Gabriel Sovulewski in 1897 80 Mount Maclure and Its Glacier 80 Measuring the Mount Lyell Glacier 80 Ski Mountaineering Party near Mount Starr King 88 Climbing on the Three Brothers 88 Descending Lower Cathedral Spire 88 The Cosmopolitan, 1870-1932 92 The Lower Hotel, 1856-1869 92 Mill Built by John Muir in 1869 96 Glacier Point Mountain House, 1878 to date 96 Sentinel Hotel (left background), 1876 to 1938 96 The Ahwahnee Hotel, 1927 to date 96 Saddle Trip on a High Sierra Trail 96 Merced Lake High Sierra Camp, 1916 to date 96 Badger Pass Ski House 100 Ski Patrol at Work 100 Winter in the Yosemite High Sierra: Clark Range 100 Snow Gaugers Entering Tuolumne Meadows 100 Sketch map of Yosemite Region, illustrating discovery, first entry, east-side mining excitement, and some present-day culture 124 John Muir 148 Galen Clark 148 Colonel H. C. Benson 148 James M. Hutchings 148 Sierra Club Headquarters in Yosemite, 1898 148 William E. Colby 148 W. B. Lewis and Stephen T. Mather 164 A Presidential Party at the Grizzly Giant 164 Hetch Hetchy Valley before Inundation 164 Devils Postpile, Excluded from Yosemite in 1905 164 [Illustration: _By Thomas A. Ayres, 1855_ The First Drawing Made in Yosemite] CHAPTER I _DISCOVERY_ That picturesque type known as the American trapper ushered in the opening event of Sierra Nevada history. True, the Spaniards of the previous century had viewed the “snowy range of mountains,” had applied the name Sierra Nevada, and even had visited its western base. But penetration of the wild and snowy fastness awaited the coming of Americans.