Merced County Sun
Friday May 31, 1907
"The Only Way"
to Yosemite Valley ==
Nature’s Wonderland

MMM“My soul bowed down in wondering, humble awe,
MMMWhen first thy peaks and waterfalls I saw;
MMMAnd every hour but shows how vain ‘twould be
MMMFor my frail mind to hope to picture thee.
MMMThy spell shall live when those who view thee no
MMMHave passed with ages ‘neath thy mighty brow
MMMAnd like thy mists, in gorgeous gleamings curled,
MMM Our names have melted from this changing world.”
MMMMMMM - Mrs. Jean Bruce Washburn.

MMM Situated in the heart of the Sierra Nevada’s, about 150 miles due east of the Golden Gate, this wonderful rockbound cleft in the living granite, twelve miles long and approximately a mile in width, its circling cliffs rising 4000 feet in a perpendicular line above the floor of the Valley, presents to view an unrivalled scenic panorama which for its unique and majestic beauty, tremendous magnitude of detail and superb setting, stands alone among the natural wonders of the world - a question and a study to the geologist, a sermon to the philosopher, a dream to the poet, and a paradise to the toiler who comes here for rest and meditation.

MMM To try to picture this enchanted “Garden of the Sierras” is a task far beyond the powers of an ordinary mortal, be he ever so intense a lover of Dame Nature. Travelers have come and departed in an endless stream, many of them golden tongued, like a Chrysostom or a Webster, but as yet tongue or pen have utterly failed in depicting or painting this lovely vale in its true colors or succeeded in imparting to one who has never made the pilgrimage to this lofty shrine, even a minute fraction of the surging emotions which make themselves felt as the first grand view gradually unfolds itself to the enraptured eye.

MMM Her Dame Nature’s abode and retreat. Here she herself may be encountered, glowing with the health and beauty of youth and vigor, and clad in the wondrous raiment with which she has been endowed by the Creator. She cannot be explained, analyzed or described; she must be seen face to face to be loved for her beauty’s sake. Surrounded by her faithful guards - El Capitan, Three Brothers, and the Sentinel, giants all, raising their haughty brows in majestic grandeur into the blue - she rests peacefully, Lulled to a slumber by the soft music of the rippling brooks and streamlets wending their venturesome way to the swift, glittering river, to be ultimately carried on its bosom to the sunlit Pacific, their final cradle. In the placid Mirror Lake she delights to view her graceful outlines, and in the dreamy nooks of Happy Isles her days pass in quiet reveries. Here is also her temple - the magnificent Cathedral Rock with its sky piercing spires - of an imposing magnitude, conforming to a plan outlined in a mood of playfulness on the part of Her Majesty, but of a nobleness of outline and grandeur of scale surpassing the Cologne cathedral and all the famous architectural monuments of the Old World put together.

MMM When the sun has hidden behind the granite ramparts of the mountains and twilight steals on; when the shade of night draw near and the moon throws its sheen over this Paradise, a scene of unearthly beauty reveals itself. As you stand there in the silence of the night, you hear in the distance the muffled detonations of Yosemite Falls and see at your side the swift, icy waters of the Merced river hurrying ever downward. Around you the great firs, pines and fragrant evergreens gently bend their lofty heads to the breeze escaping from beyond the mountain wall as if in salute, and as it suddenly increases in volume the rustle swells into harmony which causes one to involuntarily uncover before the grand organ of Nature. In the distance you perhaps hear the crash of some patriarchal tree falling or some branch breaking, as if El Capitan were striding in a hurried, midnight round through the forest to see if “All’s well.” Far off on some precipice a boulder, which perhaps has balanced on the verge for a thousand years, falls with thunderous, deafening roar which awakens a host of sleeping echoes, joining them into a swelling chorus which reverberates from cliff to crag, now dying away to be again brought into play by some distant precipice, and once more decreasing in volume until at last it is heard no more. In its headlong course down the mountainside, great trees are snapped like dry sticks and other rocks displaced until at last it falls with a mighty splash into the river or buries itself in pine needles. It has only changed its place of residence. Silence falls once more over cliff and forest like a pall, broken only, it may be, by some restless trout in the river beside you, jumping at a moonbeam.

MMM In solemn, churchlike stillness of this retreat, broken only by the deep diapason of the paean of the mighty Yosemite to past ages, the wounded and restless spirit finds solace and peace, and the tired wanderer, rest. He is here virtually shut out from disturbing cares by the sheer cliffs rising four thousand feet toward the sky on all sides. Here leisure hours may be spent in contemplation of the unique Half Dome; the glaciated crown of North Dome; the fraternal attitudes of the Three Brothers; the imposing grandeur and haughty majesty of El Capitan; the silent yet eloquent Cathedral Spires of which the poet sings -
MMM“No foot has pressed those stairways dizzy,
MMMNo hand has touched those silent bells;
MMMNo mortal sacristan there busy,
MMMSilence alone the story tells,
MMMThose aisles untrod save by the spirits
MMMWhose mortal forms rest neath the sod;
MMMThey only have the power to hear its Chimes of God;” the solitude of Sentinel Rock; the loveliness of the Valley as revealed from Glacier Point. The delicate Bridal Veil Fall, seemingly suspended twixt heaven and earth; the triple falls of Yosemite with its mighty masses of water plunging downward one-half mile into the rocky basin in the abyss below, and the sportive Cascades, will never fail to appeal to the innate sense of the beautiful contained in every human breast.

MMM As the years pass on, the memory of the visit to this miniature paradise will mark the climax of a lifetime of travel, perhaps, in search of Nature’s chief pearl. No spot on earth can so captivate the senses, elevate the mind, instill lofty ambition and refresh the physical make-up as this lovely vale with its stupendous precipices, its heaven-reaching, snow-capped peaks, rainbow waterfalls, rippling streams reflecting sunlight, the stateliness and fragrance of its forests. A pilgrimage to this shrine of peace, majesty, solitude and grandeur, will be held in cherished remembrance when scores of years have rolled away into the past.
MMM“I love not man the less, but Nature more;
MMMFrom these interviews, in which I steal
MMMFrom all I may be, or have been before,
MMMTo mingle with the universe, and feel
MMMWhat I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

MMM Yosemite the beautiful, is during these days entering upon a new era of its existence. For nearly two years patient toilers have labored in fair weather and foul; in burning heat and drenching rain, to perfect the “New Way” to Yosemite - the Yosemite Valley Railroad. Untold have been the difficulties to overcome; staggering the labors laid down, and heroic efforts put forth to achieve the Cyclopean Task of leveling a path for the twin strips of steel through the wild and tortuous Merced River Canyon, heretofore the home of the grizzly, the deer, and the coyote. Many and animated were the discussions pro and con as to the feasibility of building a railroad through the rugged and precipitous - to all appearances inaccessible - canyon, to Yosemite. Great engineers, one after the other, gave negative opinions, and it finally remained for a few determined and forceful men to take the project in hand; to plan by day and night; to remove as if by magic the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and barriers which beset their path on the march toward the goal, the Garden of the Sierras, until finally the last spike was driven at the terminus at park line, El Portal, a point only twelve and one-half miles from the heart of the Valley, marking the successful termination of the enterprise and announcing to the world the welding together of the sunny valley of the San Joaquin with the beautiful Yosemite. With the completion of this steel highway, a new epoch has opened not only for the Yosemite Valley, but for Merced, the western terminus in the San Joaquin. With the opening of the railroad for tourist business, unlimited possibilities are brought into intimate touch with the Fountain City.

MMM It is well nigh impossible to convey an adequate idea of the magnitude of the task which confronted the determined builders of this grand highway two years ago in its inceptive stages. A conception may, however, be gained from the following quotation made from the excellent and thorough on the Valley and railroad by Paul F. Morh. He says: “It required, for instance, 2,895,000 pounds of dynamite and powder to blast out a roadbed between the rocky slopes and cliffs and the rivers edge, and 282 miles of fuse to explode the blasts. The quantity of solid rock displaced thereby was over 80,000,000 cubic feet; a bulk equal to four times the great Cheops pyramid on the plains of Gizeh in Egypt, or sufficient for 100 Washington monuments or to erect the walls of 100 13-story skyscrapers, covering as much ground as the Call building in San Francisco.” In order to accomplish the blasting at the most precipitous points in the canyon, men were suspended by ropes from heights above while preparing the blasts and connecting the electric power. In some places over a ton of powder was used which when exploded gave the vicinity a volcanic semblance, as if another Stromboli or Krakatoa had arisen out of the earth, discharging stones, large boulders and dust, and emitting a thunderous roar and series of deafening detonations which rolled up and down the canyon and over the cliffs to die away in the distance. The canyon is never very wide, its granite cliffs rising abruptly from the edge of the foaming river, and therefore the grade for the railroad had to be chipped out of the living rock for the greatest part of the way, parallel with the turbulent Merced River and about forty feet above it, for nearly sixty miles.

MMM Of a necessity, therefore, the railroad follows the windings of the canyon very closely, making a ride through it by rail a source of enjoyment and constant surprises. Now and then a charming vista opens up through some side canyon, closing up as the train proceeds until the opening can no longer be discerned - or some great headland looms up before you which seems to forbid passage until as you glide past it, so close that you can almost touch the rock wall, until it retires behind some curve and a new scene is presented - the falls, rapids, cataracts and whirlpools of the river, flanked by cliffs and ridges covered with chaparral and manzanita stretching away into the haze of surrounding mountain peaks.

MMM The panoramic scenery of this canyon cannot be excelled in beauty anywhere, and when the features of the canyon trip become known it is safe to assume that the railroad will be taxed to its utmost capacity in carrying the thousands that will visit Yosemite via Merced over the Yosemite Valley Railroad.

MMM The want of a short, convenient route into Yosemite Valley has long been keenly felt. The nearest approach to speed before the building of the railroad was made by the famous “Cannon-ball” stage operated by the Southern Pacific in past years from Raymond, which made the trip to the Valley from twelve to fourteen hours. The average time made from different points by the stages was two days. These trips of a necessity involved much endurance and fortitude, and to the tourist unblessed with an iron constitution the trip was discouraging rather than inviting. The advent of the steel highway to the Wonderland has changed all this and now the most delicate and fastidious woman can make the trip in safety and comfort viewing the picturesque wilderness of the canyon from an observation car, arriving at the park line in a few short hours, nine hours from the Golden Gate and sixteen hours from Los Angeles. The tourist can now take his morning meal at San Francisco and sup, surrounded by peaks and domes, within sight of Yosemite Falls, and hearing the muffled detonations of its watery masses falling from the cliff above to the floor of the Valley. The trip will now be one of unalloyed pleasure.

MMM The construction of the Yosemite Valley Railroad was begun in September, 1905, and is now completed to the terminus at the Park line, El Portal, a point eighty miles from Merced and twelve and one-half miles from the Sentinel hotel and Camps Curry and Yosemite in the heart of the Valley.

MMM Upon leaving the verdant valley of the San Joaquin at Merced, the train runs through a gently rolling country which delights the eye with the evidences of prosperity and wealth which appear on every hand. Large herds of grazing cattle and immense flocks of sheep, numbering thousands, drift by in a seemingly endless stream, and large areas covered with orchards in bloom or bearing fruit bear testimony to the richness of the soil. Great vineyards, some of them sixty years old and still bearing, bring in a golden harvest to their fortunate owners, being typical of Merced county and the Golden state in general. At Hopeton, the longest bridge on the entire line is passed, the Merced River at this point being at its widest. This bridge is as long as the upper fall of the Yosemite, in the Valley, or nearly 1700 feet. “Ye ancient towne” of Snelling, nestling in primitive state among a grove of great trees, was at one time the county seat of Merced county. In its unpretentious courthouse some of the greatest legal battles in the history of California have been fought, and some of the greatest barristers in the state have here acquired fame. Through the iron bars of the old jail on the ground floor more than one hapless miscreant has awaited with bated breath the outcome of the deliberations going on over his head as to his fate.

MMM At Merced Falls we have the line of demarcation, so to speak, between the agricultural districts and the mining regions. This was at one time a great trading point, the wealth of the hills being exchanged by miners for equipments and necessaries of life. Here we have the ruins of a large woolen mill, one of the first to be erected in the state. The great dam stretching across the river at this point furnishes the power for the electric plant upon which Merced is dependant for light. From Merced Falls the railroad runs parallel with the river, entering the canyon immediately beyond this place. Here we find plentiful evidence of the seething activities which prevailed in this region in “the days of old, the days of gold - the days of ‘49.” Here are numerous old mines, old shafts, sluices, broken down flumes, and ruins, silent through eloquent monuments of the past. Placer mining seems to have been the chief source of the wealth of these regions, in evidence of which we have great heaps - veritable pyramids - of large stones and boulders thrown out by the eager miners while panning or sluicing the rich, gold-bearing gravel.

MMM As you go on up the canyon you cannot repress exclamations of delight and admiration at the beautiful scenes and vistas which open up at every curve and twist of the road. The hills close up on the river and increase in height, until you are virtually boxed up, having no choice but to follow the windings of the tumultuous and foaming Merced River, which in its downward course to the Pacific from the Valley falls nearly 4,000 feet.

MMM Pleasant Valley is well worthy of its name. The hills here recede from the river, leaving a lovely little valley through which the river flows very gently, its placid bosom reflecting the contours of the hills. At Jasper Point, just beyond this valley, there is a large outcropping of jasper in beautifully colored strata’s. A rock crusher is being installed at this point which will be of great benefit to the San Joaquin valley.

MMM One of the most picturesque spots on the railroad is Horseshoe Bend, a sunny, sheltered cases in the lap of the mountains which here surround a cup like basin with a large floor area. Here the prize orchard of Mariposa County is located, the railroad passing through it. Grapes, oranges, figs, prunes and olives are here raised in large quantities. The richest placer diggings in the state were located here in the early days.

MMM Nameless Dam, at Nameless Mine, is one of the lovely features en route. The lake, formed by the dam, nestles among the peaceful hills, undisturbed except for the ripples caused by the fishes playing in its depths.

MMM The Box Canyon, at the Exchequer Mine, is a very narrow cleft in the rock through which the river flows in a deep channel which one can almost jump across. The cliffs rise perpendicularly from the river’s edge and at this point a great deal of blasting was done in preparing the grade for the railroad. The Exchequer group of mines are immediately above Box Canyon, at the mouth of Cotton Creek. The eleven claims belonging to the Exchequer Gold Mining Company are very rich and are worked with great profit. A large concrete dam forty-seven feet thick, over the Merced River, furnishes the necessary power.

MMM One of the important points on the railroad is Bagby, the site of Benton Mill, immediately on top of the mother lode. This mill was named after Senator Benton of Missouri, the father of Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, wife of General Fremont. Forty years ago this mill was considered the largest in the world. The river is here spanned by a bridge, and a large dam backs the water up the canyon, forming a pretty sheet of water.

MMM Beyond Bagby the canyon becomes more and more interesting and attractive. The railroads grade is chipped out of the rock walls rising almost vertically from the water, and so close to the river that a pebble can be tossed into it at any point.

MMM A most important group of mines, consisting of fourteen claims, owned by the Omparisa Gold Mining Company, are located about eight miles up the canyon from Bagby. The most famous of these is the mountain King mine which is exceedingly rich in gold.

MMM Crossing the picturesque mountain stream, Bear Creek, you pass the great marble ledges owned by Merced capitalists, and arrive at the junction of the Merced River with South Fork. Here the rare spectacle of two rushing mountain rivers, each issuing in tumbling confusion out of its own separate canyons is witnessed.

MMM Mossy Canyon two and one-half miles from the terminus, cannot fail to appeal to the tourist through its verdant beauty. Instead of the hills manzanita, or trees, the precipitous mountain sides are here covered with a delicate emerald moss which gives an enchanting effect, set off as it is by the blue skies above and foaming river below.

MMM At El Portal, “The Gateway,” eighty miles from Merced, and twelve and one-half miles from the heart of the Valley, the terminal buildings of the railroad are located, with those of the Yosemite Transportation Company. This will be a busy place when tourist traffic is well under way. The transportation from this point over the grand drive - Camino del Portal - to the Valley is in charge of D. K. Stoddard - a guarantee that this part of the trip will be handled properly and to the satisfaction of tourists and all concerned. Over twenty modern, first class stages will run daily between the Valley and El Portal. Here we find also the fine hotel camp managed by W. M. Sell, who with his long and varied experience and good judgment, will materially assist in pleasing all tourist who desire to stop at his tent city over night, either going into or coming out of the Valley. Here the wearied tourist will be lulled into soft slumber by the sound of the swift waters of the river rushing down the dark canyon toward the ocean, and surrounded by the peace of the mountains, with the peaks and falls of glorious Yosemite awaiting him on the morrow. The natural plateau formed by the hills receding from the river at this point forms an ideal spot for a terminus, and there is available room for the little community which is springing up here, as it were, in a night. Situated only one-half mile from the park line, a most suitable has been given to it.

MMM The terminus and point in the valley are connected by a fine driveway built by the railroad and the government at an enormous cost. This drive winds through the wildest part of the upper canyon, touching upon the road from the park at the Cascades. For the last six miles this beautiful driveway winds over the floor of the Valley, among immense pines, firs, and fragrant evergreens, crossing numerous brooks and always in close proximity to the sheer granite cliffs rising 4000 feet from the floor of the valley toward the sky. Many of the wonders of Yosemite are passed on the way, among them the ribbon falls, the Cascades, the Bridal Veil fall, El Capitan, the Three Graces, the Cathedral Rock, Cathedral Spires, Three Brothers, Eagle Peak, and Yosemite Falls - all in plain view. Before reaching the Sentinel hotel, the Merced River is crossed over a rustic bridge at one of the prettiest spots in the whole river. From this bridge enchanting views can be obtained of Sentinel Rock, Half Dome, North Dome, Washington Column and Cloud’s Rest.

MMM The dream of yesterday has come true today. The San Joaquin is now indissolubly connected with Yosemite the beautiful, and Merced will from its connection with this grand steel highway, the Yosemite Valley Railroad, become known far and wide as its starting point. The lover of Nature’s treasures can now view its choicest collection at the end of a ride which will not tire, but prepare the mind and body by gradual stages for a proper reception and appreciation of the grandest scenic display collected at one place not only on this continent, but in the world. It will never tire but always inspire. It can always be visited in summer and winter, and its attractiveness will always be the same. In the thousands of years which have elapsed since Yosemite was born into the world through some mighty cataclysm of nature, it has ripened in beauty and been softened in outline until today it is worthy of the attention of all having the means and enough appreciation of this masterpiece of the Creator to make the pilgrimage from the dust and grime of the city or the baking heat of the plains to its refreshing shade and cool waters.

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Photographs accompanying this article:
*The New Way to Yosemite - Pleasant Valley, on the Yosemite Valley Railroad.
*Scene in Merced Canyon Before the Advent of the Yosemite Valley Railroad.
*Yosemite Valley Railroad Bridge Across Merced River, at Bagby.
*First Wagon Passing Over the New Yosemite Valley Wagon Road.
*A Scene on the New Yosemite Valley Wagon Road, Merced River Canyon.
*A Scene in Merced River Canyon on the Line of the Yosemite Valley Railroad.
*Y. V. Bridge Across Merced River at Pleasant Valley.
*Nameless Mine and Dam, on the Line of Y. V. Railroad.