Author Description

Lafayette Houghton Bunnell (1824-1903) was a member of the Mariposa Battalion that became the white discoverers of the Yosemite Valley in 1851 when they rode out in search of Native American tribal leaders involved in recent raids on American settlements. Dr. Bunnell later served as a surgeon in the Civil War. Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851 (originally published 1880) contains his account of that event, beginning with the history of the battalion and the tribal unrest that inspired its creation. He goes on to chronicle the unit's march from its camp near Agua Fria into the mountains down the South Fork of the Merced River. Bunnell recalls his comrades' reactions to the natural grandeur they encountered in the Yosemite Valley as well as the trivia of camp life and encounters with the native tribes they were sent to pacify. The book concludes with chapters of the Valley's history after 1851, discussions of the region's flora and fauna, and a chapter on the discovery of the sequoias and their later exploitation.