FIG. 12.—SAN JOAQUIN RIVER EMERGING UPON THE PLAIN OF THE GREAT VALLEY
In shaping the Sierra Nevada mountains Nature had a grand opportunity. Here she produced the Yosemite Valley, which has a setting of cliffs and waterfalls that attract people from all over the world. Hetch-Hetchy Valley at the north of the Yosemite, and Tehipite and King's River cañons at the south, are interesting places, but not so majestic and inspiring as the Yosemite.
Nature never seems satisfied with her work. After she has created a piece of wonderful scenery she proceeds to destroy it. The great cliffs of the Yosemite will sometime lose their grandeur and be replaced by gentle slopes down which the streams will flow quietly. The mountains of the Laurentian highlands in the northeastern portion of the continent undoubtedly were once lofty and picturesque, but there were no people upon the earth at that time to enjoy this scenery. Now these mountains have become old and are nearly worn down.
FIG. 13.—WHERE THE CAÑONS BEGIN UNDER PRECIPITOUS PEAKS
The head of the King's River
In one portion of the earth after another, Nature raises great mountain ranges and immediately proceeds to remove them. This continent was discovered and California was settled at the right time for the Sierra Nevadas to be seen in all their grandeur.
When the pioneers came in sight of the Sierra Nevada (snowy range), they little dreamed of the cañons hidden among these mountains. Gold, and not scenery, was the object of their search. The great cañons were outside of the gold regions, and so inaccessibly situated that no one except the Indians looked upon them until 1851. In that year a party of soldiers following the trail of some thieving Indians discovered and entered the Yosemite Valley, but it was not explored until 1855. For many years the valley could be reached only by the roughest trails, but as its advantages became more widely known roads were built, and there are now three different wagon routes by which it may be entered.
The history of the Yosemite Valley is like that of all the other cañons of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Long ago there were no high mountains in eastern California. If there had been explorers crossing the plains in those days, they would have found no rugged wall shutting them off from the Pacific. There came a time, however, when the surface of the western portion of America was broken by violent earthquake movements, and hundreds of fissures were formed. Some of the earth blocks produced by these fissures were shoved upward, while others were dropped. One enormous block, which was to form the Sierra Nevada, was raised along its eastern edge until it stood several thousand feet above the adjoining country. The movement was like that of a trap-door opened slightly, so that upon one side—in this case the western one—the slope was long and gentle, while upon the east it was very abrupt.