Interest in Yosemite grew significantly during the early 1860s. Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King visited the valley in 1860 and saw some of the negative effects that settlement and commercial activity were having on the area. Six travel letters by King were published in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1860 and 1861. He became the first person with a nationally recognized voice to call for a public park at Yosemite. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr read and commented on King's letters, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was prompted by the warnings to visit the Yosemite area in 1863.

Pressure from King and Olmstead, photographs by Carleton Watkins, and geological data from the 1863 Geological Survey of California prompted Senator John Conness to take action by introducing a park bill in 1864 to the U S Senate to cede Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to the State of California.

The bill easily passed both houses of the United States Congress, and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864. The Yosemite Grant, as it was called, was given to California as a state park for "public use, resort and recreation.”

DoubleSaj and Old Blue
who love visiting Yosemite

How timely is the mention of Frederick Law Olmsted. I just finished The Devil in the White City, which is about the construction of the Chicago World's Fair and the concurrent atrosities of a serial killer who used it as a means to attract his victims. Olmsted was enlisted as the landscape architect for the Fair b/c of his success with designing Central Park in Manhatten.

I read that book! Fascinating, but oh, so creepy!

I concur - on both accounts, i.e. fascinating and creepy.

Thanks for mentioning this major event for my favorite place! Check out the special exhibit in the Yosemite Museum if you go this year! Worth the visit!

Yosemite MJD