Soda Springs Property in Tuolumne Meadows. 37 



The Club is to be congratulated in securing the control of 

 this valuable piece of property, the only patented holding, 

 save one, in the eastern portion of the national park. It is 

 to be hoped that the Club can keep it for many years, unfenced, 

 open, for the use and enjoyment of the knights of the trail. 



To describe the features of the landscape here, the 

 meadow, the forest, the river, and the superb mountain 

 scenery, would require the pen of a Muir. I cannot attempt 

 it. But since our Club has become trustee of so valuable a 

 piece of property, our members, and particularly those who 

 have so liberally subscribed to the fund and those who have 

 seen the place, will be interested in the history of this home- 

 stead, and a description of the land itself. 



The quarter section was taken up on government land as 

 a homestead by John Baptist Lembert on August 15, 1885, 

 long before the establishment of the Yosemite National 

 Park. Previous to this Lembert had lived in and around 

 Yosemite, and at the time the land was taken up was in- 

 terested in raising Angora goats, using the fine meadows 

 of the High Sierra as a grazing ground in summer, and 

 driving his flock down to the foothills of the lower Merced 

 in winter. His first efforts on taking possession were 

 directed toward fencing, and building a small log cabin. 

 Here he lived alone with his goats till the stormy winter 

 of 1889-90. In starting for the foothills he delayed a few 

 days too long and was caught by the snow and storm bound 

 in early December. He tried to weather the storm in his 

 small cabin, but finding that impossible was forced to 

 abandon the goats and make his escape to Yosemite. 



Having thus lost his entire capital, and with it his means 

 of livelihood, he took to collecting butterflies and botanical 

 specimens in the higher portions of the range. This was a 

 region little explored, and his entomological specimens par- 

 ticularly found ready sale among the museums of the 

 country. By this means he was enabled to hold his claim, 

 living alone in his log cabin, and seeing no one but the 

 occasional camper. Finally on June 28, 1895, he was issued 

 a United States patent to the quarter section. 



