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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



floor of the valley withdrawn from general travel. The Stone- 

 man Bridge was in a dangerous condition for heavy travel, and 

 the Sentinel Bridge so weak that nothing but passenger wagons 

 were allowed to cross ; most of the culverts were broken through 

 and the main roads and trails in a terrible condition. These 

 were the three most important bridges in the Valley. 



Under Federal control a steel bridge replaced the condemned 

 Pohona Bridge; a new truss bridge replaced the dangerous 

 Stoneman Bridge and the Sentinel Bridge was repaired and soon 

 will be replaced. A hundred thousand dollars has been spent on 

 permanent road work, the main road to El Portal is being 

 sprinkled, old trails repaired and put in good condition and 

 splendid new ones built as, for example, the new scenic trail 

 above Mirror Lake leading out of the valley to the High Sierra. 

 Under State control all of the best pasture in the upper end of 

 the valley was fenced in and rented for a nominal sum to a 

 private concern. As soon as the Federal Government got con- 

 trol and this lease expired, all the unsightly fences came down 

 and now the public enjoys these fine meadows, and campers can 

 feed their own animals there. If this be neglect, what shall we 

 term the old State regime and its famous junketing trips? 



But we face "a condition and not a theory." It is as useless 

 to try to secure the Yosemite Valley for the State as to ask 

 for the Presidio Military Reservation. It will be a waste of 

 time and energy. If instead, we will only devote the same time 

 and energy to securing additional appropriations from Congress, 

 we will accomplish something. In view of 191 5 and the fact that 

 the proximity of Yosemite was one of the arguments advanced 

 for securing the Exposition for San Francisco, the Legislature 

 and every loyal citizen of the State should memorialize and urge 

 Congress to prepare Yosemite for the Fair by appropriating 

 $1,000,000 for its improvement in four $250,000 annual install- 

 ments, following out a comprehensive plan of development just as 

 it did in the case of the Yellowstone. Each year the Sierra Club 

 has consistently urged such an appropriation, but alone and un- 

 aided it has only succeeded in helping to raise the annual Con- 

 gressional appropriation to $50,000. Let everyone pitch in and 

 help, for the State has far more than it can properly take care of 

 in the way of expenditures right now, and if it has any spare 

 money for parks, let it purchase and preserve a tract of primeval 

 redwood on Eel River in Humboldt County, for there is nothing 

 like that forest wonder anywhere else in the world, and a few 

 years from now it will have perished and passed beyond the 

 power of man to replace. Very respectfully, 



Wm. E. Colby, Secretary of Sierra Club. 



