shall be inalienable for all time; but leases not
exceeding ten years may be granted for portions of
said premises. All incomes derived from leases
of privileges to be expended in the preservation and
improvement of the property, or the roads leading
thereto; the boundaries to be established at the cost
of said State by the United States Surveyor-General
of California, whose official plat, when affirmed
by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, shall
constitute the evidence of the locus, extent, and limits
of the said Cleft or Gorge; the premises to be managed
by the Governor of the State, with eight other Commissioners,
to be appointed by the Executive of California, and
who shall receive no compensation for their services.
“Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That
there shall likewise be, and there is hereby, granted
to the said State of California, the tracts embracing
what is known as the ‘Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’
not to exceed the area of four sections, and to be
taken in legal subdivisions of one-quarter section
each, with the like stipulations as expressed in the
first section of this Act as to the State’s acceptance,
with like conditions as in the first section of this
Act as to inalienability, yet with the same lease
privileges; the income to be expended in the preservation,
improvement, and protection of the property, the premises
to be managed by Commissioners, as stipulated in the
first section of this Act, and to be taken in legal
subdivisions as aforesaid; and the official plat of
the United States Surveyor-General, when affirmed by
the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be
the evidence of the locus of the said Mariposa Big
Tree Grove.”
This important act was approved by the President,
June 30, 1864, and shortly after the Governor of California,
F. F. Low, issued a proclamation taking possession
of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa grove of Big Trees,
in the name and on behalf of the State, appointing
commissioners to manage them, and warning all persons
against trespassing or settling there without authority,
and especially forbidding the cutting of timber and
other injurious acts.
The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted,
J. D. Whitney, William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E.
S. Holden, Alexander Deering, George W. Coulter, and
Galen Clark.
ACT OF OCTOBER 1, 1890 (26 STAT., 650).
[Footnote: Sections 1 and 2 of this act pertain
to the Yosemite National Park, while section 3 sets
apart General Grant National Park, and also a portion
of Sequoia National Park.]
An Act To set apart certain tracts of land in the
State of California as forest reservations.
Copyrights
The Yosemite from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
