Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley is a California Historical Landmark in Mariposa County.

Yosemite National Park · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

On June 30, 1864, the United States granted the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the State of California to "be held for public use, resort, and recreation... inalienable for all time." This act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was the first federal authorization to preserve scenic and scientific values for public benefit. It was the basis for the later concept of state and national park systems. In 1906 the State of California returned the land, considered the first state park in the country, so that it could become part of Yosemite National Park.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1868 · A Portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to Yosemite Valley (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1868 · Yosemite Valley. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Yosemite Valley. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1872 · Map of the Yosemite Valley. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Yosemite Valley, 1869, covering the location of Yosemite Valley, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Yosemite Valley, 1869, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours and the location is approximate.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

Yosemite Valley

Historical maps covering this location

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