The Fallen Monarch in Mariposa Grove by Zina Abbott

 

One of the better known and more prominent features in Mariposa Grove, which is in the southern tip of Yosemite National Park, is a tree known as the “Fallen Monarch.” It has been the scene of many a photo-shoot from the earliest days of tourism in Yosemite.

Tourists and horses, circa 1900

The exact date when the Fallen Monarch tree fell remains unknown. Though its bark and sapwood have decayed over centuries, its heartwood endures as a lasting monument. In the past, visitors would drive stagecoaches onto the massive trunk for photos.

 

The following from a report from 1901 that accompanied several photographs taken about that time:

…This grove stands in central California, 170 miles E.S.E. from San Francisco; the famous Yosemite Valley is about 16 miles distant at the north. It was only fifty years ago that white men first knew of the existence of these stupendous trees, and the first reports about their size—made by hunters—were treated as sportsmen’s fiction. As a matter of fact, several trees now standing here at Mariposa are 300 feet tall. 

About 24 feet in diameter

 This particular tree may have fallen before Columbus landed on American shores. It was probably alike, though comparatively small, during the time of Christ in Palestine. Now it is partly buried in a six-foot mass of leaf mould accumulated since its fall. The wood is still in good preservation, and there is enough material in this one trunk to cover three miles of generously wide roadway with substantial plank!

      It is almost impossible to believe the gigantic dimensions of these trees; but count for yourself the number of horsemen on this portion of the fallen trunk and you begin to appreciate its novel proportions. Compare the height of the horsemen on the ground with the diameter of the trunk.

     See encyclopædia articles on Sequoia; also J.D Whitney, The Yosemite Valley; John Muir, Our National Parks.

Yosemite Stagecoach and passengers

Yosemite Stagecoach & Turnpike Co., which served tourists arriving or leaving from the south, transported their customers through Mariposa Grove. On occasion, a stop was made so a photograph could be taken at the Fallen Monarch.

 

Stagecoach and horses on top of Fallen Monarch

During the years the U.S. Army units assigned to the Army of the Pacific were assigned to administer Yosemite National Park, several commanding officers arranged to have the troopers under their commands to be photographed at the Fallen Monarch.

Troop F, 6th Cavalry, 1899

Troop I, 15th Cavalry, 1901

Troop D, 9th Cavalry, 1904

People today who visit the Mariposa Grove still make a point to visit the giant tree—not known for its top branches brushing the sky, but for having made its bed on the earth for hundreds of years.

 It is still a popular place for a photo-shoot.

 

Of the three books set in Yosemite National Park, Anthelia Yosemite Bride includes more scenes from Mariposa Grove. It is currently on sale as an ebook and available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. For the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

Most of the Yosemite National Park scenes in Ardith Yosemite Bride take place in Yosemite Valley, many miles to the north of the Mariposa Grove. It is also on sale as an ebook and available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. For the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

Most of the Yosemite National Park scenes in Emily Yosemite Bride take place in either Yosemite Valley or on Glacier Point, which overlooks both the valley and the park toward the east. This romance is also on sale as an ebook and available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. For the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

Sources:

Mariposa Grove information plaques, Yosemite National Park

Mariposa Grove Wikipedia

Wikimedia Commons

The OTHER California Bridgeport by Zina Abbott

When it comes to research, sometimes I do not know which is worse: oodles and gobs of information to be waded through to find what I need or hardly anything at all.

My research for Bridgeport in Mariposa County, California, fell into the second category. I first became aware of this “ghost town” (actually, a few piles of rocks and a historical marker) while taking a drive with my husband in practically our own backyard.

 We have driven the main highway to and from Mariposa many times. However, as we passed the turn-off for Old Highway, I often wondered what there was to see. Imagine my surprise when we did take that route home from Mariposa one day, and I came across the historical marker for Bridgeport.

I knew that could not be a postal-designated place, for Bridgeport, California, is the name of the county seat in Mono County. Here is what I found out about the OTHER California Bridgeport.

Bridgeport in Mariposa County was founded by a New Yorker named Andrew S. Church, who came to California to mine gold, starting at Woods Creek near Sonora. After quickly deciding he did not care for the monotony of placer mining, he chose to open a merchandise store. He purchased a team, wagon, and supplies and started for the Kings River. However, he was only a few miles from Mariposa—where the wagon road crossed Agua Fria Creek, which was the site of the first big gold discovery in the county—when a peddler convinced him the area needed a trading post at that location. Mr. Church pitched his tent and started his business. In 1852, he constructed a frame house to replace his tent.

 

This crossing, which became known as Bridgeport, was actually on the Las Marisposas Land Grant owned by John C. Fremont. It was located about five miles south of Agua Fria, Mariposa County’s first county seat. However, it did prove to be a very profitable location, especially thanks to the 3,000 Chinese customers who ordered a lot of rice.

Mr. Church was involved with the first group of miners who went into Yosemite Valley to deal with the “Indian problem.” However, he did not like getting involved, so future forays he left to others and concentrated on his store.

Eventually, Mr. Church hired a clerk, Seth Washburn of Vermont. Seth, the second of fourteen brothers, soon convinced two of his brothers—Ed and Henry—to come to California and join him clerking for Mr. Church. Within a couple of years, the Washburns opened their own store. Even though Seth eventually returned to Vermont after mining activity in the area slowed down, the other two brothers remained in California. They made their fortunes in several enterprises including  livery stables, road building, and buying out Galen Clark’s Inn. They eventually built and operated the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite.

As mining faded, agricultural activity around Bridgeport increased. In the late 1800’s Capt. Bill Howard raised race horses just north of Bridgeport. Also, hog farmers moved into the area.

Bridgeport became a regular stop for travelers and tourists.  This road served as one of the early Yosemite Stage & Turnpike Company routes operated by Henry Washburn, who maintained a stagecoach station at Bridgeport.

The old wagon road going through Bridgeport was straightened, widened, and oiled in order for it to become the main route from Merced to Mariposa to Yosemite. A concrete bridge was built across Agua Fria Creek in 1919.

As automobiles and trucks replace stagecoaches and freight wagons, Bridgeport continued to be a regular stop for tourists. In 1926, a Union Oil distribution plant was built near the crossing by Bridgeport. It operated until it was dismantled in 1940.

Charles Greenmayer bought the store in 1929. The community did well as the county entered the Great Depression. A surge of gold dredging activity and tourism kept the town alive, as did penny-ante poker games that took place in the store’s back room.

However, the death knell for Bridgeport tolled when it was announced that the state decided to reroute the highway. It would miss Bridgeport by four miles. The store’s ownership changes twice, with the final owner closing the doors for the last time in 1950. Bridgeport lacked two years of having reached its one-hundredth anniversary before becoming a ghost town.

As I wrote my first two books in the National Park Brides series—both mostly set in Yosemite—I found the connections to Bridgeport interesting.

In Anthelia Yosemite Bride, I featured the area of Yosemite National Park (in the late 1880's, the Yosemite Grant controlled by the State of California) close to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The Wawona Hotel and the Yosemite Stage & Turnpike Company—both owned and operated by the Washburns—were a sizeable part of my setting.

In Ardith Yosemite Bride, in spite of it being 1905, both of my hero and my heroine find themselves frequently riding stagecoaches. One of the routes taken includes the Merced to Mariposa run, which would have taken the rider through Bridgeport.

 

 

Anthelia Yosemite Bride is now available for sale as an ebook. It is also available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

Ardith Yosemite Bride is now available for sale as an ebook. It is also available at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

Sources:

Bridgeport: A Brief History, probably from the Mariposa Gazette, date unknown but 1969 or later; Newspaper clipping found on Facebook, Mariposa History & Pictures Page

Forrest Lemona Beebe Wass, Mariposa History & Pictures Page, Facebook, 

Historical Marker: Bridgeport, Matuca Chapter #1849, E Clampus Vitus, Credo Quia Asbordom

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/Mariposa_County,_California

 

Teddy Roosevelt Visits Yosemite National Park by Zina Abbott

 

The majority of this  post was a originally published on this blog almost ten years ago on August 8, 2016. With my inclusion of this incident in my current book, Ardith Yosemite Bride, I felt it appropriate to share it again. In fact, if you have already read Part 1 of the book, in which I fictionalized several characters, you might almost feel like you are reading the account from the point of view of Ardith and her two friends, Lucy and Julia Leonard.

~oOo~ 

In 1903, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt visited Yosemite National Park. Guided into the Yosemite wilderness by naturalist John Muir, the president went on a three-day wilderness trip that started at the Mariposa Grove. 

 

Pres. Roosevelt, John Muir and the official presidential delegation at Grizzly Giant Tree in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park

He also visited Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, and Yosemite Valley among other points of interest in the park. Muir seized the opportunity "to do some forest good in talking freely around the campfire," and the President, referring to John Muir, is quoted as saying "Of course of all the people in the world, he was the one with whom it was best worth while thus to see the Yosemite."

 

President Theodore Roosevelt and his Official Delegation enter the part at Wawona

President Roosevelt, accustomed to being surrounded by enthusiastic crowds, wanted his experience to the park to be one of isolation and “roughing it.” For most of his journey he was accompanied by only four others: John Muir, two of the men hired as the first civilian park rangers in 1898, Charlies Leidig and Archibald C. Leonard, and a packer (Army packer Jacker Alder). President Roosevelt slept on a stack of forty wool blankets covered by a shelter half. Food for the party was cooked over an open campfire by Charlie Leidig.

 

Pres. Theodore Roosevelt leads party including John Muir, Charles Leidig, Park Ranger and cook, Archie C. Leonard, Park Ranger and Army packer, Jacker Adler

From Charlie Leidig’s Report of President Roosevelt’s visit: “On May 3/16, 1903, …they broke camp at Mariposa Grove and were on horses by 6:30a.m. The president directed Leidig to “outskirt and keep away from civilization.” Leidig led the party down the Lightning Trail. They crossed the South Fork at Greeley’s and hit the Empire Meadows Trail. They especially avoided approaching the Wawona Hotel for fear the President would be brought in contact with members of his own official party which had remained for the night at Wawona. They had a cold lunch on the ridge east of Empire Meadows. There was lots of snow as they crossed towards Sentinel Dome; they took turns breaking trail through deep snow. In the Bridalveil Meadows the party plowed through5 ft. of snow. The President mired down and Charley had to get a log to get him out. It was snowing hard and the wind was blowing.”

From Charlie Leidig’s report of President Roosevelt’s visit: “On May 4, the party went down to Glacier Point for pictures that had been prearranged….”

 

President Theodore Roosevelt at Glacier Point

 

From Charlie Leidig’s report of President Roosevelt’s visit:

As they left Glacier Point, the President rode in front dressed in civilian attire. The rangers wore blue overalls, shaps and spurs. They went into Little Yosemite Valley for lunch. Here they encountered a considerable crowd of valley visitors, since it had been widely advertised in the papers that the President was visiting the park.

 

Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir at Glacier Point

There was considerable disagreement in the matter of plans for the Presidential visit. The President wanted a roughing trip and through Pardee, Wheeler and Muir such a trip had been worked out. On the other hand, Mr. John Stevens, Guardian of the Valley under State administration, and certain of the commissioners, especially Jack Wilson from San Francisco, had made plans for a large celebration. The Chris Jorgensen studio home had been set aside for the President’s official use. A cook had been set engaged from one of the best hotels in San Francisco to serve a banquet. The commissioner had arranged a considerable display of fireworks, which John Degnan claims amounted to some $1800 worth….

 

Yosemite National Park map

So there was considerable party awaiting the President at the top of Nevada Falls and Little Yosemite. The President requested that all the people be kept at a distance in order that he could carry out his desire for a “roughing trip”, so everybody was kept at a respectful distance.

When the party reached Camp Curry at 2 P.M., they found a big crowd of women in front of the camp. They had formed a line across the road in an attempt to stop the President. They all wanted to shake hands with him. Charlie Leidig states, he was riding second in line with a Winchester rifle and six shooter. His horse was a high spirited animal. The President said, “I am very much annoyed, couldn’t you do something?” Leidig replied, “follow me.” He gave spurs to his horse and as he reared, women fell apart and the President’s party went through the gap. The President waved his hat to the group in the road.

 

Camp Curry, circa early 1900s

 

…..Accompanied by five or six members of his party, the President walked back across the Sentinel Bridge to his horse. Muir had accompanied the President to the Jorgensen studio. The original party of five mounted their horses and started down the valley to pick a camp site near Bridalveil Falls where Muir had suggested they spend the last night in camp….They went down the south side of the [Merced] river followed by a big string of people on horseback, in buggies, surries, and others on foot. Leidig stated there must have been between 300 or 500, or possibly 1000 of them in the crowd, filling the Bridalveil Meadows. As they reached their camping places on a grassy slope just south of the present road through Bridalveil Meadows, the President said to Leidig, “These people annoy me. Can you get rid of them?” Charlie said he walked out and told the crowd that the president was very tired and asked them to leave. They went—some of them even on tiptoe, so as not to annoy their President.

When Charlie returned to the camp site the President said, “Charlie I am hungry as Hell. Cook any dam thing you wish. How long will it take?”

Charlie told him it would take about 30 minutes, so the President lay on his bed of blankets and went to sleep and snored so loud that Leidig could hear him even above the crackling of the campfire.

After dinner, Muir and the President went out int the meadow until way after dark. When they returned they sat around the campfire where the President told them of his lion hunting trips.

People came again in the morning. Crowds could be seen all through the brush. Leidig kept them away. The stage came down containing the President’s official party. After breakfast, the President and Muir got into the stage and as they left the President called Leidig and Leonard to him and said, “Boys, I am leaving you. Good-bye, and God Bless you.”

 

Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in rear seat on way to Inspiration Point, Yosemite National Park

Roosevelt is quotes as saying, "There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias...our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their Children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred." While he was president, Theodore Roosevelt established five national parks, 18 national monuments, 55 national bird sanctuaries and wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests.

It was my privilege as a volunteer in the Merced California Family History Center to have worked with sisters, then-living Lucille C. Davenport as well as Joyce C. Hammer, descendants of Park Ranger Archibald C. Leonard. With their permission, I will be telling a bit of their grandparent’s story in next month’s blog.

 

Ardith Yosemite Bride, my second book published in the multiple-author series, National Park Brides, is now available for sale as an ebook or for no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

 

Also, through May 14th, my first book in the National Park Brides series, Anthelia Yosemite Bride, is on a Kindle Countdown sale for 99 cents. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited. For that book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Bingaman, John W., “Guardians of the Yosemite”http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/guardians_of_the_yosemite/history.html

Charlie Leidig’s Report of President Roosevelt’s Visit in May, 1903

Theodore Roosevelt, The John Muir Exhibit, http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/people/roosevelt.aspx