One Hundred Years in Yosemite: The Story of a Great Park and Its FriendsRussell, Carl Parcher
History
One Hundred Years in Yosemite: The Story of a Great Park and Its Friends
Russell, Carl Parcher
Yosemite National Park (Calif.) -- History; Yosemite Valley (Calif.) -- History
In order that the beauty of the Big Oak Flat Road may be unimpaired,
arrangements have been made between the Sugar Pine Lumber Co., the
Forest Service, the State, and the Park Service to preserve the
roadsides through selective cutting of the larger trees and careful
removal of any trees that are taken out. Particularly interesting and
valuable stands of timber which should be preserved untouched will be
made the subject of exchanges between the Forest Service and the Sugar
Pine Lumber Co.
This land acquisition program was finally assured of success in July,
1937, when legislation authorized the Secretary of the Interior to
acquire the Carl Inn Tract, comprising some 7,200 acres of magnificent
sugar pine forest bordering the western boundary of the park. After a
year and a half of negotiations with the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber
Company, owner of most of the tract, agreement was reached on a price of
$1,495,500 to be paid by the United States. The purchase was consummated
early in 1939. Senator William Gibbs McAdoo and Representative John S.
McGroarty, both of California, were the ardent supporters who introduced
the bills, S. 1791 and H.R. 5394, in their respective houses.
Policies regarding the toll roads by which tourists could enter the park
constituted another perplexing problem with which the young National
Park Service was confronted. The routes had been privately constructed
and were privately owned and controlled by turnpike companies.
Government funds were not available with which to purchase them
outright. One company was persuaded to turn the Wawona Road over the
public in exchange for a grant for the exclusive rights to the route
during a certain number of years. The government assumed responsibility
for the maintenance of the road during this period. The owners of the
Coulterville Road could not be persuaded to agree to such a plan. As a
result, that part of it which is within the park has not been maintained
and, because of erosion, has fallen into disuse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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