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Subject: Horace Greeley's Mule Ride to Yosemite - 1859
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 20:21:46 EDT


Howdy,
In 1859, "New York Tribune" editor, Horace GREELEY, long an advocate of
the westward movement and reportedly author of the phrase "Go West Young Man,"
rode 60 miles on a mule the day he went to Yosemite. A tired, but jubilant,
Greeley, describes his experience:
"The Sierra Nevadas lack the glorious glaciers, the frequent rains, the
rich verdue, the abundant cataracts of the Alps, but they far surpass them;
they surpass any other mountains I ever saw, in wealth and grace of trees.
Look down almost any of their peaks, and your range of vision is filled,
bounded, satisfied, by what might be termed a tempest-tossed sea of
evergreens, filling every upland valley, covering every hillside, crowning
every peak but the highest with their unfading luxuriance.
"That I saw, during this day's travel, many hundreds of pines eight feet in
diameter, with cedars at least six feet, I am confident; and there mere miles
of such and smaller trees of like genus, standing as thick as they could grow.
Steep mountain sides, allowing these giants, to grow rank above rank, without
obstructing each other's sunshine, seem peculiarly favorable to the production
of these serviceable giants.
"But the summit meadows are peculiar in their heavy fringe of balsam fir
of all sizes, from those barely one foot high to those hardly less than two
hundred; their branches surrounding them in collars, their extemities
gracefully bent down by weight of winter snows, making them here, I am
confident, the most beautiful trees on earth. The dry promontories which
separate these meadows are also covered with a species of spruce, which is
only less graceful than the firs aforesaid. I never before enjoyed such a
tree-feast as on this wearying, difficult ride." ( from Layayette Hougton
Bunnell's "Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851" -Books for
Libraries Press, Freeport, NY -1880).

Better than walking:-)
Bob Norris in Dallas
<BNorris166aol.com>

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