Gary-Summer: Place: CA-Hetch-Hetchy

Thursday, January 8, 1970

Place: CA-Hetch-Hetchy

Hetch-Hetchy (Hetch-Hetchy)
(37° 56′ 53″ N, 119° 47′ 17″ W)

Description:
Named from a Central Miwok word denoting a kind of grass or plant with edible seeds abounding in the valley.” (Kroeber: California Place Names of Indian Origin, 1916, p. 42.)

[Editor’s note: This grass may be Dichelostemma capitatum, commonly known as “blue dicks” or “grass nuts.”—dea]

“An explanation of the meaning of the word Hetch Hetchy has been obtained through the kindness of John Muir, who says: ‘I have been informed by mountaineers who know something of the Indian language that Hetch Hetchy is the name of a species of grass that the Tuolumne Indians used for food, and which grows on the meadow at the lower end of the valley. The grain, when ripe, was gathered and beaten out and pounded into meal in mortars.’ The word was originally spelled Hatchatchie.” (Sanchez: Spanish and Indian Place Names of California, 1922, p. 332.)
“Hatchatchie Valley (erroneously spelled Hetch Hetchy).” (Powers: Tribes of California, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, III, 1877, p. 357.)

“The Lower Tuolumne Yosemite, that I am about to sketch—called ‘Hetch Hetchy’ by the Indians—is said to have been discovered by one Joseph Screech, a hunter, in the year 1850, one year before Captain Boling and his party discovered Yosemite, in their pursuit of marauding Indians. . . . My first excursion to Hetch Hetchy was undertaken in the early portion of November, 1871.” (John Muir: Hetch Hetchy Valley, in Overland Monthly, July, 1873, pp. 42-43.)

“Hetch Hetchy is claimed by a sheep-owner named Smith, who drives stock into it every summer, by a trail which was built by Joseph Screech. It is often called Smith’s Valley.” (Same, pp. 49-50.)
“The valley was first visited, in 1850, by Mr. Joseph Screech, a mountaineer of this region, who found it occupied by Indians. This gentleman informed me that, up to a very recent date, this valley was disputed ground between the Pah Utah Indians from the eastern slope and the Big Creek Indians from the western slope of the Sierras; they had several fights, in which the Pah Utahs proved victorious. The latter still visit the valley every fall to gather acorns, which abound in this locality.” (Notes on Hetch Hetchy Valley by C. F. Hoffmann, read by J. D. Whitney at meeting of California Academy of Natural Sciences, October 21, 1867, in Proceedings, vol. III, part V, 1868, p. 370.)
From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Reservoir constructed by City and County of San Francisco under authority of act of Congress (commonly known as the Raker Act), approved by President Wilson December 19, 1913.
Project originated in 1901, when Mayor James D. Phelan applied for reservoir sites at Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy. Applications denied, 1903, and again in 1905, by E. A. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior. In 1908, James K. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, granted permit allowing City to develop Lake Eleanor and Cherry Valley, and if these proved insufficient, then Hetch Hetchy. In 1910, Secretary of the Interior R. A. Ballinger required the City “to show why the Hetch Hetchy Valley and reservoir site should not be eliminated from said permit.” An Advisory Board of Army Engineers, composed of Colonel John Biddle, Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Taylor, and Colonel Spencer Cosby, was appointed to investigate and report to the Secretary of the Interior. Report rendered February 19, 1913. Secretary of the Interior Walter L. Fisher, on March 1, 1913, declared that action on this matter should not be taken by the Secretary of the Interior, but that a grant should be made only upon specific authority of Congress. A bill was introduced in the next Congress, and was passed after extensive hearings had been held.
References: Proceedings before the Secretary of the Interior in re use of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Site in the Yosemite National Park by the City of San Francisco, Washington, 1910.— Report of Advisory Board of Army Engineers to the Secretary of the Interior, Washington, 1913.— The Hetch Hetchy Water Supply for San Francisco, report by John R. Freeman, San Francisco, 1912.— Robert Underwood Johnson: Remembered Yesterdays, 1924, pp. 307-313.— Badè: Life and Letters of John Muir, 1924, II, pp. 360-361, 384-385, 388-389, 416-423.—Muir: The Yosemite, 1912, pp. 249-262.—Muir: in S.C.B., 1908, VI:4, pp. 211-220; in Outlook, November 2, 1907; in Century, January, 1909.— See, also, S.C.B., 1908, VI:4, pp. 264-268; 1908, VI:5, pp. 321-329; 1909, VII:1, pp. 69-71, 1909, VII:2, p. 133; 1910, VII:4, pp. 260-263; 1913, IX:1, pp. 44-45; 1914, IX:2, pp. 174-176, 192-199.

Construction was begun on approach roads in 1914; clearing floor of Hetch Hetchy Valley completed, 1917; construction of dam begun, 1919; dam completed and reservoir filled, 1923. (See, also, Lake Eleanor.) Hydro-electric power available at main power-house, Moccasin Creek, 1925; aqueduct for city water-supply not yet completed (1926).
From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Trips: