Sequoia National Park & Kings Canyon National Park History
Native American Indian tribes have traveled the forests of Sequoia National Park since prehistoric time. The first group to inhabit the area was a Paiute group that migrated across the Sierra Nevada from the east near Mono Lake. The Potwishas and the Wuksachis were subgroups of the Monaches who lived in the foothills near the lower Kaweah River. Another subgroup, the nomadic Tubatulabals, settled near the Kern River. From here, they would travel into the mountains of the Great Western Divide and as far as Mount Whitney.
In 1806, Spaniard Gabriel Moraga was the first European to lead an expedition to Kings Canyon, discovering and naming the Kings River in honor of the Three Wise Men. In 1827, trappers and explorers began to trickle through the lofty passes and deep valleys on each side of the Sierra. The gold rush of 1849 drew thousands of outsiders to California, searching for mineral wealth and beginning the exploration of the mountains.
In 1864, a scientific exploration to map and identify major geographic features led to the naming of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the park. In 1873, John Muir, the famous naturalist, visited Kings Canyon – which impressed him with its similarity to the terrain of Yosemite Valley. In 1877, Muir climbed to Converse Basin, six miles north of Grant's Grove and discovered a sawmill established to process lumber from the sequoia groves. He found that the mills had cut down every mature tree but one in the basin, prompting a strong lobbying effort to save the trees. Fueled by Muir's lobbying efforts and editorials in the Visalia Delta newspaper, President Benjamin Harrison signed a bill in 1890 that established Sequoia National Park as California's first national park and protected it from further logging. It is the second national park, preceded only by Yellowstone.
Congress created Kings Canyon National Park in 1940. As a World War II economy measure, the National Park Service managed Sequoia and Kings Canyon jointly and the successful policy continues today.
