Yosemite Falls: Tourism Turns Water into Spectacle
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Transcript
Yosemite Falls does not need human help to be dramatic.
Human culture decided how the drama should circulate.
In the mid-nineteenth century, painters, photographers and writers carried images of Yosemite far beyond the Sierra.
Carleton Watkins, Charles Leander Weed, Thomas Ayres, Albert Bierstadt and others helped create a visual argument that the Valley was extraordinary enough to deserve national attention.
Photography was especially powerful because viewers treated it as evidence.
A painting could be dismissed as exaggeration.
A photograph suggested the cliffs and waterfalls really were that large.
Images travelled east to politicians, investors and potential tourists.
Scenery became political material.
That publicity contributed to the preservation movement culminating in the 1864 Yosemite Grant, when Congress transferred Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to California for public use under protection.
But visual promotion also created pressure.
More visitors required roads, hotels, trails, food and waste management.
The better Yosemite succeeded as an image of pristine nature, the more infrastructure was needed to let people consume that image.
The waterfall is seasonal too.
Water volume changes dramatically through the year.
A photograph of peak spring runoff can create expectations nature does not owe every visitor.
For repeat visitors, that variability is part of knowing the park.
For first-time tourists, the useful lesson is broader.
Yosemite helped teach Americans to value scenery at national scale.
It also taught tourism how to turn scenery into desire.
The waterfall did not become more beautiful when it was photographed.
It became more powerful politically.