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• Record group: Record Group 233: Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789 - 2006 (National Archives Identifier: 560)
• Series: Petitions and Memorials, compiled 1820 - 1968 (National Archives Identifier: 560068)

• NAIL Control Number: NWL-233-PETITIONAG-52AH212-1

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To the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir,

Whereas at a meeting of the Sierra Club of Saturday, November 5th 1892, said club being a corporation formed for the purposes, to wit: “To explore, enjoy and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them; to enlist the support and co-operation of the people and the government in preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada Mountains,” a resolution was introduced and unanimously adopted directing the Board of Directors to prepare a memorial to Congress against Bill H. R. 5764 introduced by Mr. Caminetti and to use every effort to defeat it,

Therefore the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club in accordance with the above resolution do respectfully and emphatically protest against the diminution of the Yosemite National Park situated in California as contemplated in Bill H. R. 5764 introduced by Mr. Caminetti and referred by the House of Representatives to your honorable committee

As shown in the accompanying map all

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the territory outside of the blue lines is to be taken out of the Yosemite National Park Reservation, which would

First: endanger in T. 5 S. R. 25 E. and R. 26 E. and T. 3 S. R. 25 E. the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, a river on whose waters the irrigation of the whole San Joaquin Valley is dependent.

Secondly: in T. 8 S. T. 9 S. R. 19 E. + T. 8 S. T. 9 S. R. 20 E. it will denude the watersheds between the branches of the Tuolumne River and Merced River of the most valuable timber, destroy forests which in their magnificent growth form an attraction to visitors not only from the State of California, but from all over the United States and from abroad and although provision is made in said bill to reserve a tract one mile square containing the Tuolumne Big Tree Grove, and also a similar tract about the Merced Grove the destruction of the surrounding forest will necessarily cause a great danger through forest fires to these two groves of Sequoia gigantea, which ought to be and have heretofore been protected by the United States Government with singular interest.

Thirdly: The taking out of the Reservation of T. 2 N., T. 1 N. R. 19 E. will hand over to private ownership most valuable reservoir sites which ought to be jealously guarded for the benefit of the state at large.

Fourthly: The elimination of T. 2 N. R. 20 E., of T. 2 N. R. 21 E., T. 2 N. ½ T. 1 N. R. 22 E. of T. 2 N. ¾ T. 1 N. R. 23 E. of T. 2 N. ¾ T. 1 N. R. 24 E. will endanger the watershed of the

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tributaries of the Tuolumne River as it passes through the Grand Cañon of the Tuolumne River finally through Hetch-Hetchy Valley, a valley which in grandeur + uniqueness is in many respects the peer of Yosemite and will in future form one of the principal attractions of the Sierra Nevada of California.

If the territory of the Yosemite National Park should be reduced in accordance with the bill H. R. 5764, the dangers to guard against which the Park was orig- inally set aside, would again arise, the herds of sheep which now for two seasons have successfully been kept out of the reservation would denude the watersheds of their vegetation, the forest fires following in the wake of the herds would destroy the magnificent forests and threaten the reservation itself and the timber of price- less value to the prosperity of the State would become the prey of the speculator.

The Directors of the Sierra Club respectfully point out that Senate Bill No 3235 proposed by Mr. Paddock will meet any objections in the interest of mining or farming industries, if there be any, to the continuance of the present limits of the Yosemite National Park Reservation.

John Muir President Sierra Club

Warren Olney First Vice-President Sierra Club

J. H. Senger, Secretary Sierra Club

San Francisco, Jan 2nd 1893

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MAP OF THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

SITUATED IN TUOLUMNE, MARIPOSA, FRESNO, AND MONO COUNTIES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

COMPRISING 42 TOWNSHIPS, COVER- ING AN AREA OF ABOUT 1,500 SQUARE MILES, BEING APPROXIMATELY 900,000 ACRES OF LAND; LESS 36,111 ACRES CONTAINED IN THE YO SEMITE VALLEY

GRANT: ABOUT 700,000 ACRES OF THE YO SEMITE NATIONAL PARK IS MOUN- TAINOUS, WELL WATERED, AND HEAVILY TIMBERED WITH PINE, FIR, SPRUCE, HEMLOCK, TAMARACK, OAK, CEDAR, MADRONA, LAUREL, SEQUOIAS, AND MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY; 260,000 ACRES COMPOSED OF MOUNTAIN VALLEYS, MEADOWS, LAKES, STREAMS, ETC.

(Copyright 1891)

Left margin handwritten notes (originally vertical, rotated 90°):

All of the territory of the Yosemite National Park outside of the blue lines is under the jurisdiction of Congress, but reserved out of the Yosemite National Park.

Bottom margin handwritten notes (horizontal):

Townships 3 & 4 South Range 19 East and the West ½ of Townships 3 and 4 South Range 20 East are recommended by Secretary of the Interior Noble in his Annual Report for 1891 to be eliminated from the boundaries of the Yosemite National Park to accommodate farmers and miners located in that region.