Vol. XVI 



MAY, igio 



No. 5 



THE HETCH^HETCHY VALLEY 



A National Question 



By JOHN MUIR 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



GARDEN. 



25 

 I 



THE better part of the world is be- 

 ginning to know that beauty plays 

 an important part in human prog- 

 ress, and that regarded even from the 

 lowest financial standpoint it is one of 

 the most precious and productive assets 

 any country can possess. 



Most of our forests have already 

 vanished in lumber and smoke, mostly 

 smoke. Fortunately, the federal gov- 

 ernment is now faithfully protecting 

 and developing nearly all that is left of 

 our forest and stream resources ; nor 

 even in these money-mad commercial 

 days have our beauty resources been 

 altogether forgotten. Witness the mag- 

 nificent wild parks of the west, set apart 

 and guarded for the highest good of 

 all, and the thousands of city parks 

 made to satisfy the natural taste and 

 hunger for landscape beauty that God 

 in some measure has put into every 

 human being. 



Timber and water are universal 

 wants, and of course the government 

 is aware that no scheme of manage- 

 ment of the public domain failing to 

 provide for them can possiblv be main- 

 tained. But. however abundantly sup- 

 plied from legitimate sources, every na- 

 tional park is besieged with all sorts of 

 plans and pleas for possession of some 

 coveted treasure of water, timber, past- 



ure, rights of way, etc. Nothing 

 doUarable is safe, however guarded. 

 Thus the Yosemite Park, the beauty, 

 glory of California and the nation. 

 Nature's own mountain wonderland, 

 has been attacked by spoilers ever since 

 it was established, and this strife, I 

 suppose, must go on as part of the 

 eternal battle between right and wrong. 



The Yosemite National Park is not 

 only the greatest and most wonderful 

 national playground in California, but 

 in many of its features it is without 

 rival in the whole world. It belongs to 

 the American people and is among their 

 most priceless possessions. In world- 

 wide interest it ranks with the Yellow- 

 stone and the Grand Canyon of the 

 Colorado. 



The Yosemite National Park was 

 created in i8go by Congress in order 

 that this great natural wonderland 

 should be preserved in pure wildness 

 for all time for the benefit of the entire 

 nation. The Yosemite Valley was al- 

 ready preserved in a state park, and the 

 national park was created primarily to 

 protect the Hetch-Hctchy Valley and 

 Tuolumne Meadows from invasion. 



The Yosemite Park embraces the 

 headwaters of two rivers — the Merced 

 and the Tuolumne. The Yosemite Val- 

 ley is in the ^Merced Basin and the 



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