xxxxxx The first wagon road to Yosemite, that of the Coulterville and Yosemite Turnpike company, in 1873 entered by the Cascades, but through the sixty miles of canyon reaching from there to Snelling near the plains where the musical river ceases its singing and assumes the responsibility of a homemaker and agriculturist, until lost in the bosom of the San Joaquin, no road ever penetrated before 1907, when came the Y. V.

xxxxxx Yet glimpses of the canyon idea are strung all along the years since first the white man penetrated Ten-ie-ya's stronghold, "Ah-wah-nee," the "deep grassy valley" of the Ah-wah-nee-chees. In the late fifties George K. Peterson, one of General Fremont's engineers, and Dr. L. H. Bunnell ran two lines of levels through the canyon. "We found the distance to be about eight miles through the canyon proper and the descent about one thousand five hundred feet. An electric motor line of railroad might be trestled up and graded out of the canyon on a suitable line, by the way of the valley of the Merced river or its South Fork. The channel of the river canyon is obstructed by boulder of immense size, making a succession of waterfalls and rapids, from which might be conserved a power that would run cars from the Yosemite to the plains of the San Joaquin. The talus of rocks along the line would afford ballast for a roadbed, from which no dust would rise, and there being little winter snow to obstruct the route, visitors could enter the valley at any season of the year." (Dr. Bunnell in Report of Yosemite Valley Commissioners, 1890.)

xxxxxx In the late eighties a number of citizens of Mariposa county, prominent among whom were Captain A. H. Ward and James Cross, then manager of Las Mariposas, again agitated the question of a wagon road to Yosemite through the upper end of the canyon, leaving the town of Mariposa and running northeasterly to the river at a point several miles below what is now El Portal. Stonewall Jackson Harris made the survey and was paid a handsome sum from the country for so doing. A bill was introduced and passed by the legislature whereby the state agreed to pay $50,000 toward the construction of the road after the county had given $75,000. The matter of bonding the county for this purpose was put to a vote of the people and carried, but after the enthusiasm of the election had worn off a little, citizens began to look more closely at the legislative act and in general arrived at the conclusion that as the whole cost of the wagon road would not exceed $75,000, and great rich California refused to advance a dollar until after poor, little Mariposa had given the full amount, a different financial policy had better be adopted. Many who had voted for the bonds now joined with those who had opposed them in petitioning the board of supervisors to avoid the burden of increased tax. After considerable argument and deliberation, the supervisors ordered the bonds burned.

xxxxxx As a bubble blown from a child's pipe bursts in its rainbow prism or merges into the larger one that follows, the dream of the wagon road grew into that of a railroad, even as the smoke of the bonds, though but a tiny whiff, heralded the volume breathed from the locomotive. James Cross, ever a public spirited man, did not live to see the realization of the dream, but Captain Ward, now president of the Merced River Electric company, continued his efforts for the betterment of state and county and beautiful Yosemite. Already the owner of mining property and of the old Hennessey ranch on the Merced, he purchased the Whorton place and other lands adjoining the river, so that the great granite boulders at the upper end of the canyon became his back gateway from which he could look into the glories beyond. For many years he tried to interest other capital in his scheme and at last Thomas Prather (since deceased), the president of the American National Bank of Oakland, joined him, as did John S. Drum, a San Francisco banker.

xxxxxx "In 1903-4," said Captain Ward, in a recent interview, "I got interested with Thomas Prather, the object being to establish an electric power on the Merced river. This I suggested to him. Of course it grew out of our efforts to get a wagon road up the river. And we thought why not incorporate the railroad with the electric enterprise? Mr. Prather brought the scheme to the attention of Mr. Drum. For the electric road we could use the power of the river. Bur we ran up against the fact that the Yosemite National Park extended down the river to Jenkin's Hill; and our aneroid survey showed it to extend to Ward's ranch. In effect we found we wanted twelve miles of the Yosemite National Park, and we called in Mr. Ray to discuss the matter."

xxxxxx So, while the question of a railroad to the Yosemite Valley had been adjudicated in Mariposa county for many years and various surveys made, it remained for N. C. Ray to make the final one along the line traversed by the Merced river, close to the bank where the railroad now runs. In 1894 he accomplished his survey and prepared a profile showing that a railroad could be constructed from the town of Merced or a point near thereto to the objective point near Yosemite Valley in a distance of eighty one miles, and that said road could be built on a grade not to exceed 3 percent at any one place. But among the many obstacles constantly presenting themselves were six townships to be crossed within the park. The men financing the scheme decided to attack the department of the interior in order to get congress to cut out the twelve miles from the park into the reserve where a right of way might be secured. For this purpose Mr. Ray was sent to Washington and accomplished his work so well that on February 7, 1905, the United States congress approved the following act to exclude from the Yosemite National Park, which park was created October 1, 1890, certain lands therein described, and to attach and include said lands in the Sierra forest reserve, which reserve was proclaimed July 25, 1905:

xxxxxx "Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that the tracts of land in the state of California known and described as follows .........

• {detail of the coordinates of lands being withdrawn.}

xxxxxx Major H. M. Chittenden was appointed to make the government survey, which he did in company with Robert B. Marshall of Washington. These matters being settled. Captain Ward called J. H. Corcoran from Mariposa to undertake the purchasing of right of way from Merced along the river and furnishing of an abstract thereto, which abstract was passed upon as satisfactory by Attorney William B. Bosley of San Francisco. In the beginning of the construction work four engineering parties were in the field practically in charge of W. H. Luckhart, civil engineer, who acted as first assistant to Mr. Ray. The first actual work done was at, or rather above Bagby. The next was near the town of Merced with Frank Burke, civil engineer, in charge. When the first eleven miles had been built the supplies for construction and commissaries, also the teams, were transferred to Camp 3 or Edendale, which was made the distributing point with J. H. Corcoran in charge.

xxxxxx Changes now occurred in the company and management. N. C. Ray resigned. 0. W. Lehmer, then agent for the Santa Fe in Stockton, and now general manager of the Y. V. , was secured as superintendent and traffic manager, and Mr. Lehmer brought G. H. Nickerson, also a Santa Fe man, to the service of the Y. V. as chief engineer, succeeding Mr. Ray. J. H. Ellis, secretary from the beginning, continued in his office. The first rails were laid at Merced on September 27, 1905, the last at El Portal April 25, 1907. The road had been constructed in record breaking time, and credit is due to the men in charge, but the usual toll of life to the river was paid - the lives of those whose story will never be told. Through the long cold winter when snow covered the ground and ice mingled with the slipping granite on the mountains, men tramped the long trail from supply camp to supply camp, men of all sorts and conditions, men such that when those out of work in Mariposa went there, they quickly returned sick from sights they saw, yet one man, college bred and used to the world's best, tramped the river bank through the whole winter with no word of complaint, no though of criticizing those he led along the slippery trails, only sympathy and sorrow for any mishap that befell them. That man was J. H. Corcoran.

xxxxxx "When the railroad was nearly completed," said Captain Ward; "when thousands of tourist might be stranded at El Portal, with no way of reaching Yosemite except over a trail, we called upon the department of the interior to build a wagon road from there to the valley. They said they intend to do so and would make the apportionment next year, then next year, and still next year. The company proposed to build it themselves and turn it over to the government, and the interior department promised to reimburse the company. The wagon road cost $87,000 and until today no cent has ever been repaid. The railroad cost more than the original estimate and for several years there was a deficit which had to be made up by the few owners. But that time is past and the Y. V. is in all ways a success. Superintendent Daniels contributed to the success and I thick Mr. Marshall will be equally fair."

xxxxxx The splendid hotel at El Portal is built upon Captain Ward's land, held by the company on a fifty years' lease, and to him it owes its name. "At the time we were to decide upon a name," said Captain Ward, "about a hundred were offered - Indian, Spanish, English and every other kind. I thought of the large granite buffs at the opening of Yosemite Canyon at the back of my old place, which I had always called my gateway and which were really the entrance to the canyon, and I went to Mr. Forbes of the Baron-Forbes of Mexico, for many years official court interpreter in San Francisco, and told him of my gateway and asked what would be an appropriate Spanish name.'El Portal, the entrance,' he said."