Galen Clark, a conservationist and writer, was born on March 28, 1814 in Canada. He is credited with discovering the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park.
Galen joined the westward migration as a youth and moved to Waterloo, Missouri in 1836. After his wife died in 1854 he moved to California to seek his fortune during the Gold Rush.
In 1857 at the age of 43 he contracted a severe lung infection that was diagnosed as consumption (tuberculosis). Back then there were no antibiotics, doctors gave him six months to live, advising him to rest and get lots of “outdoor air.” He moved to the Wawona, California area. “I went to the mountains to take my chances of dying or growing better, which I thought were about even.”
That same year, Galen heard about large sequoia trees and began exploring the area, finding a total of 427 mature giant sequoias. He named the grove Mariposa Grove and built the first permanent structure there, a cabin from which he guided tours. Continuing to investigate the region he taught others about the giant trees.
Galen wrote to the US Congress about protecting the sequoias, subsequently contributing to the writing and passage of legislation to do just that. The act for the Yosemite Grant was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Ceding the land to the state of California for preservation, the grant was the first of its kind, protecting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias for “public use, resort and recreation . . . to be left in alienable for all time.”
Galen’s lungs healed; he would go on to climb much of Yosemite.
Running a modest hotel and guide service he was a poor businessman who was constantly in debt. Yet Galen never tried to make money from Yosemite Valley or the sequoia trees. Toward the end of his life Galen was desperately poor. He wrote three books on Yosemite, leaving out his personal role in the discovery, popularity and conservation of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
On March 24, 1910 at the age of 95 Galen died at his daughter’s home in Oakland, California. He was buried at a spot near Yosemite Falls, which he personally selected and dug decades prior to his death. He had also chosen the granite tombstone marker and planted seedlings from the Mariposa Grove sequoias around his gravesite.
Today, the Giant Sequoia that would have been the first of its kind to be seen by Galen at the Mariposa Grove, now 240 feet in height, is named and marked “Galen Clark Tree” in memory of his contribution to the preservation of the Giant Sequoia and the idea of the National Park.
Perhaps the greatest honor, however, has been bestowed by the sequoias Galen safeguarded. The seedlings that he planted around his grave are now large trees surrounding it. As they grew high into the blue California sky, their roots also expanded under the earth, spreading to meet beneath Galen’s coffin, to cradle him with their protective arms where he rests. The sequoias that he kept safe now do the same for him.
For other Yosemite National Park stories, click on the titles below.
What Do Bears Eat?
Sunrise In Yosemite
Yosemite View Lodge
Yosemite Tunnel Vision
El Capitan
Yosemite Valley Chapel
In The Spring Yosemite Falls
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