In Old Hetch Hetchy: An Illustrated Tour and History of Yosemite’s Other Grand Valley is a comprehensive and compelling book for anyone interested in the past, present or future of Hetch Hetchy.
Becky McCall visited Yosemite several times as a child, but never realized Hetch Hetchy existed until she stumbled onto an article in high school. In Old Hetch Hetchy is the product of years of impressive research.
McCall’s lush paintings provide backdrops to detailed descriptions of Hetch Hetchy’s many separate meadows, waterfalls, and rock formations, as well as its flora and fauna. They welcome the reader into the historic valley and stir the imagination. There is a lot to see and explore on page after page.
Turning to Hetch Hetchy’s human history, McCall’s research begins with the Indigenous peoples who used Hetch Hetchy before California’s gold rush brought an influx of Americans into the Sierra. Apangasse Chief Nomasu, and Enyeto, son of Aplache Chief Hoho, were born there. For a time in the 1850’s, after the Mariposa War, different bands of Native Americans found refuge in the more remote and lesser-known Hetch Hetchy Valley.
McCall recants tales of the Screech Brothers, who found Hetch Hetchy to be an ideal place for sheep grazing and blazed a crude road to the valley. John Muir visited four times in the 1870s and subsequently lobbied Congress to create Yosemite National Park, including Hetch Hetchy Valley. McCall also unearthed the story of four women, Berkeleyans Helen and Lulu Gompertz and San Franciscans Belle and Estelle Miller, who took a two-month “unchaperoned” camping trip to Hetch Hetchy in August 1895, tramping about the valley in their bloomers.
McCall is no fan of the Raker Act but provides an honest accounting of the politics as well as the engineering challenges of building the O’Shaughnessy Dam. She speaks to the City’s sudden change of attitude toward visitors once the Raker Act was passed, including conflicts with Stephen Mather, the National Park Service’s first Director.
McCall concedes that Hetch Hetchy Reservoir provides benefits to the Bay Area, as we do at Restore Hetch Hetchy, and is inspired by new ideas, including returning the valley to its natural splendor.
Buy the book. Or better yet, buy two copies – keep one and give one to a friend.