Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851, Which Led to That Event

Bunnell, Lafayette Houghton, 1824-1903Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
663K words
Chapters
67

Tags

English Originals Historical GeographyMilitary Human GeographyHistorical ReappraisalNature ObservationAdventure JourneyGeography ScienceDocumentary NarrativeSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851, Which Led to That EventAuthor: Bunnell, Lafayette Houghton, 1824-1903,Language: English, Class: F850.5: United States local history: Pacific States, Release Date: Nov 24, 2017

Editor's review

Written by eyewitness Lafayette Houghton Bunnell, this book recounts the discovery of the Yosemite region and the Indian War of 1851 that grew out of it, and belongs to the local history of the Pacific States. From the vantage point of a participant, the author reconstructs the course of exploration and conflict with concrete detail, combining the narrative of geographical discovery with a record of military action. The book captures a historical scene in which the discovery of natural wonders and conflict with Native peoples were intertwined during nineteenth-century American westward expansion, and is an important primary source for the early history of Yosemite and the prehistory of the national park. Readers should keep in mind the author's period standpoint and narrative tendencies, and set personal memory against the broader historical context. It is especially valuable to readers of local, environmental, and Western history.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the introduction or publisher's note to learn who the author was and the period his account covers.
  2. Read the routes of exploration and march alongside a map to clarify the geography and the sequence of events.
  3. Compare the author's account of Native peoples with later scholarship, noting the prejudices of his era.
  4. Excerpt key dates and arrange them into a brief timeline of events to aid understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

What is the author's relation to the events in this book? Bunnell was an eyewitness to the exploration and military operations of 1851, and as a participant he recounts the discovery of the Yosemite region and the Indian war that followed. The book is therefore a memoir and testimony, concrete in detail but shaped by a personal viewpoint and the standpoint of its era.
Can this book serve as a Yosemite travel guide? It is not suitable as a travel guide. This is a nineteenth-century local history and war narrative focused on the process of discovery and on conflict, not on contemporary attractions, routes, or services. Tourists may consult it for historical background, but should look for modern sources when planning a trip.
What source-critical issues should readers keep in mind? Readers should note the author's period standpoint, especially the possibly prejudiced descriptions of Native peoples; personal memory may also be inaccurate. It is advisable to compare the book with later historical scholarship and other contemporary documents, to distinguish eyewitness detail from interpretive judgment, and to use its causal statements with caution.

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About the author

Bunnell, Lafayette Houghton, 1824-1903 Author

Lafayette Houghton Bunnell (1824–1903) was an American writer whose life and work are closely tied to the early history of California. Public information about him is limited, and only one of his works is held in this collection: Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851, Which Led to That Event. Written from an eyewitness perspective, the book recounts the discovery of Yosemite Valley and the related Indian War of 1851, combining historical record with exploration narrative. Bunnell's writing emphasizes factual accounts and on-site observations, offering first-hand material for later understanding of early exploration and Native American conflict in the Yosemite region, and holds some reference value for local and Western history studies.