Nature's Mountain Mansion

Wonder, Wrangles, Bloodshed, and Bellyaching from Nineteenth-Century Yosemite

Gary Noy

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781496232519
• eBook ISBN: 9781496234179
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Nature’s Mountain Mansion is the first anthology on Yosemite that focuses exclusively on the nineteenth century, the critical period in which Yosemite was “discovered” by an expanding nation and transformed into one of the country’s most visited national parks. While there are volumes that provide readings about Yosemite in the nineteenth century, few provide critical—sometimes even disparaging—eyewitness reflections on the Yosemite experience, and none include excerpts from the government documents that defined the future of the park, such as the Yosemite Valley Grant Act of 1864.

This anthology collects selections from fiction, nonfiction, and government documents that demonstrate the glory, the brutality, and the controversies surrounding this extraordinary and much-loved landscape. Some selections have not appeared in print since their original publication, while others have not been republished or excerpted for decades.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. The Soul of the Ah-wah’-nee
• 2. “Earth’s Undecaying Monuments”
• 3. “The Blood-Swollen God”
• 4. “The Lark at Heaven’s Gate Sings”
• 5. “Sermons in Stone”
• 6. “Enter These Enchanted Woods, You Who Dare”
• 7. “All Places That the Eye of Heaven Visits”
• 8. “An Intelligent and Generous Policy towards the Yosemite”
• Epilogue
• Source Acknowledgments
• Sources
• About Gary Noy
• Illustrations