NONE can deny that Yosemite National Park is one of the most incredible of landscapes on the planet. And, when did the early residents of Utah first hear of this fantastic place?
The June 9, 1856 edition of the Deseret News had this headline:
"The Valley of the Yo-Semity, California, and its Stupendous Waterfalls."
The D. News received news from the Mariposa Gazette of a visit by J.M. Hutchings and two other men.
The group started their journey from and Indian village in Fresno, accompanied by two Indian guides.
(Yosemite was believed to have been first discovered by non-Indians four years earlier, in 1851.)
The men described their first view of Yosemite Valley as "singular and romantic" and that "we were almost speechless with admiration at its wild and sublime grandeur."
They noticed the "Captain," as it was called by Native Americans (and eventually to be titled "El Capitan." This was a 2,800-foot-tall slab of granite.
Opposite of the granite monolith, was a "magnificent waterfall about seven hundred feet in height." (This was likely Bridalveil Falls.) Passing further up the Valley, they noticed more immense walls of rock, one looking light a lighthouse, with pine trees forests all over the area.
Next, they noticed an even taller waterfall, some 2,200 feet in height -- and they declared it the tallest in the world (definitely Yosemite Falls).
Later, they noticed a third spectacular waterfall, this one about 1,500-feet-high (Perhaps Vernal Falls).
The men said trout, grouse and pigeons were all plentiful in the Valley.
(NOTE that Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in the U.S., but not the world, though in the 19th Century, it was believed to be No. 1.)
-In the summer of 1888, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that one of its correspondents has visited Yosemite. He boasted of 350-foot-high trees and of a 2,000-foot-tall waterfall, highest in the world, as printed in the Aug. 24, 1888 edition of the newspaper. This is the first report of someone from Utah actually visiting Yosemite.
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