Yosemite Place Names
Contents
Yosemite National Park boundaries
Illustrations
Quadrangle map names
Preface
Introduction
Yosemite Place Names
Old Names
Indian Names
The First Tourists
Bibliography
Index of Namers
Index of Hidden Names
Historic Yosemite Maps
Illustrations
Yosemite National Park boundaries
George D. Amderson on Half Dome
Portion of the Hoffmann - Gardner map, 1874
Cathedral Peak and upper Cathedral Lake
Clarence King
William Woods Forsyth
Gabriel Sovulewski
Hetch Hetchy Valley, 1896
James Mason Hutchings
LeConte family, Vernal Fall bridge
John Baptist Lembert
Washington B. Lewis, Stephen T. Mather
Wooden stairs at Vernal Fall
George F. Monroe, stage driver
“Pohono.” Bridalveil Fall
North Dome and Half Dome
The Three Brothers
Vernal Fall and John Muir
Mount Watkins, Mirror Lake
Yosemite Falls, 1859
Portion of Lt. McClure's map, 1896
The Colfax party, 1865
“La Casa Nevada.” Snow's Hotel
“The Vestibule” or “Fern Ledge”
This is the second edition of Yosemite Place Names. The first edition was published in 1988, just as the United States Geological Survey was beginning to publish new topographic maps on a scale of 1:24,000. Each of these new maps covers 7.5' of latitude and 7.5' of longitude. Thus there are four 7.5' maps to replace every 15' map. In 1988 only the area of the Devils Postpile 15' map had been covered by the new maps. But by now, the entire United States has been mapped at the scale of 1:24,000. Thus, the majority of the places in this book are now located on maps having different names than they had in the 1988 book. On the opposite page is a list of the older 15-minute topo maps with the names of the four 7.5-minute maps that have replaced each of them.
Some of the information in this volume is derived from my earlier book, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada, published in 1986 by Wilderness Press, Berkeley. For this edition I have found more information, mainly in the Chester Versteeg Papers, at the Bancroft Library. Versteeg (1887–1963) collected a vast amount of data on place names in the Sierra Nevada, much of it by interviewing more than 350 early settlers and residents on both sides of the Sierra. Mount Versteeg in Sequoia National Park was named for Chester in 1964.
Yosemite National Park has not always had its present boundaries. The original Yosemite Grant to the state of California, created in 1864, comprised Yosemite Valley and vicinity and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. In 1890, when the national park was created, the boundaries were drawn along township lines, without much regard to the topography or to land use and ownership. There was a great deal of resistance to the creation of a large park, especially by mining and timber interests. They used the same arguments that are still heard today when new parks are created or when wilderness areas are established: valuable resources are being ‘locked up,’ and a private preserve is being created for a group of selfish elitists. The so-called “selfish elitists” are yourselves—the millions of Americans and millions from other countries who come to enjoy the wonders and pleasures of Yosemite National Park.
In 1905, after fifteen years of political pressure and manipulation, the boundaries of the park were realigned (see p. vi). Some land on the west and southwest was taken from the park. It was not of park quality, and much of it was already in the hands of homesteaders and miners. The boundaries were expanded to the north, to encompass all the area up to the northern and northeastern ridges that constitute the headwaters of the Tuolumne River. On the east and southeast the park lost a large area of spectacular wilderness that should have remained in the park. Included in this excision were Banner Peak, Mount Ritter, the Minarets, Devils Postpile (which became a national monument in 1911), and the headwaters of the North and Middle forks of the San Joaquin River. There are entries for all the names of places that were within the park from 1890 to 1905, excepting a few west and southwest of the present park boundaries.
By its nature, research for a book of this sort is a solitary occupation. One reads dozens of books and periodicals, peruses obscure journals, and traces a multitude of faint clues through the musty archives in search of a few more items of obscure information. I also spent some hundreds of hours looking at nineteenth-century newspapers on microfilm. Yet no matter how much one does alone, it isn’t possible to do a thorough job without the help of many others. In particular I want to thank the staff of the Bancroft Library for being endlessly helpful and accommodating in fulfilling my endless requests for research materials. Those individuals to whom I am especially grateful for assistance and information are Mary Vocelka at the Yosemite Research Library—and for this edition, Linda Eade, the present Yosemite librarian; Barbara Lekisch, former librarian at the Sierra Club Library; N. King Huber at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park; Shirley Sargent, the Yosemite author, now deceased; and Jim Snyder, Yosemite National Park trail foreman and historian.
Francis P. Farquhar, in his 1926 Place Names of the High Sierra, was the pioneer in place-names research in the Sierra. The origin of many names in Yosemite would not be known had not Farquhar elicited the information from those who did the naming. Marjory Farquhar, now deceased, allowed me complete freedom to delve into the files that her husband had accumulated since publication of his 1926 book.
Farquhar was involved with the Sierra Nevada for sixty years as a climber, historian, and conservationist. He served as a director of the Sierra Club for 27 years, had two terms as president of the club, and edited the Sierra Club Bulletin from 1926 to 1945. His best known books are Place Names of the High Sierra, 1926; Up and Down California in 1860–1864, The Journal of William H. Brewer, 1930, which he edited; and History of the Sierra Nevada, 1965.
In 1987 the name “Mount Farquhar” was proposed by the author of this book for the northernmost peak of the Great Western Divide; it was approved by the BGN in 1989. The peak is in Kings Canyon National Park, 1.6 miles NW of Mount Brewer.
Introduction
On the evening of March 27, 1851, fifty-eight men of
the Mariposa Battalion camped in Yosemite Valley near Bridalveil Fall. They were in
pursuit of the Yosemite Indians, and were the first whites ever to have entered the
valley.
Around their campfires that evening the surgeon of the detachment, Lafayette H. Bunnell, suggested that they ought to name the valley. After a period of “coarse jokes” and “ready repartee,” Bunnell managed to engage the men in making a serious response. A variety of names was offered: canonical, scriptural, foreign, romantic. Bunnell didn't care for any of them. He presented a reasoned argument in favor of naming the valley “Yo-sem-i-ty,” for the tribe that occupied it. This evoked an angry response from a man named Tunnehill, who cursed the Indians and suggested the name “Paradise Valley.” Bunnell converted that remark into a joke at Tunnehill's expense, which drew a hearty laugh from the company. In that moment of relaxation another man suggested that a vote be taken. Bunnell explained why he thought the valley ought to be named Yo-sem-i-ty—and the vote adopting the name was nearly unanimous.
The Indians who inhabited Yosemite Valley had names for the major features and for the valley itself. Some of the names were descriptive, some were connected with legendary events, others referred to an area where a certain activity took place or a certain plant or tree grew. One thing they didn't do was to name features for Important People.
A few of these names have survived, often having been subjected to multiple interpretations and a variety of pronunciations. Some of them were placed on the wrong features due to the ignorance and arrogance of the first groups of white people in Yosemite.
The Indians' name for Yosemite Valley was Ahwahnee. Pohono, the name for Bridalveil Fall, now applies only to the Pohono Trail. Ahwiyah, the name for Mirror Lake, is found only on a rock spur below Half Dome. Tenaya, although the name of the Yosemite chief, was the name given to the lake by Lafayette Bunnell. Mono Pass was named not by the Mono Indians but by Lieutenant Tredwell Moore of the US Army. Tioga is an Indian name imported from New York and Pennsylvania. The Tuolumne name was given to the river by the Spanish in 1806 for a tribe of Indians that lived on the banks of the river in the Central Valley. Yosemite's other major river, the Merced, also was named by the Spanish in 1806. The several other features bearing the “Tuolumne” and “Merced” names were given those names by Americans many years later. The only other name the Spanish provided is Mariposa, which also originated in the Central Valley in 1806. El Capitan is Spanish, but the name was given by the Mariposa Battalion in 1851.
Many of the major features in and around Yosemite Valley were named by the Mariposa Battalion, in particular by Bunnell. The first tourist parties, in 1855 and 1856, bestowed a few names—such as Bridalveil Fall—but fortunately most of what they proposed did not survive. In 1863 the California Geological Survey (the Whitney Survey) named most of the prominent peaks in what would later become the national park. Some of their names were descriptive or evocative, such as Cathedral Peak, Unicorn Peak, and the Obelisk (now Mount Clark). Others were borrowed names, such as Tuolumne Meadows. Most of the peaks they named were for geologists and other scientists.
From the middle 1860s until about 1900 sheepmen and cattlemen named meadows and streams in their summer grazing territories. These were unofficial names, yet many have endured because they came to be in common use and thus were recorded by later generations of map-makers. The Wheeler Survey was in Yosemite Valley and the northern part of the park-to-be in 1878 and 1879. They provided a smattering of names, but more importantly they placed on their maps some of the names then being used by the sheepmen.
The US Army administered Yosemite National Park from its beginning in 1890 until the National Park Service was created in 1916. In the middle 1890s Lieutenants McClure and Benson explored, blazed trails, learned more names from sheepmen, and did some naming of their own. Joseph N. LeConte's map of 1893 and McClure's map of 1896 were the first comprehensive maps of the entire park as it existed at that time. McClure's and Benson's efforts marked the beginning of almost two decades of features being named by and for army personnel. Foremost among these namers was Colonel William W. Forsyth, acting superintendent of the park from 1909 to 1912, who named a number of peaks and other features—mainly in the northern part of the park—for army officers and, often, their wives. Robert B. Marshall of the US Geological Survey also was lavish with names. His inclination was to honor relatives and friends, and their wives and daughters. He had a penchant for naming lakes for women. Joseph N. LeConte created several maps between 1893 and 1904, and is responsible for a number of names. Other Sierra Club members provided a considerable number of names, especially after 1901 when the club began its annual outings.
Between 1891 and 1911 the Geological Survey published a series of standard 30-minute topographic maps on a scale of 1:125,000. Many names appeared for the first time, some of them given by the geographers and cartographers who created the maps. The first USGS map of Yosemite Valley and vicinity on a scale of 1:24,000 came out in 1907. This basic map is still in use today, and is now in its tenth edition.
Park Service rangers did most of the naming during the 1920s and 1930s—names that usually first appeared on the 15-minute series of quadrangles, which were published in the 1950s. There was a good deal of derivative naming done on that new series of maps: lakes, creeks, and meadows often being named because of their proximity to a peak or other major feature that had been named long before.
There are many names in Yosemite National Park whose precise origins are unknown—and will likely remain unknown. They were created informally many years ago by people who kept no written records. Often enough the reason for a descriptive name is easy to deduce, but neither the date of naming nor the namer is known.
In a number of instances where a feature is named for a homesteader or other owner of the land, I have given the location of the land in terms of section, township, and range. These references are abbreviated thus: sec. 24, T. 1 S., R. 19 E. Each section is one square mile. There are thirty-six sections in a township, which is a square—six sections on a side. Thus, Township 1 South, Range 19 East is easily found on the Lake Eleanor quadrangle. The range and township numbers are on the map borders in red, and every section is numbered. The homestead and patent records referred to are preserved on microfilm in the “control document index” files of the General Land Office at the Bureau of Land Management on Cottage Way in Sacramento.
James T. Gardiner (Gardner) of the Whitney Survey spelled his last name both ways at different times in his life. I have used the spelling “Gardiner” throughout, except when it appears as “Gardner” in quoted matter.
For some peaks and lakes, two elevations are given. The first figure is in feet, the second is in meters. To convert meters to feet, multiply by 3.2808. To convert feet to meters, multiply by 0.3048.
Names are in boldface type, and the name or names of the topographic maps the features are on are in italic type. These quadrangle map names can be located on the reference map on page viii. In those instances where one basic name applies to several features, the names will appear thus: Ackerson: Meadow, Creek, Mountain, meaning that there is an Ackerson Meadow, an Ackerson Creek, and an Ackerson Mountain.