Hetch Hetchy Indians, Our beautiful Valley, but always left out of the story.

Famous Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Geologist: Francois E. Matthes.

From: The Sierra Nevada: The Range of Light edited by Roderick Peattie, a collection of writers.

Page 304

“I accompanied Francois E. Matthes on a geological expedition to Yosemite back country one year. We were camped on Moraine Ridge east of Hetch Hetchy, and he sent me scouting for granite contacts up a long ridge that ended at Haystack Peak. I t was early September, and I was soon fining more than granites. Townsend solitaires were coming back into sketches of song: at eight thousand feet I found a lone mortar hole on a level surface of rock near a spring and knew this was a one-time migration route of Piute [Paiute] Indians. Near nine thousand feet I came into a pure forest of hemlock. I was walking quietly through its gravelly glades when suddenly I was startled by one of natures’s explosions. A dozen or so Sierra grouse took off just above my head with a startling whir of wings. To calm myself I stood watching them as they disappeared in several directions. Then I felt tiny hemlock seeds raining down on me from the disturbed cones. Several times grouse did this to me, and each time I was just as startled.

By winter they have adjusted to a remarkable change in diet. No matter to them that snow covers their chosen parts of the range to considerable depths, blanketing out their normal sources of food. They can live very well on tender buds and fir needles. So all winter they live in trees, roosting and feeding in dense conifers, even up toward timberline.”

Albert Bierstadt's painting of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Lady Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming wrote about her travels. She wrote this about her trip to Yosemite and about the indigenous Native Americans in Hetch Hetchy valley in her book "Granite Crags of California" dated 1888;

"farther on the same mighty ridge, a series of majestic pinnacles of glittering white granite. They are known as the Minarets. All these peaks and minarets are considered inaccessible, which, I should think, was the sole reason which could possibly inspire any one with a wish to climb them.

The travellers did not seek a nearer acquaintance with the Lyell and Merced groups, though somewhat tempted by hearing that that region is accounted one of the wildest and grandest in the Sierras; but their chief anxiety was to visit a beautiful valley of the same character as this, called the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. It has only recently been discovered, having been one of the sanctuaries of the Pah-ute [Paiute] Indians, who reckon on always finding there an abundant acorn-harvest.

This valley is quite easy of access from the lower end, a trail having been made the whole way from Big Oak Flat. From the upper end, it is a difficult but very beautiful expedition; and this was the route naturally preferred by these young men, to whom a little extra climbing was no objection.

So from Mount Dana they returned to their former camping-ground at Soda Springs, and thence started on a twenty-miles march down the Tuolumne canyon, a deep and narrow gorge, through which the river rushes between precipitous granite cliffs, over a bed of glacier-polished rocks, making a rapid descent without any great falls, but forming, a succession of most beautiful shelving rapids and foaming cascades. There are two perpendicular falls,..."

Lady Gordon-Cumming also did several paintings and drawings of Yosemite, Including this upclose section of her "Indians at Mirror Lake" showing Paiutes in Yosemite;

Lady Gordon-Cumming's drawing is of a camp of Paiutes. Which can be easily identified by the Paiute style cradleboards and Paiute basket hat worn the woman seated front-left. Paiutes were the only tribe in the area to wear this style of hat. Also Paiutes were know to camp at Mirror Lake.

Grizzly bear pelts can be seen hunging in the trees in Cummings painting above.

John Muir wrote in his "Yosemite in the Winter (1872)";

"...As soon as bipeds left Yosemite, bears came in; not to grunt flattery to the falls, but to dine upon ridden-to-death horses. One burly old chief was killed at Nevada Falls by a party of Mono Indians. He was a brown or cinnamon bear, the prevailing species of the region."

Guns brought the rapid end to California Grizzly Bears and quickly endangered the smaller bears around Yosemite. Where once the Mono Indians hunted bears with obisidian brought in from the Mono Lake area, the guns gave the Indians more of an advantage.

The woman in the front right is pounding acorns which we Paiutes called that action "Pota".

Josiah D. Whitney was appointed state geologist of California in 1860. Whitney, along with William H. Brewer, Clarence King, Lorenzo Yates, and others, made an extensive survey of California, including the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite region. Excerpts on the Indians of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite;

"This led to another expedition into the Valley by the Mariposa battalion, who killed some and drove out the rest of the Indians; these took refuge with the Monos, on the eastern side of the Sierra, but got into difficulty there, and, escaping with a lot of stolen horses, were followed back to the Yosemite by the Monos, where a battle was fought resulting in the almost entire extermination of the Yosemite tribe. Since that time the Valley has been annually visited by the Monos at the time of the ripening of the acorns, for the purpose of laying in a stock of this staple article of food; but the number of Indians actually and permanently resident in and about the Yosemite or the Mariposa Grove is very small. Like the rest of the so-called "diggers" in California,..."

and;

"The Hetch-Hetchy may be reached easily from Big Oak Flat, by taking the regular Yosemite trail, by Sprague’s ranch and Big Flume, as far as Mr. Hardin’s fence, between the South and Middle Forks of the Tuolumne river. Here, at a distance of about eighteen miles from Big Oak Flat, the trail turns off to the left, going to Wade’s meadows, or Big Meadows as they are also called, the distance being about seven miles. From Wade’s ranch the trail crosses the middle fork of the Tuolumne, and goes to the "Hog ranch," a distance of five miles, then up the divide between the middle fork and the main river, to another little ranch, called "the Cañon." From here, it winds down among the rocks, for six miles, to the Hetch-Hetchy, or the Tuolumne Cañon. This trail was made by Mr. Joseph Screech, and is well blazed and has been used for driving sheep and cattle into the Valley. The whole distance from Big Oak Flat is called thirty-eight miles. Mr. Screech first visited this place in 1850, at which time the Indians had possession. The Pah Utes still visit it every year for the purpose of getting the acorns, having driven out the western slope Indians, just as they did from the Yosemite."

Whitney even calls the Paiutes "Diggers", which was done quite often. Like most whites during that time Whitney could not tell the difference. They did not know that Chief Tenaya's band was primiarly made up of Mono Paiutes. That is why the Paiutes took Tenaya in. They would have never taken in a group of Miwoks because Mono Paiutes and Miwoks were enemies during that time. It was Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell, one of the only men to author a book that met Chief Tenaya and his band. Bunnell wrote "The Discovery of the Yosemites, 1851..." In his book he wrote;

and;

and;

Bunnell also wrote that Tenaya spoke Paiute and not Miwok.Chief Tenaya's band was made up mostly of Mono Paiutes and Monos. You can download the book on this website and by following the instructions on this website the truth will appear;

http://www.esnips.com/web/YosemiteIndiansWebResearch

This explains the last two paragraphs in Whitney's writings. The Ahwahneechees were absorbed into the Mono Lake Paiutes when Tenaya's father took a handful of Ahwahneechee survivors to Mono Lake. That is were Tenaya was born from a Mono Lake Paiute woman. No Miwok man during that time could've entered Mono Lake and lived amongst war like Paiute in peace. Especially during a time when Paiutes and Miwoks were fighting...like over Hetch Hetchy.

Than after Tenaya and his band were wiped out, the remaining members of his band were taken back to Mono Lake and than absorbed again. So not only were they absorbed once by disease, they were re-absorbed again into the Mono Paiutes after Tenaya's death.

That is why they only found Mono Lake Paiutes living in both Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy during the early days of Yosemite National Park. Even the few who espaced the Yosemite massacre were Paiutes. So notice that during his time in both Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite, Whitney writes that he only knew of Paiutes in the area.

Miwok workers were brought up to Sonora, Tuolumne County, from Knight's Ferry and other towns along the San Joaquin Valleys Stanislaus River. Charles Webber made an agreement with Jose Jesus to have some of his people move up to Sonora to work in the Tuolumne area mines in exchange for provisions. Webber already had a good working relationship with Miwoks when he was employed as Sutter's overseer. Webber knew the Miwok chiefs like Moximo and Jose Jesus. James Savage took it a step further and married many daughters of the valley and foothill tribes.

What most people don't know is that the tribe above Big Oak Flat was Paiute from the earliest time of first contact. Most assume that only ONE tribe was along the Tuolumne. Dr. Bunnell writes;

Page 223

Major Savage sent Cow-chitty, a brother of Pon-watch-ee, the chief of the
Noot-choo band, whose village we surprised before we discovered the
valley [ed. note - outside of Yosemite along the southern fork of the Merced River], as chief of scouts. He was accompanied by several young warriors,
selected because they were all familiar with the Sierra Nevada trails and
the territory of the Pai-utes [Paiutes], where it was thought probable the
expedition would penetrate.

Captain Boling had in his report to Major Savage, complained of the
incapacity of Sandino as guide, and expressed the opinion that he stood in
awe of Ten-ie-ya. By letter, the Major replied, and particularly advised
Captain Boling that implicit confidence could be placed in Cow-chitty and
his scouts, as the sub-chief was an old enemy of Ten-ie-ya, and was
esteemed for his sagacity and wood-craft, which was superior to that of
any Indian in his tribe. Captain Bo ling had improved in health and
strength, and concluded to venture on his contemplated expedition over the
mountains. He at once ordered preparations to be made. A camp-guard was
detailed, and a special supply train fitted out. All was ready for a start
in the morning. During the evening Captain Boling consulted our new guide
as to what trail would be best to follow to the Mono [Paiute] pass and over the
mountains. Cow-chitty had already learned from our Po-ho-no [ed. note- supposed Miwoks] scouts and
those of his own tribe, the extent of our explorations, and had had a long
talk with Sandino as well as with Ten-ie-ya. The mission Indian and the
old chief tried to make the new guide believe that the Yosemites had gone
over the mountains to the Monos [Paiutes]. Indian-like, he had remained very grave
and taciturn, while the preparations were going on for the expedition.
Now, however, that he was consulted by Captain Boling, he w as willing
enough to give his advice, and in a very emphatic manner declared his
belief to the Captain that Ten-ie-ya's people were not far off; that they
were either hiding in some of

Page 224

the rocky canyons in the vicinity of the valley, or in those of the
Tuolumne.

page 231

They had been anxious to embroil us in trouble by drawing us into the
canyons of the Tuolumne [ed. Hetch Hetchy], where were some Pai-utes [Paiutes] wintering in a valley
like Ah-wah-ne [Ahwahnee].

So the Myth that the Tuolumne River was Miwuk is incorrect also...see above.  Upper Tuolumne River was Paiute and NOT Miwok.  The last paragraph talks about the Paiutes wintering in a Tuolumne Valley like Ahwahnee. That is no doubt Hetch Hetchy Valley which was a twin of Yosemite Valley.

Albert Bierstadt's "Hetch Hetchy Canyon". The hiding place for the Paiutes along the Tuolumne Canyon during the search by Mariposa Battalion with Tenaya as captive.

also in Bunnell's book

Page 227

"They are watching for you from the ridges nearer the
valley. We will not have to go far to find their camps. This trail will
lead us to the head of the Py-we-ack, where the Pai-ute [Paiute] or Mono trail
crosses into the upper valley of the Tuolumne; and if we don't find them
at the lake, we will soon know if they have crossed the mountains."

page 226

A cord had again been placed around his
waist to secure his allegiance, and as we were about to move ahead once
more, he very gravely said that if we followed the signs, they would take
us over to the Tuolumne.

The Indians in the high sierras during Tenaya's time were Tuolumnes, but Tuolumne Paiutes. They were aligned with Tenaya's band. They could not have been the Miwoks, because the Miwoks were already working for James Savage and Charles Webber before Savage went into Yosemite to capture Tenaya. In fact the Mariposa Battalion had Miwok scouts when they entered Yosemite as you can see above.

*Remember Lafayette H. Bunnell was one of the only men to meet Tenaya and his band.

John Muir, the father of the modern day environmental movement.

John Muir writes about his first visit into Hetch Hetchy that he took in 1872. He mentions Joe Screech one of the first men to enter the valley;

The Hetch Hetchy Valley

by John Muir

Boston Weekly Transcript, March 25, 1873

"Mr. Screech first visited this valley in the year 1850, one year before Yosemite was entered by Captain Boling and his party. At present there are a couple of shepherds’ cabins and a group of Indian huts in the valley, which I believe is all that will come under the head of improvements."

I had heard that the shepherd in Hetch Hetchy was a man named Smith. Even though the shepherd might not have been Basque. Basques and Paiutes had interwoven lives. Sheep herding in the Great Basin was what the Basques in the area were known for. Paiutes along with Spanish and French Basque sheepherders lived together in many areas along the Sierra Nevada. You can still see many Basque sheep herders in Mono County along Lundy Lake, Mono Village and other areas they both shared. Many Paiutes worked for the Basques as sheepherders from the foothills of eastern Sierra Nevada into the western side, even into Yosemite. Later on Yosemite Rangers told many sheep herders they could not use Yosemite National Park as a sheeping range anymore. John Muir notes the range of the early shepherds and Paiutes in Hetch Hetchy as they shared the valley in the earliest times in this writing with his conversation with Joe Screech.

Some of our modern day Mono Paiute families have Basque last names. They are the descendents of these Basque sheepherders and Mono Paiute unions.

Here is another reference by John Muir concerning Paiutes and shepherds;

"The other pass of the five we have been considering is somewhat lower, and crosses the axis of the range a few miles to the north of the Mono Pass, at the head of the southernmost tributary of Walker’s River. It is used chiefly by roaming bands of the Pah Ute [Paiute] Indians and "sheepmen." [Basque Shepards] "

The area John Muir is describing is in Northern Yosemite around the eastern entrance that we Paiutes took into Hetch Hetchy Valley.

French and Spanish Basques carved messages into trees along the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada. This technique is called Arborglyph.
You can find many trees along the eastern Sierra Nevadas with many different markings. They are similiar to Paiute Great Basin pictogprahs found along the rock walls in Hetch Hetchy Valley and throughout the area.

John Bingaman was a well known Yosemite National Park ranger who worked almost all his adult life in the Valley. He knew most of Indian people of Yosemite and the surrounding area. Ranger John Bingaman wrote several books about the lives of Yosemite Indians who worked in the park.

Yosemite National Park Ranger John Bingaman on horseback, ca. 1921

John W. Bingaman wrote in his book

Guardians of the Yosemite (1961), Chapter V, about his ranger patrols;

Pate Valley Indian Pictographs in the Tuolumne Canyon,
Yosemite National Park. Numic Great Basin [Paiute] style Pictographs - Petroglyphs are located around the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The same type are located all throughout Paiute and Mono Great Basin areas.

On a Patrol with Ranger Walquist to Pate Valley, we spent some time investigating the Indian Pictographs on the Canyon wall, one-fourth mile north of the Trail Camp. Ranger Walquist and I searched over the Canyon Cliff looking for other places where the markings and pictures have been reported for many years. We found one location near the House Pits averaging twelve feet in diameter. It appeared that the Indians occupied these places the year around. The age of the Pictographs could be anywhere from two hundred to one thousand years or even more. Pictographs are found in some fifty places throughout California. Nothing can be told of the significance of the characters contained in the markings. In no case do the present Indians know their origin or meaning. The Indians of this region do not make representations of natural objects as did the Indians of the Plains. The characters may be connected with some important enumeration of calendar keeping. These Pictographs were first discovered and reported by Mr. McKibben and E. W. Hamden, which they discovered while on an outing of the Sierra Club in 1907."

 We Paiutes would enter Hetch Hetchy Valley from the eastern side which leads to Piute Mountain and along Piute Creek [Paiute]. These natural landmarks with the "Piute" titles are located inside Yosemite National Parks northern area next to Hetch Hetchy. These are the places my people used to camp as we collected acorns and other things.

What we Paiutes find interesting and some what amusing is that Archealogists and Anthropologists cannot figure out how these pictrographs and petroglyphs got there. They are located around the high western Sierra Nevada.

Here one well known archealogists states;

 "Although found within the ethnographic territory of the Central Sierra Miwok, these petroglyphs stylistically resemble those of the western Great Basin. It is believed that the art at Cal-5 was left by pre-Miwok people of the Great Basin cultural affiliation."

That is because they were done by and left by Great Basin Paiute people. The Paiutes were there up till recent times until they were pushed out or flooded out of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Here is a well known Curtis photo of a Walker River Paiute creating pictographs - petroglyphs;

Here is a close up of a fimiliar looking section of the pictograph - petroglyph photographed by the archealogists above;

Notice the similiarity of both pictograph - petroglyph designs.

Pictograph - Petroglyph, the Numic Great Basin Indian tradition found around Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Are you able to interpret the petroglyphs?

There was an elder who once knew around Walker River, but he has passed on some 25 years now. I am not that old, but I will ask around.

Referrences of antique books of the Native people of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Printed ca. 1869

page 116

page 117, Pah Utahs or Paiute Indians in Hetch Hetchy Valley

Text from The New West;

"It has been seldom visited, the Pah Utahs (Paiutes), and the Big Creek tribes, disputing and fighting over its possession."

"It had been noticed for some time that the Indians possessed a place of hiding which was unknown to the whites."

from

Printed ca. 1878

page 294

page 295, Pah-Utahs or Paiute Native American Indians In Hetch Hetchy.

Text from Californian Pictures in Prose and Verse;

"The Hetch-Hetchy Valley, or “the Little Yosemite,” for instance, was, up to a very recent date, disputed ground between the Pah-Utahs (Paiutes), from the eastern slope, and the Big Creek Indians, from the western slope, who had several fights, in which the Pah-Utahs (commonly called Piutes) were victorious."

Main informant being Charles F. Hoffmann and the Screech brothers. Hoffamann had the largest mountain in Yosemite named after him.

 Left; Charles F. Hoffmann, early California State Surveyor, Right; Nate Screech, early Hetch Hetchy Valley pioneer.

website with information on Charles F. Hoffmann;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Hoffmann

San Francisco Vigilantes ca. 1850s.

John Jolly was a native Englishman born June 13, 1823.  He emigrated to the United States, sailing from Liverpool April, 1849, in the ship “Ajax,” Captain Adams, com­mander, as the second ship to leave England for the California gold fields.  On arriving in California, he mined on Woods’ creek, and in April, 1850, moved to his present place of residence at Gold Springs. Mr. Jolly was one of a company of ten who went to dam and mine the Stanislaus river, at the junction of the South Fork and main river, but the high water swept away the dam, and, nearly penniless, he, in company with a friend, went to mining at Gold Springs. A company commenced to mine on the ranch where Mr Jolly now lives, and by dint of persuasion, induced him and his partner to join them and assist to build a ditch, and to appropriate the water from Gold Springs to their mines in Sandy Gulch. A large cabin was erected where Mr. Jolly’s house now stands, and it was known in the early days as the “Fort.” Mr. Jolly has bought out all other interests in the land and water rights, and is now the sole owner. He married on the 4th of April, 1857, Amelia Moore, who was born in New York City, Feb. 20, 1835. Their children are Amelia, Hattie, Emma, Laura, John, Elenor and Carrie.

“A History of Tuolumne County, California” Published by B.F. Alley, 1882. Pg. 352.

John Jolly chronicled the early history of Tuolumne County. He authored “The Gold Spring Diary; The Journal of John Jolly”. His diary was transcribed and was in the first edition of the Tuolumne Historical Society. This is from the notes on the book.

Here are the notes about the earliest known encounters between early white gold rush miners and the Indians of the Sierra Nevada. 

   “83. Indians were more of a problem than has been generally recognized in the history of Tuolumne County. It was not safe for unarmed men to traveling isolated areas of the mountains for well over a decade following the discovery of gold. Only a year previously, Indians, a teamster employed in hauling ice, near Long Barn. Just two months previous to this entry, John David had been found murdered on the Emigrant Trail east of Lyons’ Dam, and the coroner’s jury found that the act had been committed by Indians.

   About June 28, 1861, Jacob R. Giddes, a dam tender for the Tuolumne County Water Company, was allegedly killed by Indians while at work near present day Pinecrest.

   In an entry of February 11, 1858, Jolly notes: “Lent my double gun to Frank Birk to take in the mountains with a lot of the boys who are going to clear out the Indians above Donnal’s Flat who it is reported have killed and wounded some of our men on the ditch.”

   In fairness to the local Indians, most of these attacks were probably the work of Paiute Indians from the Mono County area.”

Indicating that Paiutes were in the high Sierra Nevada and that the lower foothill Indians were docile and working with white miners. This indicates that the Paiutes were warriors and were the Yosemite Indians, while the foothill tribes had a working relationship with whites. The latter were not those fighting or resisting the invasion of miners. The area in question is Upper Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties. Indicating that included the area of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite that the war like Mono Paiutes held and attacked white interlopers and trespassers. Charles Weber had brought up around 100 San Joaquin Valley Indians to work in the foothill areas around 1848-1849.

John Bond Francisco's High Sierras.

Tuolumne County

History

CHRONOLOGY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.

1849 - 1881

1853.

July 7. Simson B. Merril, from Maine, killed by Indians, in the mountains, 20 miles east of Sonora.

1856.

Sept. 22. Chilefio killed by an Indian at Springfield, in a gambling quarrel.

1858.

Feb. —. Perley killed by Indians in the mountains east of Sonora.

1861.

July 6.  Jacob R. Giddis, Agent of the Tuolumne County Water Company, found murdered at reservoir near Strawberry. [Said to be Piute Indians].

Oct. 2.  Mexican teamsters murdered in the mountains 45 miles east of Sonora.

1864.

Apr. —. Numerous outrages on Chinamen by Indians and Mexicans were reported at this time.

1866.

Sept. 18. Ali Kew murdered and robbed at Soldiers' Gulch, probably by Indians.

1874.

Aug. 1. William Morgan, formerly of Columbia, killed by Indians.

1875

Aug. 22. J. Barbetas murdered an Indian woman at Montezuma.

1880

Feb. 1.  Michael Brown, of Brown's Flat, a miner of Scotch descent, aged 71 years, committed suicide by shooting. [Regarding Brown's Flat, John Muir in "My First Summer in the Sierra, 1869" page 40-41 wrote about a Mr. Brown at Brown's Flat];

"Brown had left his mountain home ere we arrived, but a considerable number of Digger Indians still linger in their cedar-bark huts on the edge of the flat. They were attracted in the first place by the hunter whom they had learned to respect, and to whom they looked for guidance and protection against their enemies the Pah Utes [Paiutes], who sometimes made raids across from the east side of the Range to plunder the stores of the comparatively feeble Diggers and steal their wives."

That the "Diggers" were "attracted" to move to the Brown's Flat area because they felt they would be protected from their enemies the Paiutes by the white man. So the Paiutes and "Diggers" did not have such a friendly trade as was written later to explain why they found Mono Paiute obsidian arrowheads in the area. They were not traded but used by the Paiutes in the high Sierras and western side.

Tuolumne County

History

A History of Tuolumne County, California - San Francisco, B.F. Alley, 1882.

"Big Oak Flat, situated on the south side of the Tuolumne River, was first located and the diggings opened by James Savage, a white man, who had acquired influence over a large number of Digger Indians, whose labor he utilized in his mines, paying them with provisions, blankets, etc., and also protecting them—or pretending to protect them—from the encroachments of other whites."

Above Big Oak Flat was the wild wilderness of Hetch Hetchy. Where many of the whites would not enter. The few who did, did so on their own peril. You can see that many of the early miners were killed by Indians (Paiutes) who did not care for trespassers. Meanwhile James Savage had made an agreement with lower foothill tribes to dig gold for him.

James Savage had made friends with Miwok Chief Bautista and he had his people work for him. This was years before Savage and the Mariposa Battalion had entered Yosemite and encountered Chief Tenaya and the Paiute Colony of Ahwahni.

Somehow Yosemite National Park Service never read that the Miwoks were already working for James Savage years before he entered Yosemite on March of 1851. The Miwoks had actually helped scout for Savage and the Mariposa Battalion.

William Keith's Hetch Hetchy Side Canyon, home of Native American Paiute Indians.

Ralph Kuykendall wrote that few people ventured into Hetch Hetchy Valley because of the difficult inaccessibility into the valley from the western side. He also writes that John Muir knew of Mr. Smith, a sheepherder, who owned parts of Hetch Hetchy Valley before it was flooded.

History of the Yosemite Region

Handbook of Yosemite National Park (1921)

by Ralph S. Kuykendall

HETCH HETCHY: EARLY HISTORY

"This interesting counterpart of Yosemite was discovered in 1850 by a mountaineer named Joseph Screech. Not long before that the Valley was a disputed ground between the east and west slope Indians, but the Piutes [Paiutes] from across the range had gotten the upper hand and for years were accustomed to spend some time in Hetch Hetchy in the fall of the year gathering acorns. Screech blazed a trail into the Valley and the rich meadow land became a grazing ground for sheep and cattle. Subsequently the discoverer and two or three other parties took up preemption claims covering most of the Valley floor. The State Geological Survey visited Hetch Hetchy in 1867, and a description of it was published in the San Francisco Bulletin in October of that year. When John Muir first visited the Valley in 1871 he found a sheep owner named Smith in possession. This was doubtless the Smith who later obtained the ownership of a large part of the Valley and of several desirable tracts in the vicinity, and for whom Smith’s Peak and Smith’s Meadow were named. Muir records the fact that in the seventies Hetch Hetchy was frequently called Smith’s Valley.

The number of tourists who visited Hetch Hetchy in the early days was very small, due to its inaccessibility and the superior attractions of Yosemite Valley. John Muir and other enthusiasts did much to acquaint the public with its beauties, but it was only after San Francisco started her fight to secure Hetch Hetchy as a reservoir site that it became widely known. Even then it was better known by report than by actual visitation. The Sierra Club included it in several of its annual outings. In 1905 some Stanford University students conducted a hotel camp there, under the auspices of the Santa Fé railroad, and that served to bring in a number of tourists."

Hetch Hetchy Valley, before it was flooded, had few visitors except Paiutes and Sheepherders. The Paiute natives to gather acorns and camp and the Sheepherders for grazing. It was a valley that was pristine and picturesque and few footprints had soiled.

William Keith Hetch Hetchy Side Canyon II

Wow … what an amazing look back in time at the hazards that existed for our grandmothers and fathers, and their parents. There may not have been terrorism, AIDS, or delayed flights to take out travel insurance against - but it certainly wasn't a utopian world. There was so much of the world that wasn't regulated … and so little education about what was out there. Travellers probably didn’t even know that they were trespassing where the Paiutes didn't want them to go. A sad situation all round - but one that seems to have come to a fairly positive state of events at the moment.