Galen Clark

Galen Clark (March 28, 1814 – March 24, 1910) is known as the first European American to discover the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees, and is notable for his role in gaining legislation to protect it and the Yosemite area, and for 24 years serving as Guardian of Yosemite National Park.

Galen Clark was born in Shipton, Canada East (now Quebec) in 1814.

He joined the westward migration as a youth. In Missouri he met and married Rebecca McCoy. They had two children who survived until after their parents' deaths: Elvira M., who married and became a doctor in Oakland, California; and another daughter who married John T. Regan of Springfield, Massachusetts.

After his wife died young, Clark moved to California to seek his fortune, probably about 1848 at the time of the California Gold Rush. In 1853 at the age of 39, Clark contracted a severe lung infection that was diagnosed as consumption (as tuberculosis was called in his time). Doctors gave him six months to live, as they had no antibiotic treatment at the time, but counseled rest and outdoor air.

Clark moved to the Wawona, California area. "I went to the mountains to take my chances of dying or growing better, which I thought were about even." (Galen Clark, 1856) Upon his discovery of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Galen Clark spent most of his time exploring the area and teaching others about the mysteries of the giant, cinnamon-colored trees.

He wrote about protecting the grove to friends and the US Congress. He contributed to the writing and passage of legislation to protect the area, gaining support of US Senator John Conness from California. The act for the Yosemite Grant was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Ceding the land to the state of California for preservation, the grant was the first of its kind. The legislation was to protect Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias for "public use, resort, and recreation ... to be left inalienable for all time." Galen became the first "guardian of the grant". His lungs healed, and he explored and climbed much of the area.

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