Like most folk tales, those of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada have been handed down from person to person and mouth to mouth and the original narrator often cannot be traced. The authors have gone as far back as possible to identify sources; these are listed below. Some tales in this booklet were heard by Mr. Degnan when he was a small boy living in Yosemite before the turn of the century. Others were told Mr. Hubbard during the time he served as Chief Park Naturalist in Yosemite National Park. The Degnan Letters and others listed below are now preserved in the Research Library of the National Park Service’s Yosemite Museum.

LVD - Laurence Degnan; DHH - Douglass Hubbard; YNN - Yosemite Nature Notes

How the Firefall Began: LVD from Jules McCauley, letter of January 24, 1959 to DHH; Mariposa Gazette, September 14, 1928.
McCauley’s Chicken: Frank Harrison Gassaway (pseudonym, Derrick Dodd), Daily Evening Post, San Francisco, August 12, 1882.
The Rattlesnake Tree: LVD from Johnny White, Wawona driver. LVD to DHH, January 24, 1959. DHH from Harriet Bruce Harris, January 29, 1958.
The First Climb Up Half Dome: Carl P. Russell, 100 Years in Yosemite, Yosemite, 1959. LVD to DHH, January 24, 1959.
Rough Rider: Charles Leidig to Ralph Anderson, YNN May, 1951; Jack Leidig to DHH; LVD to DHH, October 21, 1957.
Galen Dug His Grave: Carl P. Russell, op. cit. LVD to DHH October 29, 1957, January 24, 1959.
One Down, Two Down: LVD from father, John Degnan; LVD to DHH, October 27, 1957, January 24, 1959.
Music Over the Mountain: Jack Leidig to DHH. William M. Sell, YNN June 1954.
The Shooting of Dick Whorton: LVD to DHH, October 21, 1957.
Frost’s Red Whiskers and Let’s Not Be Hasty: LVD to DHH, October 21, 1957, January 24, 1959.
Pike: LVD to DHH, October 29, 1957, January 24, 1959; Harriet Bruce Harris to DHH, January 29, 1958.
Shadow Shows: Carl P. Russell, op. cit. LVD to DHH, January 24, 1959.
Up Half Dome on Two Dried Apricots: Charles M. Goethe to DHH, November 5, 1958.
Johnny Brown and the Watermelon: LVD from John Degnan. LVD to DHH, October 21, 1957, January 24, 1959.
Down the Mountain in a Gold Pan: Al Sleeper, driver, to Charles M. Goethe to DHH, November 5, 1958.
Fireworks: LVD to DHH, October 21, 1957, January 24, 1959.
The Injuns Killed Boston: Mariposa Gazette, August 21, 1875; LVD from Jules McCauley; YNN May 1959.
Lembert’s Murder: Jack Leidig to DHH; William E. Colby, YNN September 1949; John V. Ferretti, YNN September 1948.
How the Locust Trees Came: Ralph Anderson from Jack Leidig to DHH; Lloyd Brubaker, LVD, Richard Jackson, YNN May 1959.
Holdup!: Foley’s Yosemite Tourist reprinted in YNN February 1955; telegram sent to SF Examiner by A. G. Vieth Austrian Consul; John C. Shay, Twenty Years in the Backwoods of California, Boston, 1923.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The authors are indebted to the photographers, long gone, whose works add much to the interest of this collection of stories. They include: Page 5, Walker. Page 6, top, Katherine Dexter; center, Underwood and Underwood; bottom, Boysen. Page 7, top, Watkins; center, Houseworth; bottom Boysen. Page 12, left, Bradley and Rulofson; right, Fiske. Page 13, Bancroft Library. Page 14, Weed. Page 21, Fiske. Page 23, holdup, Wilkinson; telegram from SF Examiner. All photographs are through the courtesy of interested donors or the National Park Service and are now part of the collections of the Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park.

[click to enlarge]

RICE MARKLEY, FAMED YOSEMITE DRIVER, MAKES UP TIME

Also From the Awani Press:

Fran Hubbard, A Day With Tupi, an Indian Boy of the Sierra
Fran Hubbard, Animal Friends of the Sierra
Fran Hubbard, Animal Friends of the Northwest
Douglass Hubbard, Ghost Mines of Yosemite
Douglass Hubbard, In Old Virginia City
Douglass Hubbard, A National Park Adventure

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY COURTESY OF THE YOSEMITE MUSEUM, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK