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“There are more hippies than bears in Yosemite National Park.”
—Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1968
By the summer of 1970, Yosemite Valley’s Stoneman Meadow had become a favorite hangout for the counterculture crowd to drink, smoke, socialize, and play music. Going into the 4th of July weekend, the Park Service was on high alert. A tense Memorial Day weekend confrontation in Stoneman Meadow had ended with the rangers backing down. Rumors floated through June of a “Woodstock West” coming to Yosemite, and acting Superintendent Lawrence Hadley was determined to hold the line against he characterized as “the impact the adverse element of society is placing on the park.”
“On the evening of the 4th, confronted with a crowd of several hundred young people that would not disperse, the Park Service sent in men on horseback armed with mace and ropes. The crowd threw rocks and bottles, and the scene degenerated into a melee. Park employees hastily armed with ax handles barricaded roads while the youth in the meadow, having driven back the charge of the mounted rangers, flaunted a sign reading “People’s Park.” Arriving at what one commentator called “a paramilitary solution to a social problem,” the Park Service called in reinforcement from local law enforcement. Over the long night, the riot finally burned itself out as arrests (138), injuries (only 7—one of them a drug-induced coma), fatigue, and eventually, boredom mounted. By mid-day on July 5th, a Sunday and the end of the holiday weekend, order was restored.
In the aftermath of the Yosemite riot, the Park Service removed Superintendent Hadley, replaced aggressive law enforcement in favor of a more rigorously trained park police, and designed a youth-oriented nature interpretation program. Noted Deputy Superintendent Bill Halen of the hippies, “They are idealistic, highly motivated and, as a matter of fact, enthusiastic park people.”
Excerpt From: Kerry Tremain, Kenneth Brower, Rebecca Solnit, Susan Landauer, Jeffrey Lee Rogers, California Historical Society & Thomas Killion. “Yosemite: A Storied Landscape.” v1.2. 36 Views, 2014. iBooks.
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