Galen Clark. 



219 



Yosemite had been greatly developed, he borrowed 

 money, mortgaged his property and lost it. 



Though not the first to see the Mariposa Big Tree 

 Grove, he was the first to explore it, after he had heard 

 from a prospector who had passed through it that there 

 were some wonderful big trees on the Wawona ridge, 

 perhaps as big as the Sequoias, which had become so 

 famous and well known in the Calaveras Grove. On this 

 indefinite information Galen Clark told me he went up 

 the ridge, thoroughly explored the grove and described it. 

 In this sense he may be said to be the real discoverer of 

 the grove. He then explored the forest to the south- 

 ward and discovered the much larger Fresno Grove of 

 about two square miles, six or seven miles distant from the 

 Mariposa Grove. Most of the Fresno Grove, unfor- 

 tunately, has been cut down and made into lumber. 



Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentle-m.an. I 

 never heard him utter a single hasty angry fault-finding 

 word. His voice was uniformly pitched at a rather low 

 tone, perfectly even, although glances of his eyes and 

 slight intonations of his voice oftentimes indicated that 

 something funny or mildly sarcastic was coming, but 

 upon the whole he was serious and industrious, and how- 

 ever fun-provoking a story might be he never indulged in 

 loud, boisterous laughter. 



He was very fond of scenery and often told me that he 

 liked ''nothing in the world better than climbing to the top 

 of a high ridge or mountain and looking off." But above 

 all, he preferred the mountain ridges and domes in the 

 Yosemite region on account of their noble grandeur and 

 the glorious beauty of the falls and forests about them. 

 Oftentimes he would take his rifle, a few pounds of bacon, 

 a few pounds of flour and a single blanket and go off 

 hunting, for no other reason than to explore and get 

 acquainted with the most beautiful points of view within 

 a journey of a week or two from his Wawona home. On 

 these trips he was always alone and could indulge in 

 tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his heart's content. He 



