UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES
CALIFORNIA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON, ENGLAND
COPYRIGHT, 1932
COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
WASHINGTON BARTLETT LEWIS
1884-1930
AND
CHARLES GOFF THOMSON
1883-1937
FOREWORD
The National Park Service is primarily a custodian of and trustee for lands—lands with unique and special qualities, so distinctive as to make their care a concern of the entire nation; lands, therefore, held under a distinctive pattern and policy, administered according to the national park concept.
Yosemite National Park comprises such lands. It is, so to speak, a type locality for the national park idea. While Yellowstone, established in 1872, was the first real national park, Yosemite Valley, in 1864, under an act signed by President Lincoln, was transferred to the State of California to be protected according to park principles, later to be re-ceded to the Federal Government. Here in Yosemite many of the national park policies and techniques of protection, administration, and interpretation have evolved and are still evolving, within the framework of the basic act of 1916, with its injunction to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”