Excerpt from Early History of Yosemite Valley, California Ralph S. Kuykendall, in this excellent article, makes several new contributions to the early history of the Yosemite Valley. He has unearthed a number of official reports and other contemporary documents bearing on the subject which have never before been used by writers. One of the documents is the first letter ever written in the Yosemite. This and another, from both of which extensive quotations are made in this article, constitute Capt. Bowling's report of the second expedition of 1851. By the use of this new material Mr. Kuykendall has been able definitely to determine for the first time the exact date of the discovery of the Yosemite, and to fix the chronology of the several military expeditions that were made into this region in 1851 and 1852. (Herbert E. Bolton, professor of American History and curator of the Bancroft Library, University of California.) The beginnings of human life in the Yosemite Valley are shrouded in impenetrable mystery. As we seek to trace back the history of the people who were occupying the region when white men first entered its fastnesses we come almost immediately into the realm of myth and legend, from which it is impossible to extract any element of attested fact. But from the Indian legends, filtered through the imagination of the white folk, we can draw out a fairly consistent story, which, in the absence of authentic history, may serve as an introduction. From time immemorial there had dwelt in the fair valley of Ahwahnee the powerful tribe of the Ahwahneechees. To this place they believed the Great Spirit had led them from their original home in the far-distant west. In their new, high-walled home the Ahwahneechees were secure from attack, and their warlike prowess made them feared and respected by all the other tribes of the mountains. But at length an evil time came upon them. Wars and a fearful pestilence decimated the tribe. The valley was held to be accursed, and the feeble remnant of its inhabitants fled to their neighbors or to the wild tribes across the mountains. For many years the valley was deserted. But a certain noble youth of the tribe, who had gone among the Monos, married a maiden of that tribe, and to this pair a son was born, who was named Teneiya. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.