Journey through the rich and complex human history of Yosemite, from its earliest inhabitants to the visionaries who fought for its preservation.
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Ahwahnee: Yosemite's Original Name and People
The granite-walled valley most people call Yosemite carried a different name for thousands of years.
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Gold Rush Violence Opened Yosemite Valley
The first European Americans to set foot in Yosemite Valley came not as explorers or tourists, but as a militia sent to force Indigenous people from their homeland.
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Lincoln's Wartime Gift to the Nation
In the middle of the bloodiest conflict in American history, Abraham Lincoln took a moment to think about trees.
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John Muir's Campaign to Save Yosemite
John Muir arrived in Yosemite in 1868 and essentially never left — not in spirit, anyway.
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Buffalo Soldiers Who Patrolled Yosemite's Wilderness
Before the National Park Service even existed, African American cavalry troops known as Buffalo Soldiers served as Yosemite's earliest park rangers.
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Ansel Adams Turned Landscapes Into Arguments
Ansel Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916 at age fourteen, carrying a Kodak Brownie box camera his parents had given him. That trip rewired his life.
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