Re: Wilma vs. Wilmer lake-other sign inaccuracies?

I was recently in Jack Main Canyon and visited Wilma lake, which all of the signs in the backcountry call Wilmer. I talked to the ranger, and he gave me a "Yeah, I know look" but said he had no idea why this was the case. I found an explanation online and figured I'd share it with others who might be curious.

This brought up another curiousity for me I hoped someone might have an answer for. I've noticed other errors on the Yosemite backcountry signs, for exampe the distance to Eagle Peak from the North RIm trail, and to Sentinal Dome via the 4mile trail from the valley, which the ranger explained was the distance from the original, long gone trail. My qestions ae, when were the signs first installed, and why have they never been corrected? Just wondering.

Anyway heres the story.

Wilma Lake was named after my mother, Wilma Seavey. (Seavey pass was named after her dad, Clyde Seavey.) The family story goes like this: My grandfather, Clyde Seavey, a member of the Sierra Club at the turn of the century (19th to 20th), was a friend of the cartographer or surveyor--or whoever worked for the feds and was in charge of mapping and naming geographical sites of interest. My grandfather was on a backpacking trip in the Sierra with this man, who was from New England and therefore had a New England accent.

My mother had just been born shortly before they took off on their trip into the back country of the Sierra. I guess the cartographer was mapping and naming sites as he went along. They came to a tarn and I suppose it needed a name. So the cartographer said to his assistant, "Let's call this Lake Wilma, after Clyde Seavey's new daughter." Only because he was a New Englander, he said, "Lake Wilmer," and his assistant, somehow unaware of this perculiarity in pronounciation, dutifully wrote down "Lake Wilmer".

And thus it stood, from 1912, as you point out, until 1956, when the spelling correction was made. The correction was made as a result of some letter-writing my parents did, to their congressman (John Baldwin, who served the East Bay area near San Francisco), and to whatever federal bureaucrats they needed to to get the spelling corrected. I remember they were quite proud of accomplishing this feat. Were they alive, they'd love to dial up your website and see your commentary.

Thanks again.
David Seavey Ogden

New Englanders are indeed guilty of adding "r"s where they don't belong and leaving them off where they do belong. I have lost most of my New England accent but my wife still retains all of it, a source of constant ridicule here in North Carolina. Your Wilmer spelling is a classic example of adding "r"s yet something like car will be pronounced "cah" and a horse is a "hos".

I thought the cartographer was from England.
Put your GPS on British and thaR ewe go.

My irritation with the signs (which I LOVE btw)... is that
some clown will say "I went to Wilmer" and then you tell them
well... it's Wilma Lake and they say "no it isn't".
sigh
Or some other turkey Old Guy will say that Tuolumne Meadows
doesn't have a High Sierra Camp and you show him the
sign and he still doesn't get it.

Trails have moved around a bit here and there. So the signs
may be off a bit. But they are not off so much so that imo it
should cause any alarm. Some missing signs have been
put back in place. But imo the original signs should stay.
It's pretty irritating to me to see some signs missing over the
years such as Sache Springs, Merced Pass are two examples.

Have fun

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Couple of other comments.
a - what. hth doesn't a ranger know the anwer to why it's Wilmer
2 - they have put up brand new spanking fancy pants wooden signs
in a number of places that didn't exist before.
(a few that come to mind are JMT in TM, Mather Ranger Station THs,
Panorama Trail at GP)
c - uh... it's Sentinel not Sentinal

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I generally love the old metal signs but sometimes my desire for preciseness leaves me frustrated when trying to calculate miles traveled/miles to go, etc. My other complaint is they put the Tenaya Canyon metal sign in the wrong spot.

This is my favorite sign though:

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chicagocwright

This is my favorite sign though:

That's to differentiate it from the bridle trail to Clouds Rest's summit.

.

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plawrence

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chicagocwright

This is my favorite sign though:

That's to differentiate it from the bridle trail to Clouds Rest's summit.

.

You mean people get married on top of Clouds Rest? What kind of shoes does the bride wear?

Note the spelling, bridle vs. bridal.
.

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plawrence
Note the spelling, bridle vs. bridal.
.

In some cultures, bridles would be perfect for brides.

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chicagocwright
In some cultures, bridles would be perfect for brides.

Instead of using them for husbands as we do here?

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eeek

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chicagocwright
In some cultures, bridles would be perfect for brides.

Instead of using them for husbands as we do here?

Exactly!

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chick-on
My irritation with the signs (which I LOVE btw)... is that
some clown will say "I went to Wilmer" and then you tell them
well... it's Wilma Lake and they say "no it isn't".

It is an official variant name as well as Hells Delight.

This makes complete sense to me as one who grew up outside of Boston and once spoke as such - Funny thing for me is that many words that end in A, I would simply elaborate the "ah" - not speaking the "r" - However, I think this is probably my own abberation - Other words, I would have added the R - "Cuber is an island" - "capital is Havaner" - Funny that it took an act of congress to have the spelling changed - All in all a "wicked pissa" post - I've nevah been to Lake Wilmer - Don't know if you can git theah from heah, howevah, I saw a couple of wicked crunchah's last time in Yosemite - ayuh! ( A cruncha is a large deer)

These signs were talked about a bit here:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,8348,8418#msg-8418

I know Dearborn lurks frequently and perhaps can say more.

Sadly the Miller Lake sign is no longer present at the lake.
Was not too happy about that this year.

Here's an example of a sign that has been replaced:


You find others out there that have the stencil marks still on them also
that look more true to the originals.

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Ok, I looked it up. The metal signs were installed in the 1950s after
many other attempts at signage didn't work so well.
(Old Dude... here's your answer w/r to "Hetch Hetchy" on the signs)

You can find an incredible amount of info here:
http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_resources/

About signs, roads, old trails, etc.

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