The Dead are Telling Stories in the Yosemite Cemetery

Echoes of Yosemite’s past reverberate among the trees and headstones of the Yosemite Cemetery. For American Indians, the origins of these echoes reach back many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. The echoes of non-Indians go back only to the mid-nineteenth century, a time of change in the American perspective on wild lands and scenic resources. A visit to the Yosemite Cemetery will bring you closer to the stories of the many people that began the development of what we now call Yosemite National Park.

Beneath a massive uncut granite stone with the inscription, BUILDER OF THE FIRST TRAILS, ROADS, BRIDGES, AND DWELLINGS OF THIS VALLEY, lie the bones of James Mason Hutchings. It was Hutchings who organized the first tourist party to enter Yosemite Valley in 1855. Among the four people in that party was an artist named Thomas Ayres who drew sketches of Yosemite Valley and its various features. Hutchings featured them as etchings in his Hutchings California Magazine. James Hutchings actively promoted Yosemite Valley as a tourist destination and would later purchase a hotel in the valley.

In 1862, Hutchings published the book, Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California, which inspired the title of my website and blogs.

In the shade of four giant sequoias sits another natural granite boulder with the name, Galen Clark, carved in it. Clark was among another tourist group that entered Yosemite Valley in 1855. His visit had a profound effect on him. After learning that he had consumption (tuberculosis), he decided to live out his remaining time in the mountains near Yosemite. Clark's wife had died of the same disease a few years earlier. At the time, he was in his mid forties. Galen Clark would play an influential role in the setting aside and development of the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley.

Galen Clark located and named the Mariposa Grove. He worked for the creation of the Yosemite Grant, an act that included the protection of the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley. Clark became the first guardian of the Grant and guided many parties throughout his beloved big trees and valley. He wrote books about the Yosemite Grant, the big trees, and Indians of Yosemite. During this time, Galen Clark selected the site for and dug his own grave. He also chose the boulder for his headstone and had his name carved in it, and he even planted the giant sequoias that surround his plot. Clark accomplished so much because his supposed imminent demise never materialized. He died, not in his forties but a few days before his 96th birthday!

Many other headstones mark the last resting places of all sorts of people from the early days in Yosemite’s history. Some people who died here were on vacation. Some were settlers or homesteaders, old-timers or infants, hotel proprietors or common laborers. Each gravesite also marks a story. Many of these stories entwine with one another like strands in a rope that spans a century or more. Some stories are short and cryptic. Some, like those of Native Americans buried here, are so hidden we may never know them.

If you would like to visit the Yosemite Cemetery, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Guide to the Yosemite Cemetery at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. From the front of the visitor center, walk west past the museum building and then cross the street. The entrance to the Yosemite Cemetery will be directly in front of you. Wander among the monuments and markers, read the stories in the booklet, and let yourself be transported back in time, and listen to the echoes of Yosemite’s past.