78 The Environmental Debate
I am heartily in favor of a Sierra or even a
Tuolumne water supply for San Francisco, but
all the water required can be obtained from
sources outside the Park, leaving the twin val-
leys, Hetch-Hetchy and Yosemite, to the use they
were intended for when the Park was established.
B. James Phelan, Letter to Outlook
1909
The Hetch-Hetchy is one of a dozen
mountain gorges, and, while beautiful, it is
not unique. It is accessible over difficult trails
about three months during the year, and few
ever visit it. The Yosemite Valley satisfies
every craving for large numbers of tourists,
and the State of California, a few years ago
freely ceded this Valley to the Federal Govern-
ment, and at the same time purchased a great
redwood forest in the interest of forest preser-
vation. California would not countenance the
desecration of any of her scenery, and yet the
State Legislature, now in session, has unani-
mously petitioned Congress to pass this bill.
President Roosevelt, Secretary Garfield, For-
ester Pinchot, will yield to none in their love of
nature; yet they strongly favor this bill.... The
only question is, after all, the conversion of
the Hetch-Hetchy Meadow into a crystal clear
Lake—a natural object of indeed rare beauty.
For the few hundred acres wanted by San Fran-
cisco on the floor or the Valley the city gives
the Government the original camping-places
taken up by the pioneers and until now held in
private ownership. The patrol of the watershed
will protect it for beauty and from fire loss
and defilement. It will be made accessible by
good roads, like the beautiful Lake Katrine—
the water supply of Glasgow—and it will be
a delight to visitors, while at the same time it
serves a great and useful purpose. The people
of San Francisco have entered into a solemn
agreement, by an overwhelming vote, with the
Government, by which Secretary Garfield has
protected the public interests. There are eight
hundred miles of wild mountain scenery in the
Sierras, and, according to John Muir, “There
are a dozen Yosemites;” then why deplore the
loss of a mosquito meadow?....
By yielding their opposition, sincere lovers
of nature will turn the prayers of a million peo-
ple to praise for the gifts bestowed upon them by
the God of Nature, whom they cannot worship
in his temple, but must perforce live in the swel-
tering cities. A reduced death rate is a more vital
consideration than the discussion of the relative
beauties of a meadow or a lake.C. From John Muir’s The Yosemite,
1912
Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a “low-lying
meadow.” On the contrary, it is a high-lying nat-
ural landscape garden....
“It is a common minor feature, like thou-
sands of others.” On the contrary it is a very
uncommon feature; after Yosemite, the rarest
and in many ways the most important in the
National Park.
“Damming and submerging it 175 feet deep
would enhance its beauty by forming a crystal-
clear lake.” Landscape gardens, places of rec-
reation and worship, are never made beautiful
by destroying and burying them. The beautiful
sham lake, forsooth, would be only an eyesore, a
dismal blot on the landscape, like many others to
be seen in the Sierra. For, instead of keeping it at
the same level all the year, allowing Nature cen-
turies of time to make new shores, it would, of
course, be full only a month or two in the spring,
when the snow is melting fast; then it would be
gradually drained, exposing the slimy sides of the
basin and shallower parts of the bottom, with the
gathered drift and waste, death and decay of the
upper basins, caught here instead of being swept
on to decent natural burial along the banks of the
river or in the sea. Thus the Hetch Hetchy dam-
lake would be only a rough imitation of a natural
lake for a few of the spring months, an open sep-
ulcher for the others.
“Hetch Hetchy water is the purest of all to
be found in the Sierra, unpolluted, and forever