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1851 - 1860

1851
        James D. Savage leads the Mariposa Battalion intoYosemite Valley in search of Miwok who escaped the previous attack.
        Bunnell suggests the name, "Yosemite"  is the Miwok word for Grizzly Bear, the name of the Clan living in the Valley. 

       Second incursion into the Indian lands of Yosemite.  This time the Americans are lead by Captain John Boling's Company and
       Miwok are taken prisoner at Tenaya Lake.

1952
       Skirmishes continue between Miwok and American miners.  Two prospectors are found dead in Yosemite Valley.    

       Lt. Treadwell Moore enters Yosemite Valley with a detachment of soldiers.  The Miwok then resident there flee, taking refuge
       with the Mono Lake Paiutes east of the Sierra.

1853 
        July
                    3 - Emma Louise P. was admitted to the church membership in Hampstead

        Mikow return to Yosemite Valley.  Another incident, this time involving a horse, causes a fight between the Paiutes and
        Miwok.  Six Miwok, including Chief Tenaya, are killed. 

1954
        James Capen "Grizzly" Adams, visits Yosemite Valley to hunt.  He is trapping Grizzly bears to be trained for entertainment
        purposes.  

1855
        James M. Hutchings, publisher of California Magazine, leads the first tourist party into Yosemite Valley. Thomas Ayres is
        with the party and the artist makes the first illustrations of the natural wonders of the Valley.  The Hutchings Party, with his
        first sight-seers “spent five glorious days in luxurious scenic banqueting” in the newly discovered valley and then followed 
        their Indian guides over the return trail to Mariposa. Upon their arrival in that mountain city, they were  besieged with eager
        questioners, among whom was L. A. Holmes, the editor of the Mariposa Gazette.
                     July 12 -  The first mention of Yosemite appears the first printed description of Yosemite Valley, prepared by L. A.  
        Holmes, Editor of the paper which had recently been founded.     
       This description will be quoted in publications across the country. 100 Years in the Saddle "Journalists the country over
       copied the description, and so started the Hutchings Yosemite publicity, which was to continue through a period of 
        forty-seven years. Parties from Mariposa and other mining camps, and from San Francisco, interested by Hutchings’ oral
       and printed accounts, organized,  secured the same Indian guides, and inaugurated tourist travel to the Yosemite wonder
       spot."

      

1855 – 1874 – Between these dates 2,656 people visit Yosemite 

1856 
        First Yosemite Valley Inn, built by four miners from had-riven boards near base of Sentinel Rock. Known as Lower Hotel,
        actually served as a saloon. Crushed  by snow.

        Mann Brothers' toll trail from Clark's  Station, today Wawona, to Yosemite Valley, is completed.  

        Coulterville Free Trail blazed from Bull Creek through Deer Flat, Hazel Green, Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, and Gentry's to the
        Valley floor.  
        Harlin Henry attends lectures at Dartmouth.       William James Adams, Ansel's grandfather, married the young widow, 
        Cassandra Hills McIntyre, in Thomaston, Maine. They move to California where they build       a very successful lumber
        business. 

1857        
               July  -  Samual(6)Pillsbury dies in Sandown, NH. In Sandown he was honored with positions of public trust, serving 
       as town clerk, selectman, representative to  General Court, Justice of the Peace, etc. He is buried in Sandown.  
        Harlin Henry attends lectures at Dartmouth.

       William James Adams, Ansel's grandfather, married the young widow, Cassandra Hills McIntyre, in Thomaston, Maine. They
       move to California where they build  a very successful lumber business. 

       Beardsley and Hite put up a tent a mile east of the Lower Hotel.  Later, this will be the location of Cedar Cottage.  

         August
                         7 – Daniel Joseph Foley born in Dubuque, Iowa.  

1858 
         Lower Hotel is rebuilt and run by John Neal and his wife, Jean Frances.
         Upper Hotel open for business. 

1859 
                  June 17 -  The Hutchings Party arrives in Yosemite with photographer Charles Leander Weed to take the first
         photographs.  Description of their trip in Yosemite, June 1959 Edition. starts  "The party of five San Francisco tourists had
         arrived tired and dusty. The hour was late, the date, June 17, 1859. They had hired a guide and horses for the final leg of 
         their journey. That night they had camp at Deer Flat and although they had started at seven-thirty the next morning (The 
         seventeenth) they did not reach the floor of the Yosemite Valley until sunset."

         First photographs taken of Yosemite Valley by Charles Lender Weed, published as wood cuts in the October issue of the 
         Hutchings' California Magazine. 

         Harlin Henry Pillsbury  Graduated from Dartmouth. (26 years old) . he had also attended Hampstead schools, Atkinson
        Academy, Dartmouth  College graduated in 1859 from  Harvard. Practiced in Medford, New York State and California.       

        James Lamon arrives in Yosemite Valley, establishes the first permanent, year-round occupancy, and develops he first
        homestead.        

       June
                    29  - Harlin Henry Pillsbury  married Harriet Foster  in Lowell, Massachusetts 

      September
                     4 - Daniel Sargent Admitted to the Hampstead church.

1860 
        John Muir enrolls in college at the University of Wisconsin.