Jefferson's Empire of Liberty and the Founding of Yosemite and Yellowstone

When Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 he could have never pictured that in just another quarter of a century, his westward expansion would yield one of the most magnificent preservation of wild America the nation would ever see. On a journey to drive out Native Americans, an army battalion stumbled upon the breathtaking beauty of California's eastern landscape in 1951. When Jefferson began his campaign toward the West, there was much excitement and prospect of finding ancient creatures and vegetation. Wulf describes how in his correspondence to the scientists Benjamin Smith Barton and Benjamin Rush, he conveyed his excitement to find "giant animals and trees that would symbolize the country's dominance and power." (159) Here stood the overwhelming sight of the redwood trees, that towered like ancient sentinels of the woods.

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Majestic redwood trees in Yosemite National Park

The concept of the "sublime" was the a highlight of this western expansion. During much of Lewis and Clark's journey, Lewis often wrote in his journal of the "sublime grand specticle" that was the West. (166) It was a sentiment that echoed Jefferson's own words as he wrote of "the most sublime of Nature's works" in his Notes on the State of Virginia. The "sublime" referred to a different kind of beauty; 18th century writers and poets used it to describe a beauty that was rugged, unrefined, and awe-inspiring in its' vastness. This concept was so strong, it resonated years later with the discovery of Yosemite. Fredrick Law Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park wrote of Yosemite as "...the union of the deepest sublimity with the deepest beauty"

Carlton Watkins landscape of Three Brothers with the Merced River in the foreground. Yosemite National Park, circa 1861.

 On June 30 1864, President Abraham Lincoln passed an unprecedented bill that would be sure to keep that American spirit alive; they set aside 60 square miles of federal land for the state of California with the condition that the land be preserved for "public use, resort, and recreation. Jefferson, Lewis, and Clark had sparked a candor that would define an American spirit; it did not need to be fabricate or manufactured like industrialists had pushed for. The wilderness would define the American people, and they would be as Wulf describes, "powerful, spirited, and unique". No one understood this better than naturalist and early conservationist John Muir, who would write awe-inspired words of Yosemite and worked to promote the creation and keeping of a national park. He described it as "by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter...the sanctum sanctorum of the Sierra." Like Jefferson, Muir was a man of science and learning, and he devoted so much of his time spent among nature learning all he could. Muir's writings and reports were influential to informing the American public the importance of nature. He advocated strongly for conservation, and not just separation of lands. It was his strong convictions that established the first national park, Yellowstone and the eventual nationalization of Yosemite. It became his life's passion to push for more parks, larger and better defended. He, like Jefferson, understood and appreciated that this still relatively young nation  needed to preserve its natural beauty to keep alive its spirit of independence.

 

John Muir, circa 1860-1880

Source: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/