Yosemite National Park is a 748,542-acre (303,160-ha) park, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California. The name Yosemite comes from the name of an Indian tribe, the U-zu-ma-ti, who were massacred in 1851 by soldiers sent by the governor of California for refusing to attend a reservation agreement meeting.

By the mid-1800s, Yosemite had become a thriving tourist attraction. As word of Yosemite's wonders spread back to the East Coast, public pressure led Congress to declare that the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias be held "inalienable for all time." President Abraham Lincoln signed this law on June 30, 1864, turning this land over to the state of California and thereby giving Yosemite the distinction of being the first state park. Concern about sheep overgrazing in the high meadows led to the designation of the high country as...