Transcripts For CSPAN3 History Of Yosemite National Park 20140810

Fourth woman. Welcome you here tonight. I see some familiar faces and some new ones. By our newounded exhibition, which was two years in the making and created for you by an amazing team. It is largely inspired by the woman who you get to hear from in a minute, jen huntley. But we were thinking about creating a next mission on yosemite, the power of the place, the complications of the icon, the sacredness of the landscape all spoke to us and we narratives and are deeperd ebook delving into that beautiful and complicated human history. Tonight, you are in for a real treat. Jen huntley is an environmental historian of the sierra nevada. Assistant professor of humanities in reno. She is a true scholar and thinker and compassion and an intelligent. She was a treat to work with here as she was our lead historian on this project. She created a really powerful book that you can purchase. Tonight, she will unfold for you some of those complicated narratives of such a beautiful and powerful place. Without further ado, i would like to bring up fellow historian and dear friend jen huntley. Thank you for supporting the work we do. [applause]. Introduction is a hard act that introduction is a hard act to follow. I want to thank the staff. This has been a wonderful experience for me. I have done a Little Museum work before, but this is the first time i got to get involved in some territorial activity and people here were so supportive. Cannot imagine a better time i want to start out by saying, a century and a half ago, the Union Congress passed an act to set aside several acres of land that most americans had never seen or heard about. As a Recreational Park to be managed by the state of california. Point ina turning americas relationship with landscape. It introduced the concept of government managed land. As a trip to work as i started to work with Staff Members on this exhibit, we talked about creating something that would stimulate new ideas, new visions, to lead us into the yosemitesars of history. How can we talk about this place in a way that helps us move forward . Thate we stimulate some of in todays talk. These issueswn to for several reasons. Archives are full of wonderful artifacts documenting the variety of human experiences in reactions and controversies over yosemite. The current dominant variations of history we see in Popular Culture today as tourists to the park tend to oversimplify the Human Dimensions to this landscape. Encourage new questions and awaken new ideas about the relationship with the scenic and sacred landscapes of the sierras. Minutes, i want to focus on the role of humans in creating the landscape, both physically and culturally. I will talk about a couple of key individuals from the 19th century, the grant itself, and focus in on some human. Imensions lets see. Button. I hit the wrong this is of these 70 Yosemite Valley. Can you guys see that ok . Or patty, kami get a focus on that . As i just said, 150 years ago, Congress Passed the yosemite grant act. Recognized this fact as the First Step Towards a National Park system. It is worth noting a few things about the grant that distinguishes it on its own. L crated by the union while created by the union it created an odd dynamic a lot of the gears with a lot of confusion over the state or federal government had the final say in management. The initial grant only encompassed Yosemite Valley, as indicated on the map. Rim, in 1890, the federal government created the Forest Reserve in the high country around the grant that people started calling yosemite park. Two yosemite parks. Wasactual grant itself distinguished in the 1920s. Colleagues there is still quite a bit of angst over that. Yosemite is something that californians worry about. Here is something that i would like you guys to hang onto. The grant mandated the private enterprise would drive Part Development and funding to assist him of research. A system of research. Up until very recently, most people that thought about the grant retroactively as the first step in the National Park creation, which is true, and environmental conservation, not true. Few have recognized the critical informingontext lay americans ideas about the landscape or the role played in the Union Congresss vision. Exactly who came up with the idea or why. The california senator referenced a group of men of taste and refinement. Their names and motivations have been lost to history. That is not stopped plenty of my ans frome historic in speculating. Somemakes for interesting conversation. I always tell my students to pose the so what question. Aboutse details tell us americas relationship with the environment . How can human stories help us understand this moment in history and its implications for us a little better . New slide. I have spent the last 20 years of my life researching and writing about james mason. The crazy looking fellow in the picture. It makes sense to start this human story with him. He was in english in the grant to the California Gold rush immigrant to the California Gold rush. He led artists, photographers, in two yosemite after his first visit. He moved his family there in 1864. He is a controversial figure because after the grant was to evict thes told property and probably launched a series of lawsuits. Because of this lawsuit, he has been ignored or interpreted as a land grabbing developer. However, the assumed grant the practice continues to this day. Enterprise,rivate what was it . We can find a clue in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court which use this case to affirm that the United States congress had the power to do whatever it wanted with public land. Regardless of who lived there. This included granting large tracts of land to railroad corporations, industrial cattle ranches, and other corporate interests regardless of who sold the land previously. If the property had not been surveyed and they did not have a clear title, they could lose it to more powerful interest. Nowhere does this opinion say anything about environmental preservation or even National Parks even though it was written in the same year that yellowstone National Park was created. The case was an affirmation of the triumph of the postcivil war government. His claim to private property within the grant, a claim that would undermine the power of yosemites commissioners to control that development. The civil war is critical to understanding the grant. The civil war was the most violent and traumatizing experience in all of American History. Images of yosemite hutchings happened to be married to her. The rest of that you can read about in my book. Or afterwards, we can talk about it. Brief im rambling about oversimplifications this brief overview of reshaping the yosemite grant illustrates multiple ways humans created yosemite as an icon. Culture, politics, California Gold rush, the civil war, personal ambitions, romantic rivalries, and social idealism, all of these forces and more came together to create the tipping point, and now, gladwells terms, where new fused withealities deepseated ideologies to forge the beginnings of an marimekko of American Environmental conservation. Most importantly, we need to understand that yosemite itself is a human creation. I know that contradicts most of what we hear and understand about us. We are inclined of thinking about yosemite like a natural spectacle. Something that humans can only mess up. The story of the yosemite grant reminds us that humans, many different ones, are responsible for bringing this place into public consciousness in the first place. I have to get on my soapbox and say, this is why i get frustrated with people who want to give all of the credit to abraham lincoln, as wonderful as. E was as a president lincoln himself seemed to have nothing to do with the grant of evidence i mean it. He might have been a little preoccupied in 1864 not only fighting the bloodiest war in all of American History ever, but he also had to run for reelection. He was losing badly in june of 1864. There were other things on his mind. That we today want it today to be about him in my mind points to our need for simple stories and simple heroes, like the ones we see on tv who make everything happen in a half an hour. Really, how does that help us understand the real dynamics that go into creating or aintaining or moving forward public resource like yosemite . Note, i want to broaden the topic of this talk to look at the role that humans have played in shaping yosemites physical reality. I know what you are thinking, yosemite is a cultural clear creation, block, block. Seriously, nobody built those waterfalls, right . No human being sliced halftone in half. That is true enough. Millennia,ng back have had enormous impact on two of the most powerful natural elements in yosemite. Fire and water. Part of my story starts with our current world and loops back through time to illuminate some of the ways we have shaped yosemites physical landscape. Did it again i keep pushing the wrong button. Now im pushing the other wrong button. Help. I was going so well. Excuse me for just one moment. [laughter] ago, a little over a year ago, a little less than a started on thee rim of the river canyon that rapidly started to spread out of control. It destroyed many acres of the densely many square miles of dense forests. As it was fire, named, was the most explosive and distractive fire in north america and over 700 years. The destruction some say was equivalent to a Small Nuclear bomb. Sterilee miles burned down into the ground, killing all the microorganisms in the ground below. News thatear in the our warming and drying climate is leaving those of us in the west to experience a new normal. The rimfire has a lot to teach us about this new normal, especially when we understand it in its historic context. Ok, let me see if i can get the button right. Look, i did. In this map, each color represents a day of the fires spread. Do i have a pointer in this . No. The fire started [inaudible] it grew with the yellow and the green. Each of those colors is one day of burning. Andcan see the big yellow the big green are areas where the fire actually doubled in in a a 24hour 24hour period. It literally exploded across the landscape. There were many causes of this, but essentially, a very dense centuryold fuel load had a lot to do with it. You can also see in this map that as the fire came out to the edge of yosemite National Park, and that is down here on the lower right where you see the blue and the purple, right about where the yosemite National Park boundary is, it slowed to a near halt. Yosemite did not have the fuel load of Stanislaus National forest where the fire spent most of its time. Yosemite National Park has been practicing prescribed burn policies for almost 30 years. What does this have to do with history . This is the Pacific Northwest, just just as the Pacific Northwest has its rain forests, we in california have our fire forests. Fire, whether set by lightning or humans, clears up the underbrush, encourages the growth of edible plants, facilitates the trouble of hunting, and makes it more difficult for predators to close in on family members. Sequoias require fire to propagate. These fires almost let almost never lead to the catastrophic fires we westerners now expire every year because they keep the fuel load down and prevent accidentally set fires from running out of control. Valley,ages of yosemite like this one published in 1855, illustrates open savanna meadows that characterized the man sleep the landscape. This image down here on the right are the acorn cashes in Yosemite Valley that were built by native americans. After the arrival of euro americans, some of the mountain dwellers who worked the land carried forward the indigenous fire paris practices. Portuguese sheepherders, some of whom married Indigenous People, had a tradition of setting fire to forest underbrush. Technique, derogative way known as pie youd forest rein california payute forestry in california. To James Hutchings and other men like them, the illiterate and powerless herders were simply people intent on destroying their precious yosemite vistas. Hutchings used the image of the a puffed locusr sheep to advocate in the 1880s to extend the boundaries of the grant and later to encourage the toation of the National Park protect the watershed around Yosemite Falls from the loss of forests. They mistakenly imagined the herders fire would cause it. This campaign ignored the massive deforestation engineered by timber companies, the private corporations whose access to forest land was upheld in the decision. Indeed, the timber magnates, some of whom became friends and supporters of john meurer, forests emerging from fires. The interlocking of economic interests along with burn policies of pioneer environmentalists left a legacy of Fire Suppression to explode in the last year. So what . Story of sera fire not only points to historic consequences of mistaken policy positions. It offers a cautionary tale for propensity to oversimplify history. When we take people out of the stories, flatten them into caricatures, or reduce complex histories to comfortable soundbites, we lose the ability to make clear sighted policy based on understanding the complex dynamism of culture and environment. As the rimfire raged towards the reservoir, governor jerry brown declared a state of emergency should San Franciscos main water source become contaminated. Partly due to yosemites changed fire policies, partly due to the superhuman efforts of firefighters, this did not happen. The juxtaposition of wildfire and tamed water offers an opportunity to take another look at it another dimension of our relationship to the environment water the history of fire in the sea area in the sierra makes clear that the rim wildfire was actually a creditable result of a century of specific economic and policy decisions regarding forests. Is an othereservoir example of a wellknown story that becomes more complex upon closer inspection. For destroying a valley theeautiful as yosemite, Oshaughnessy Dam built in the 1920s could also be seen from a different perspective, which im going to float out here, as a progressive move on the part of the city of San Francisco to wrest control of its water supply away from the hands of corporate monopolies and place it in the control of elected leaders. Although there are plenty of other issues with the power manipulation, san franciscans today and joy. Mountain water straight out of their faucets due to process due to progressively minded civic leaders. I remind all of you to take a lovely glass of water on your way out. At one point, i wanted to figure out someway in this exhibit that we could explain to people that we are all Walking Around as yosemite. Are wate bodies wer couldnt quite. Of our bodies are water. We couldnt quite figure out how to put it on the wall. I have a little obsession like that. Reservoir this evil cast as the result of narrowminded citydwellers and the corrupt government ready to sacrifice the recently created yosemite National Park to urban development . That is the restore you here. As a photographer observed in the 1980s, hot chukchi ironically preserved a large chunk of northern new summit he parked as wilderness. Because the room is surrounded by a trail, the rim of the reservoir itself, a trail and not a road, and the area lacks the tourist euro amenities of this and the valley, most people arent ready to backpack into the Northwest Quadrant of the park. Sorry the area remains largely populated bears, and retail, little wildlife. [inaudible] removing the dam would compromise the relatively pristine wilderness area. In a country where over 45 of our freshwater supply is below epa standards for stoning or drinking, and more is being turned over to private Bottling Companies to be sold to the highest bidder, perhaps we shouldnt be so glib about letting go of such approach a precious resource. Me. s this perspective is not one that makes me a ton of friends in the environmentalist community. A more hope it provokes thoughtful reflection on our interdependence with the environment and ultimately a more nuanced approach to defending it. Hasophisticated technology yet been developed to replace water as the essential source of life on this planet after all. So what . And ignoring our convoluted human history, we can narratives, and we have done nothing to mitigate centuries of misguided policy decisions, nor for that matter rampant industrialization. By accepting some actions as good or bad without objectively analyzing them or their longterm impacts on both humans we forego the, intellectual tools of an engaged citizenry. And underneath us all, we are pretending to ourselves that is modern Human Society somehow away and apart from the environment, not deeply and irreversibly intertwined with it. Finally, in my mind most importantly, the dominant narrative of yosemites past empowers citizens to see ourselves primarily as passive spectators of yosemite and other scenic places, not as engaged, active coowners, which we are, deeply invested in the Overall Health and longterm legacy of this place. Depicted as heading off summits with nothing to summits with nothing but a bag of oatmeal and tea, we were led to believe this man had superhuman qualities. Everould we mere mortals hope to emulate this apparently half crazed visionary . By preferring environmental heroes who lack visible means of support, we subconsciously denying our own potential role in forging sustainable longterm relationships with our environment, both the ordinary and nearby, as much as the spectacular and sacred over there. From this perspective, maybe hutchings had a lot more right than he is being given credit for. Along with those Indigenous People and shepherds who lived in the mountains. More engaged, active Public Relationship with yosemite look like . That would be something to open up for discussion, but here are a couple of thoughts. It might begin with an open public discussion of the system where only 17 percent of the private monopoly profits made in yosemite go to fund the park itself. That is very high in the National Park service where the average is more like 5 . Dollars words, taxpayer pay for the infrastructure, but monopoly corporations make massive profits in those places. Why do we think about that . Be a system where yosemite administrators have a more open, more accountable dialogue with park visitors about the environmental, social, and political values at play in yosemite, so that fewer issues and up in the courts. It might look like with the implementation of the 1974 Yosemite Management plan survey rebuild, or openness to the roundhouse for yosemite and other california Indigenous People to create community and ceremony in their ancestral homeland. When we let go of the idea that yosemite can only be cared for by a lead environmental visionaries and the benevolent federal government, we open up a far more creative opportunities for the rest of us to get involved. The yosemite grant was the result of multiple, sometimes competing forces, publishers, artists, and photographers, but also private entrepreneurs, selfserving politicians, idealistic sawmill builders, basket weavers, scientists, and theologians. Originsty of yosemites should not only remind us of the Mysterious Forces that make up our public institutions, but also inspire us to creative and dynamic engagement with the future of yosemite and other american icons. [applause] i didnt want to end with my speech. I wanted to end with this one. I have always loved this picture because i had a short, stocky grandmother who wore camel coats all the time and collected these headscarves that were very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Mylways think that is grandmother. She loved yosemite. Now i have to do some shameless selfpromotion. This is my book. Any questions . Yes, we have a microphone. Use theant to microphone, if people have to use the microphone speak out you would prefer them to use the microphone . Go ahead and stand up and maybe work . L that come around. Up. E hello. Can you hear me . This is such a wonderful example of how complex the human and nature relationship is. I would like to know what you see as far as the futures of how we value, defined, and shaped yosemite park. Did historian everybody here that question, or would you like me to repeat it . What was your name . Jennifer i should be able to remember that. Jennifer was asking, what do i see as some of the future ways that we should be thinking about yosemite and so forth . I would start with that issue about the concessions. Im not as wellversed in the recent history of yosemite. 1980sow that in the before Delaware North was chosen as the concessionaire that there was a talk of having a nonprofit structure in the park where all of those profits would be plowed back into park management. My conversation with california mete park visitors tells that model is being tested in some of the california state parks. I think one thing we could think about is that material relationship, how does that work, and how what is the best way to think about that moving forward . Next. More . Michael, come over. We dont have a remote mic . He is coming. Is a question of history, which is one of my biggest interests. First of all, do you know if there was any discussion coming up with the yosemite grant, echo is given our discussion of keeping it in federal ownership and protected rather than turning it over to the state . Ok, so michaels question is, was there any discussion at the ofning of the yosemite grant whether it should stay under federal control and not move it to the state of california . To the best of my knowledge, no. Ishink the reason for that there was so little precedent for the federal government kind of micromanaging at that level. Obviously, the civil war did have some implications as far as states rights and federal rights go. I think there was a real hesitation. I dont even think people really thought about it in that way. That,t following up on why was it not until 1906 thought it was a 1906 but the valley and grove finally became part of the National Park, but as you mentioned, it was something so going on to the 1920s. Why did it take that long . I think it is sort of the minute shot of how bureaucratic finishedtually get off. Effectively in 1906, it did become part of the National Park, but the state of california kind of dragged its heels on actually signing off those final papers. I think people were having a little bit of regret at doing that, but it was too late really. Thank you. Thank you for your question. More questions awesome. Hi. You are . Bert. Name is i want to focus on concessions. Book several years ago by a National Park Service Ranger about the history of concessions in yellowstone. Back in the day, it was hideous. My first question is, do you know comparatively how much acreage or percentage of the total budget, if you were to work out that way, is going to concessions now compared to 100 years ago . I dont know comparatively. One hundred years ago, everything it was really a different animal. The amount of acreage that was in the National Parks today compared to then, it is hard to do that. The one thing i can tell you is that across the National Park is 4 ofthe average concessionaire profits go back into the park service itself. 4 6 . At 17 is really high, but i dont know what it was we always say, back in 1920s, back in the it was still so haphazard. Was no real government system for providing amenities and services. They really relied on these entrepreneurs to give people a place to stay. They interest is not just economic, but it is also the resources. I used to work at allen rock park, which was established as a park the same year that yosemite , this grant was signed. And allen rock park was called little yosemite. That same year. In that 130 years ago park in the foothills of san jose there was zoo. There were seven cafes. There was a streetcar line with the power source that ran all the way from downtown san jose. There were many highly developed mineral springs. The springs are still there. But people used to bottle the stuff there and sell it. All of that was privately operated. The8 and they also had second largest indoor Swimming Pool in the american west. So it was nuts. So one of the things Going Forward with concessions is to just bird dog what they do in the landscape. One. And secondly, make sure if they actually have a contract that specifies they have to provide services and whatever the infrastructure is, that they maintain it. Because that is why it fell apart. It does not last. So you are speaking from personal experience. [inaudible] the question is, what is the footprint of concessions structure . At allen rock park, they a rail car. O and do justice to your question because it is a long and convoluted history. The interesting thing about yosemite is for many people who love yosemite it seems selfevident that you go there and hike and commune with nature. But for a lot of people and for a lot of the 20th century, that was not adequate. They wanted to bring more and more people there. They felt the need to provide entertainment. Saloons, billiard halls, bath houses. Fire falls. You could see the video there. I love that video. I never saw it. Our and really, its changing aesthetic. Its athletics aesthetics that changes. In the 1970s, the concessionaire was connected to disneyland. Hey proposed building a gondola from the valley floor to glacier point. They also proposed building a seven story parking garage. Gasp parking garage. But you have to admit, parking can be a problem in the park. So the problem is, the problem isat yosemite has is that th question has bedeviled the administrator since the 1970s. Environmentale concerns, peoples expectations of coming to the park. You remember from being there as a child. Going there year after year. Most people want the yosemite they remember from their childhood, right . And then the concessionaires and most people that want to be entertained, how does an administrator, how does the park, how do we balance all these competing needs . Back in the 1970s, Yosemite Management created a Yosemite Management plan survery. Y. Very sophisticated survey tool which we have in our archives that got sophisticated levels of information from people about balancing that exact thing. Yet, it has never been implemented. Efforts to implement Something Like that in the yosemite river plan,the merced river has met with vehement legal challenges. Everything is just stuck in the courts. And moving nowhere. So that is part of the issue, part of the problem we have. There is no effective, right now, no effective way to move that conversation forward. So, its fascinating, though. Yes . Do you mind coming up, p lease . Sorry. Given that hundreds of square miles were damaged in the rim fire last year, i am wondering whether new policies have been put in place on an emergency basis to make sure it does not happen either in use 70 either in yosemite or anyother park . And your name it . S . Shes asking, given the destruction of the rim fire, have any more sensible policies been put into place either the National Forest or in yosemite . In november, we are going to be having a panel a discussion that discusses that very question. If you are interested in learning more, put that on your calendar in november. There are going to be fire policy experts coming in talking about that. All i can say is i think in the National Forest, no. But in yosemite, yes. I mean, yosemite did learn from history and science and has been pursuing a prescribed burn policy for many decades. That is one of the reasons why the rim fire could not move very far into yosemite. National forests are much more difficult to implement anything like that because they are economic territories. They are managed for timber companies. Mandate as clear a the National Parks. And there are so many factors that go into this now. Now the fuel load is so high. Nobody knows how to reduce it, whether prescribed burns can work anymore. So, and then you have another problem which is epa monitors are so sensitive now that if the Stanislaus National forest decided to do prescribed burns the pollution would trigger pollution standards in nevada, and the National Forest would be subject to lawsuits from the people of nevada who are breathing the smoke. Two weeks i was sucking in ashes of yosemite last year in reno. It was terrible. That does not answer your question, sorry. Thank you for asking it. Hi there. Im an environmental historian. Yay my project is to write in environmental history of the San Francisco bay area. I finished. But no one will publish it. If you have got another publisher that will publish an environmental history, please let me know. Now your question. Try kansas. A couple of observations. Im going to dry stanford next. Well talk. At San Francisco that srink our water, 15 flow from san mateo county. The other thing [inaudible] of theakes collect 50 total water in the system. I stand corrected. That does include one lake over in Alameda County that is talaveras dam calavares lake. The other thing you do not realize when you look around the city that also is part of yosemite is that all those electric muni buses, electric streetcars, muni metro, all of the lights at the airport, all the electricity at the airport, all the electricity at city hall in separate cisco and all of the electricity in the public chools is hetch hetchy electricity. It allowed San Francisco to build the dam. And San Francisco was also supposed to get electricity from that from electric power plants which are owned by the city. Electric car plant owned by San Francisco. But we never got the power because pg e locked it 12 times. Ads had lots of political telling people to vote against it. The progressives had no money to promote people to vote in favor. Pg e had endless money to tell people to vote against it. Lost, except for one time back in the 1920s. Thats why we are still paying our electric bills to pg e instead of the city which would be cheaper because it is hydroelectric. Thanks, david. I had heard that story tangentially, but i did not know that. Thats kind of cool. Adam . Do we have another question or, . Comment . Yeah, come on down. Also, david, university of nevada press might be interested. Hi. I have more of a personal question. I was wonder what prompted you [inaudible[ you are volunteering here . What motivated me to study James Mason Hutchings. Is one of my favorite questions to answer because its so weird. Graduate student pursuing my phd and trying to settle on a topic for my dissertation, i had two favorite advisors. One of whom was a landscape studies expert. And the other person was a publishing history. Expert. And i wanted to create a dissertation that would combine publishing history and landscape history in the west. Ok . So i started just diving into the archives and mucking around, and i came across this character James Mason Hutchings who was publishing all this really cool stuff. He was publishing images of, 40 landscapes in the of california landscapes in the middle of the gold rush. I thought that is really interesting. I wanted to know how do the culture, the technology and the ing that wasrint available in california, how did peoplessture shaped attitudes towards the environment and how they treated it . And hutchings was a beautiful case study for that question. So thats what i wrote above for my dissertation. In my dissertation i eventually found out that he was famous for yosemite. But at that point in time, i was not interested in taking on the big guns out there, the al rentys and michael branches. Yosemite is too famous. I am still a little graduate student. I could not possibly write about this. But i did want to have a book published. I shopped my manuscript around. They said, you are going to write about yosemite, arent you . I backed into it. I think that is why am able to see some things other historians have not seen. Other historians come to yosemite saying i love yosemite. I want to talk about how wonderful yosemite is. I want to write history that talks about the wonderfulness. I came inotto this story kicking and screaming going, what about hutchings . I like this guy. What i started saying about what other people have written about him, it ticked me off. This is not the guy i know. This is not the guy i spent so much time dating in an archival way. Just archivally. Its all good. Sixthean, im a generation californian. Summersall my growing up in the sierras and i love yosemite. Im not here to like destroy yosemite. Which is what some people are saying about me these days. Thanks whatever. It is actually kind of unpleasant. So does that answer your question whered she go . Yes . Ok, thanks. Anybody else . No . You sure . We could turn off the lights and we could talk informally. The love story everybody was just getting ready to pack up and walk out. I will try to do this really short and tease you. This, too, is controversial. Some of the things are not documented. He came to yosemite to work for hutchings. One of the beautiful ironies of history is that hutchings hired muir not only to build a sawmill and to build chicken coops and improve the hotel he owned, but while hutchings was going to the cape fort tand to the his side of the story in the lawsuit,h he was trying to get people to see things his way and he was very successful, actually. Thats a side story. He asked john muir to take care of the ladies. By whom he meant his motherinlaw and his wife. The thing that is interesting is that hutchings met his inlaws and his wfiife in San Francisco. He was a boarder in the boarding house. Florantha and hutchings were close in age, but she was married. Floranthasarried daughter at 17. Elviira had grown up in the city. She was an artist, very sensitive. She was very intellectual. When they moved to yosemite, the women really were there to, as laborers. They had to be cooking and cleaning all the time. It was easy for florantha. But elvira, it was hard on her, and she was lonely. She didnt feel like, she wrote very long, sad, pathetic letters about how she could not, this in the 19th century. This is in the historic record. She felt she could not satisfy her husbands sexual energies. And then a long comes john muir whos a dreamy, intellectual guy. And they would go off on the spot and icing excursions, botanizing excursions. Elvira fell madly in love with john muir. The controversial part is whether or not mur returned her affectionir. John muir. Destroyed many of his letters. He was writing to the wife of ezra carr. His jean died, john had correspondence destroyed. His heri destroyed even moirs his heirs destroyed even more. The record of what muir felt about elvira was carefully expunged from history. Take that for whatever you want. Historians, therefore, say, well, we cant know. But i have to say, this is pure speculation. I am launching into pure speculation. N muir hungjoh out a lot together in 1872. That is the summer that muir drew on for his narrative my summer in the high sierras, glorious,rites in inspired line which about the mounts. He developed this religious philosophy about nature. He writes like a man i n love in love. It could have been an intellectual love. Hes frustrated. This is a married woman. Shes off limit. In 1872 when hutchings came back from the defeat of the lawsuit, elvira told him about her feelings for john muir. Hutchings was not happy. Not happy at all. They ended up getting divorced. P, the terms of the divorce were for her to leave the children with hutchings and florantha. So she left her whole family. Ontomuir was moving another, his wife wanda, who family. A wealthy piece of the the story that gets me is that elvira ended up living with a sister and going a little crazy in her later years. She stopped speaking. She could not speak. Was interesting. And tangential to that, i want to say that one of the cool things that has happened to me after writing this book is ive become really good friends with Sally Montgomery who is hutchings ands great, great granddaughter. She reached out to me. I did not even know she existed. She said, you are the first person who has ever given my ancestor his fair hearing in history. Im like, that is the way i see it. She told me that growing up her parents and her grandparents refused to talk about James Hutchings like he was a shame to the family. She had an uncle that burned a trunk full of family memorabilia, because he said he has a bad man. That is the way the family had learned about him. Sally is awesome. Anyway. Anybody else . Go ahead. Michael, one more time. [inaudible] the case that hutchings loss hutchings. Lowe v. The point of issue was what was the prevention claim. You guys have heard about the homestead act. This is where pioneers go out, they settle the land, build their houses. If that land is surveyed, you can file a claim and you can gain title within a short time. Beene land has not officially surveyed, you had to file what was called preemption claim. Claim said youmption were fulfilling all of the terms of the homestead act. Prevention claim to two quarter sections in the Yosemite Valley. He was fulfilling the ltter of t the letter of the law. He was improving it. Farming it, building structures, building roads. That is what people wanted to have happen in the west. Yosemite came along. First of all, the grant passed congress under the pretense that nobody had any property, any claim to any property. Not, aside even from the indigenous californians who had claim to that property. And so when the yosemite commissioners told hutchings he was welcome to lease the house he had built and raised his children in, that he could lease it for 10 years. He used very call a full language in response to that. Of Public Opinion was completely on his side, because that was the practice americans had been doing going back to the 1780s. So the yosemite grant and the lowe v. Hutchings really transformed that whole process around the preemption claim. Yeah. More technical than that. Hopefully that gives you a review. Ok . Come upe to mingle and and have words if you wnant to. Thank you all for coming. This is a great turnout. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] thank you. You are watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan 3. Follow us on twitter at cspan ourory for information on schedule, upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. While congress is on break this month, cspans primetime features a wide range of topics. This week a debate on americas greatness. Veterans health care and attaches from the center for Disease Control and prevention. We visit the Atlanta Press club for the future of news, and we take a history tour looking at the civil war. Throughrime time monday friday 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Let us know what you think about the programs. Call us at or you can email us at comments cspan. Org. Join the conversation. Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. Each week, American History tvs reel america brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. From the Lyndon Johnson president ial library, a 1968 documentary produced by th