Lafayette Houghton Bunnell (1824-1903), a noted explorer of Yosemite Valley, was born in Homer, Minnesota. In 1851, Bunnell was a member of the Mariposa Battalion that became the non-indigenous discoverers of the Yosemite Valley. Discovery was not the main purpose of the trip: the Battalion rode out in search of Native American tribal leaders involved in recent raids on American settlements. Bunnell explored the Valley and named many of its features. Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851 (1880) contains his account of his exploration and the actions of the Battalion. 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the distance. ... Events January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning. ... The word indigenous is derived from the latin word indigena, meaning nativ, indigenous, aboriginal, and has several, related meanings: The native people of a place; see the article indigenous people. ... Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the distance. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...
Dr. Bunnell later served as a surgeon in the Civil War. Surgery Surgery is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment. ... A civil war is a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same country or empire. ...
Bunnell Point at the east end of Little Yosemite Valley is named after Bunnell.
Camping that night on the Valley floor, the group agreed with the suggestion of Dr. Bunnell to call it "Yo-sem-i-ty", mistakenly believing it to be the native name.
(Bunnell was also the first of many to underestimate the height of the Valley walls; one San Francisco newspaper demanded of him that his estimate of 1500 feet (450 m) for the valley rim -- less than half the true height -- be cut in half before publication).
James Hutchings (who organized the first tourist party to the Valley in 1855) along with artist Thomas Ayers, is responsible for much of the earliest publicity about in Yosemite, creating articles and entire magazined issues about the Valley.
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