A large hotel built
on the brink of the river in front of the old one is now the only hotel
in the Valley. A large hotel built by the State and located farther up
the Valley was burned. To provide for the overflow of visitors there are
three camps with board floors, wood frame, and covered with canvas, well
furnished, some of them with electric light. A large first-class hotel
is very much needed.
Travel of late years has been rapidly increasing, especially after the
establishment, by Act of Congress in 1890, of the Yosemite National Park
and the recession in 1905 of the original reservation to the Federal
Government by the State. The greatest increase, of course, was caused
by the construction of the Yosemite Valley railroad from Merced to the
border of the Park, eight miles below the Valley.
It is eighty miles long, and the entire distance, except the first
twenty-four miles from the town of Merced, is built through the
precipitous Merced River Canyon. The roadbed was virtually blasted out
of the solid rock for the entire distance in the canyon. Work was begun
in September, 1905, and the first train entered El Portal, the terminus,
April 15, 1907. Many miles of the road cost as much as $100,000 per
mile. Its business has increased from 4000 tourists in the first year
it was operated to 15,000 in 1910.
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