Editing Yosemite Valley (section)

=== Yosemite: The first park ===
[[File:Galen Clark in the Big Tree Grove.jpeg|thumb|right|upright|Galen Clark in the Big Tree Grove]]
The work of Ayres gave Easterners an appreciation for Yosemite Valley and started a movement to preserve it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/centennial/treasures/Yose.htm|work=National Park Service Museum Centennial|title=Early drawing of Yosemite Falls|access-date=2010-08-19}}</ref> Influential figures such as [[Galen Clark]], clergyman [[Thomas Starr King]] and leading landscape architect [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] were among those who urged Senator John Conness of California to try to preserve Yosemite.{{sfn|Wuerthner|1994|p=23}}

President [[Abraham Lincoln]] signed a bill on June 30, 1864, granting Yosemite Valley and the [[Mariposa Grove]] of [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoias]] to the State of California "for public use, resort and recreation," the two tracts "shall be inalienable for all time".{{sfn|Schaffer|1999|p=48}} This was the first time in history that a federal government had set aside scenic lands simply to protect them and to allow for their enjoyment by all people.

Simply designating an area a park isn't sufficient to protect it. California did not set up an administration for the park until 1866 when the state appointed [[Galen Clark]] as the park's guardian. An 11-year struggle followed to resolve homesteading claims in the valley. The challenge of increasing tourism, with the need to first build stagecoach roads, then the [[Yosemite Valley Railroad]], along with hotels and other facilities in and around the Valley was met during the rest of the 19th century. But much environmental damage was caused to the valley itself at that time. The problems that Yosemite Park had under state control was one of the factors in establishing [[Yellowstone National Park]] as the first completely national park in 1872.

[[File:8. The vernal fall, Yosemite valley.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Vernal Fall]], Yosemite by [[Carleton Watkins]] {{circa|1873–83}}]]

Due to the difficulty of traveling there, early visitors to the valley came for several weeks to a couple of months, often as entire families with many possessions. Early [[hotel]]s were therefore set up for extended stays and catered primarily to wealthy patrons who could spend extended periods away from home. One of these hotels—the [[Wawona Hotel]], built in the 1880s—still operates.

After the Valley became a park, the surrounding territory was still subject to logging, mining, and grazing.  [[John Muir]] publicized the damage to the [[subalpine zone|subalpine meadow]]s that surround the Valley and in 1890, the government created a national park that included a much larger territory—enclosing Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove.