May 27, 1885
STAGECOACH ROBBED!
Well's Fargo Treasure Box, Money,
Watches, Jewelry & RR Tickets Taken
By Fresno Expositor Newspaper

    YOSEMITE -- On Friday, E.H. Cox, agent of the Central Pacific Railroad at Madera, telegraphed to Sheriff Meade that two of the Yosemite Stages had been robbed at about 6 o'clock on the road near Benford's place, by two men; one a short man, the other a man of lighter build but taller.
     The short one was armed with a rifle and a pistol and the other with a shotgun and pistol. There were a number of passengers aboard the stages, and the robbers divested them of their money, watches, sleeve buttons, charms, and jewelry of all kinds, checks, railroad tickets.
     They also took Wells, Fargo & Co.'s treasure box. The robbers were evidently well acquainted with the drivers as they told the first driver, Philip Toby, to "Drive on, Phil," when they had got through stripping his passengers, and to the other driver, Geo. Foster, they said, "Drive on Foster."
     The men were dressed in black, but had their clothes on wrongside out. Sheriff Meade at once set out in quest of the robbers.
     Constable Hensley of Madera has also gone out after them.

June 1, 1962
First Yosemite Judge
Was a Landscape Architect
By Yosemite News Research Staff

    YOSEMITE -- Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted, Frederick Law (1822-1903), major American landscape architect, born in Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Yale University.
     He traveled throughout Europe and the southern U.S., studying landscape gardening and agricultural methods.
     In 1857 he was appointed superintendent of Central Park in New York City, the first great metropolitan park in the U.S. In collaboration with the American architect Calvert Vaux he drew new plans for the park, which had a pervasive influence on park design throughout the United States and Canada.
     Subsequently, he planned a large number of city parks, that include Morningside, Prospect, and Riverside parks, New York City; Jackson and Washington parks, Chicago; and the grounds of the Capitol, Washington, D.C.
     He was the first commissioner of Yosemite National Park, California. Olmsted was one of the first landscape architects in America to preserve the natural features of the terrain and to add naturalistic elements when needed.
     His experiences are recounted in Forty Years of Landscape Architecture: Central Park (1928), edited by F. L. Olmsted, Jr., and Theodora Kimball.

Hetch Hetchy Power Debacle - Continuing Yosemite Threat [01/01/2001]
Chronology - 1898: The private Spring Valley Water Co. has gained monopoly control of water service in San Francisco, but the limited rainfall runoff that feeds its tiny reservoir system can't possibly keep pace with the needs of a growing city.