site in addition to the other usual items mentioned above. This may have been carried there in the course of trade with eastern tribes.

Winter snow conditions are of prime importance when discussing or looking for permanent site locations. For this reason it is considered that the sites at Lake Eleanor and above Chinquapin Falls may also have been permanent (15). Both of these places, with a southern exposure, are relatively warm and clear of snow when the snow is deep in Yosemite Valley.

The Yosemite Field School's country trips have been instrumental in the finding of new sites. Whenever large forest fires occur, new areas are laid bare to the soil and the fire crews often locate sites then readily visible to both the trained and untrained eye. From this it appears that these archeological sites are well distributed through the park.

Any visitor in Yosemite National Park may come across a site but he should keep in mind the fact that not only is it against the law to collect

objects lying about, but that so doing will seriously hamper the archeologist who needs all the information he can obtain in working out the history of the area. It is therefore very important for one to be intelligent and scientific in recording all available information regarding the circumstances of the finding of any Indian objects or sites, and in reporting them to the park naturalists. Many new sites may be expected to be found in this manner. The most recent find and possibly the most important was made in Yosemite Valley, in a cave, about 100 yards along the trail to Yosemite Falls from the parking lot. Here, in the center of a small, nearly inaccessible room in the cave, an obliquely flaked spear point was found on August 2, 1951, by Mr. Ronald Smart. Photo by McLellan Basalt spear point found in Yosemite Falls Indian Cave, August 2, 1951. Inch squares on background. The point is about 4½ inches long and is composed of glassy basalt (see photograph). The fine oblique retouching is a unique characteristic. This type of craftsmanship is paraleled by the Egyptian poniard and neolithic daggers from Denmark ( 14). However, it is not possible to determine the age of this point, because it was found on the surface of the cave floor. There is weathering and patination covering the point, as indicated by a small chip that was recently knocked off the base. The elevation of the cave is about 4,000 feet above sea level. It has been reported by Mr. Louis R. Caywood, National Park Service archeologist for Region Four (4), that obliquely flaked points were found at Tenaya Lake, elevation 8,142 feet, by some students from the University of California. A possible fragment of an obliquely flaked point was found by Mr. Robert McIntyre near a petroglyph tar rock in the old arboretum near Wawona in 1946. The elevation here is 4,100 feet. The records on the last two finds are, unfortunately, incomplete.

Another obliquely flaked point was found in Spider Meadows, on the surface of the ground, by Mr. Carl Phillips on August 4, 1942 (3). This point has a composition of black obsidian and measures 3.5 inches; its tip was broken off at some earlier date. The elevation of Spider Meadows is approximately 4,551 feet.

It was believed almost at once that these finds were all "Yuma" points. With this the long dormant resource of the national park archeology—immediately came to life. Prior to this time only a superficial study had been made to furnish the Yosemite Museum with a show collection representing some of the many points so frequently encountered in the park. Some fine

archeology (1, 18, 20, 22, 23) had been done with the last remaining Yosemite Indians but this furnished no real insight into the real history of the park's population.

The new finds provided the beginning of a very confusing study—that has taken over three months to come to a tentative conclusion as to the significance of these artifacts. Implements of this type were first noted to be of a unique and definite shape by Dr. A. E. Jenks, in 1928, while he was examining an extensive personal collection that had been made in Yuma County, Colorado (26). All items had been collected from the surface. The points were given the name "Yuma" from the county in which they were first collected. It was not until 1940 that Yuma points were found buried in situ. This site found by O. M. Finley (10, 11), near the town of Eden in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, established the Yuma point as one of the earliest artifacts of ancient man to be found in North America (8). Using the best geologic evidence on hand at the present time the "Yuma Culture" is assumed, on average, to be in the order of 7,000 years old (5, 14). It was for this reason that there was so much excitement in Yosemite.

It has recently been proposed to reject the term "Yuma" altogether and use the remaining terms (12, 27).

For a number of years these "diagonally flaked points" have also been found in California (9, 13, 16, 24, 25). Here they never had been assigned to a "Yuma" classification because of the relatively more recent situation in which they were found. Specifically, these points are especially characteristic of the Middle Horizon of the Sacramento Valley (9, 13, 24, 25). Their age has been estimated by R. F. Heuer (9) to be 1,500 B.C., and by F. Fenenga (6) as A.D. 500.

In addition to the central California specimens mentioned above, parallel obliquely flaked points are well known from the southern Sierra Nevada foothills, and of these our Yosemite pieces are representative (6). Five similar specimens were found by Mr. Fenenga at each of two sites excavated by him in the summers of 1948 and 1950. The first site was in the Pine Flat Reservoir in Fresno County and is identified as a protohistoric (1800 to 1850) site of the Wobomuch Mono. The second, of the same age, was Slick Rock Village in the Terminus Reservoir in Tulare County and is identified as a site of the Wukchumni Yokuts (6).

The problem now has the following form: Diagonal obliquely flaked points have been found in situ in sites dated from about 7,000 years ago to those dated about 100 years ago! No longer is this long, narrow, lanceolate point an indicator of late postglacial antiquity. It is, however, characteristic of the period from 5,000 to 10,000 years ago (12). These points will have to be excavated from sites in Yosemite before a definite date can be placed on them.

The real problem commences with the fact that points identical in appearance to these "original Yuma points" were being found in different parts of the country under very different circumstances (7, 13, 24). Names such as Eden, Scottsbluff, Oblique, Plainview, San Jon, and Yuma-Folsom were being used to identify "Yuma" points found in different areas (7, 26). The literature has become more and more involved because of the attempt to consider all these points in the same chronology.

From this stage of the study it seems apparent that the age will be within 1,000 years rather than 7,000 years.

The natural question arises as to how the California points may be differentiated from the "original Yuma type" points. On this Mr. Fenenga writes (6) :

One obvious difference between the diagonally flaked blades of California and the parallel obliquely flaked blades of the High Plains is that the California specimens are all made of obsidian or other glassy forms of basalt whereas none of the Plains specimens are. I doubt if this is other than a simple matter of source of supply. The technique of workmanship appears to me to be identical in the two areas and the form of the blades is very similar although there is a higher incidence for concave bases in the California specimens. Edge and basal grinding is present in both areas.

From this it can be seen that there is a great deal of work to be done in Yosemite before the increasingly complicated picture of the former habitants of the park may be understood. Throughout the month of July an archeological survey of the park was conducted by graduate students of the University of California in cooperation with the Yosemite naturalist staff. This represented the first organized survey of the park. It will be important to relate their findings with the established archeological pattern in excavation for central California (2). The results will help to tie the known formation together and, with what is learned, form a nucleus for an addition to the already fascinating interpretive story of Yosemite.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Barrett, S. A. and Gifford, E. W. 1933. Miwok material culture. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee. Cannon Printing Co., Milwaukee, Wis. 2. Beardsley, Richard K. 1948. Culture sequences in central California archeology. American Antiquity, 14(1) :1 3. Caywood, Louis R. 1950. Preliminary appraisal of the archeological resources of Yosemite National Park. Manuscript. 4. Caywood, Louis R. 1951. Personal communication. 5. Cressman, L. S. 1951. Western prehistory in the light of carbon 14 dating. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 7(3) :289-313. 6. Fenenga, Franklin 1952. Personal communication. 7. Fischal, Hans E. 1939. Folsom and Yuma culture finds. American Antiquity, 4(3) :252-264. 8. Hack, John T. 1943. Antiquity of the Finley site. American Antiquity, 8(3) :235-241. 9. Heizer, Robert F. 1949. The archeology of central California, I: The Early Horizon. Anthropological Records 12(1). University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. 10. Howard, E. B., Satterthwaite, L., Jr., and Bache, C. 1941. Preliminary report on a buried Yuma site in Wyoming. American Antiquity, 7(1):70-74. 11. Howard, E. B., Satterthwaite, L., Jr., and Bache, C. 1943. Discovery of Yuma points in situ, near Eden, Wyoming. American Antiquity, 8: 224-234. 12. Krieger, Alex 1950. A suggested general sequence in North American projectile points. Proceedings of the Sixth Plains Archeological Conference, 1948. Anthropological Papers, No. 11:1-124. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah. 13. Lillard, J. B., Heizer, R. F., and Fenenga, F. 1939. An introduction to the archeology of central California. Bulletin No. 2, Department of Anthropology, Sacramento Junior College, California. 14. MacGowan, Kenneth 1950. Early man in the New World. The Macmillan Co., New York.

15. McIntyre, Robert 1951. Personal communication. 16. Meighan, C. W. and Heizer, R. F. 1951. Personal communication. 17. Osborne, Douglas 1952. Personal communication. 18. Russell, C. P. 1929. Last of Yosemite Indians visits valley after a 75-year absence. Yosemite Nature Notes, 8(7) : 69-70. 19. Simpson, Ruth Dee 1950. Personal communication to L. Caywood, November 7, 1950. 20. Smith, Bertha H. 1904. Yosemite legends. Paul Elder & Co., San Francisco. 21. Strong, W. D., Scheneck, W. E., and Steward, J. H. 1930. Archeology of the Dalles-Deschutes region. University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Berkeley. 22. Taylor, H. J. 1932. The last survivor. Johnck & Seeger, San Francisco. 23. Taylor, H. J. 1936. Yosemite Indians and other sketches. Johnck & Seeger, San Francisco. 24. Vega, A. E. and Cook, S. F. 1948. The quantitative investigation of aboriginal sites: Complete excavation with physical and archeological analysis of a single mound. American Antiquity, 13(4):289-297. 25. Vega, A. E. 1951. Personal communication. 26. Wormington, H. M. 1944. Ancient man in North America. Colorado Museum of Natural History, Popular Series, No. 4. 27. Wormington, H. M. 1950. The need for changes in terminology of early stone industries. Proceedings of the Sixth Plains Archeological Conference, 1948. Anthropological Papers, No. 11:26-31. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah.

STATEMENT TO SUBSCRIBERS

The editors of Yosemite Nature Notes wish to express their regret for the lateness in publication of this issue. Unprecedented demands on our official duties this summer have made it necessary to fall behind in our normal schedule, to which a return will be made as soon as possible. —Ed.

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