8 



White & Hatch's, was opened by Mann Brothers, at a cost of about 

 $700. This trail was purchased in 1859 by the citizens of Mariposa 

 County and made free. The sum paid was $200. 



The first house was built in the Yosemite Valley, nearly opposite 

 the Yosemite Fall, in the autumn of 1856; this is still standing, and 

 has been usually known as the Lower Hotel. At the locality about 

 half a mile farther up the valley, and now known as " Hutchings's 

 Yosemite Hotel," a canvass house was built by G. A. Kite, in the 

 spring of 1857, and in the spring of the next year the present house 

 was built by Hite & Beardsley. They kept it as a public house that 

 season, and it afterwards passed into the hands of Sullivan & Cash- 

 man, for debt. It was kept 1859-61 by Peck, then by Longhurst, 

 and from 1864 by Hutchings, who came to the valley in the spring 

 of that year, having purchased, or made arrangements to purchase, 

 the house of Sullivan & Cashman. The claim, however, as far as 

 the land is concerned, is supposed to have been the property of Hite 

 & Beardsley, at least as much their property as a claim of that kind 

 on unsurveyed land, and in that residence, could be that of any per 

 son. In the spring of 1857, Cunningham & Beardsley had a store 

 house and shop a little above the present Hutchings' Hotel. The 

 lower hotel was kept by John Neal in 1857, and by Cunningham 

 from 1858 to 1861. In 1862-3 it was not occupied except by oc 

 casional stragglers. For the past three or four years it has been 

 occupied by G. F. Leidig. j . C. Lamon took possession of the 

 upper end of the valley, above Hutchings's, in 1860, and has con 

 tinued to reside there since that time, being the only permanent 

 resident in the valley prior to 1864. 



At the time the Governor's proclamation was issued, namely, 

 September 28, 1864, the persons residing in the valley and claiming 

 rights there were J. C. Lamon and J. M. Hutchings. Ira B. Folsom 

 also claimed to own the ferry across the Merced, and the ladders by 

 which access is had to the summit of the Vernal Fall. There were 

 probably other and conflicting claims to houses and land in the Val 

 ley ; but, if such existed, the Commissioners have never been officially 

 notified of them, nor would it have been in^ their power to recognize 

 them, or to decide between them. 



The claim of Lamon, as defined by himself and limited by his 

 fences, occupies the upper part of the valley, at the junction of the 

 Tenaya Fork with the main Merced River, and comprises 378.76 

 aqres, of which about 149 acres are good meadow land, the re 

 mainder being chiefly a strong soil, covered with ferns to a consider- 



