First non-Indian credited to having been to Yosemite first?

Question

Was it William Craig? A explorer/trapper of Scottish heritage who went through the Yosemite area in the early 1800's?

Answer 1

Hey David Q,

The Yosemite Valley by Galen Clark - Galen writes (see the web site:

"THE Yosemite Valley was discovered and made known to the public by Major James D. Savage and Capt. John Boling, who, with a strong detachment of mounted volunteers from what was known as the Mariposa Battalion, went with friendly Indian guides to the Valley in March, 1851, to capture the resident tribe of Indians and put them on the Fresno Indian Reservation."

Answer 2

Yosemite Valley was first sighted by non-Indians in 1833 by Joseph Rutherford Walker and his group of explorers.

http://www.yosemitegold.com/yosemite/history.html

**In 1833, William Craig temporarily traveled to California with a group sent by Captain Bonneville under the command of Joe Walker (Joseph Rutherford Walker).

http://washingtonhistoryonline.org/treatytrail/context/bios/bill-craig.htm
Part of the Yosemite Timeline:

1833

Yosemite is seen for the first time by Euro-Americans; in the

fall of 1833, Captain Joseph Walker and a party of trappers,

while searching for a route across the Sierra Nevada, look down

upon Yosemite Valley from the north rim.



1851

The Mariposa Battalion, under the leadership of Captain James

Savage, are the first white men to enter Yosemite Valley. They

drive out Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahneechees (a tribal branch of

the southern Miwok) who are forcefully relocated to the Fresno

River Reservation.

http://www.terra-quest.com/highsights/hstxt/timelitx.html