There’s a place in Yosemite that I’ve only ever been to once in all my trips to Yosemite: the Yosemite Cemetery. For whatever reason, I didn’t expect to find a cemetery here. Yet, at the west end of Yosemite Village, past the museum and across the street, there is a quiet place where many of Yosemite’s earliest residents found their final rest – including many who added to the rich history of the valley.
The Yosemite Conservancy has put up a grant this year to help repair and refurbish the cemetery’s gravestones and monuments that have been neglected for year years.
From the NPS Yosemite Ranger Notes Blog:
The Yosemite Cemetery is filled with echoes of Yosemite’s past. For American Indians the origins of these echoes reach back many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. The echoes of non-Indians go back only to the mid-nineteenth century, yet this was a time of great change in the American perspective on wild lands and scenic resources. A visit to the Yosemite Cemetery will bring you closer to many of the personages that began the development of what we now call Yosemite National Park.
Beneath a large uncut granite stone with the inscription, BUILDER OF THE FIRST TRAILS, ROADS, BRIDGES AND DWELLINGS OF THIS VALLEY, lie the bones of James Mason Hutchings. It was Hutchings who organized the first tourist party to enter Yosemite Valley in 1855. Among the four people in that party was an artist named Thomas Ayres who drew sketches of Yosemite Valley and its various features. Hutchings featured them as etchings in his Hutchings California Magazine. James Hutchings actively promoted Yosemite Valley as a tourist destination and would later purchase a hotel in the valley.
In the shade of four giant sequoias sits another natural granite boulder with the name, Galen Clark, carved in it. Clark was among another tourist group that entered Yosemite Valley in 1855. His visit had so profound an effect on him that upon learning that he had a serious case of consumption (his wife had died of consumption a few years earlier) he decided to live out his remaining time in the mountains near Yosemite. He was in his early forties at the time and in the short time he had left on this earth he would play a major role in the setting aside and development of the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley.
Galen Clark located and named the Mariposa Grove; worked for the creation of the Yosemite Grant, an act that that included the protection of the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley; became the first guardian of the grant; guided many parties throughout his beloved big trees and valley; wrote books about the Yosemite Grant, the big trees, and Indians of Yosemite. During this time, he selected the site for and dug his own grave. He also chose the boulder for his headstone, had his name carved in it, and planted the giant sequoias that surround his plot. Clark accomplished so much because his short life became very long. He died, not in his forties but a few days before his 96th birthday!
You can read the whole blog post HERE.
When you visit Yosemite, you really should check out the cemetery.
You can find out more about the Yosemite Conservancy HERE.