Joseph Reddeford Walker, trailblazing mountain man and the first Anglo-American to see Yosemite, was born in 1798.

When Joseph Reddeford Walker was a young man, the American frontier had barely been explored. Prior to the start of the Gold Rush in 1849, very few Americans had traveled beyond the eastern U.S., and virtually none had been into the great western frontier. Even at an early age, Walker demonstrated an uncanny ability to traverse and remember the topography of unknown regions. At the age of 20, Walker joined an illegal hunting and trapping expedition into the Mexican-controlled territory in the southern Rocky Mountains. Captured and arrested by Mexican authorities, Walker served a brief prison term in Santa Fe, but was later released in exchange for his assistance in a local war against Pawnee Indian raiders. In 1832, Walker joined Captain Benjamin Bonneville in a trapping and trading expedition into the West. They began a daring journey into the Mexican province of Alta California, something that had only been accomplished by two other Anglos before. However, rather than use the trails blazed by his predecessors, Walker instead led a small group of men on a new route through the Sierras, one that proved far more challenging than expected (the explorers were more than once reduced to eating their horses to stay alive). Upon crossing the Continental Divide on November 13, 1833, Walker and his men were rewarded with a sight that no Anglo-American had ever before seen: the giant redwoods and many waterfalls of the Yosemite Valley. Later in life, Walker traveled to Montana, worked for the American Fur Company and served as a guide, leading many emigrant parties into the West. He asked that a remembrance of the greatest day of his life be carved into his tombstone: "Camped at Yosemite, Nov. 13, 1833."

ARTSEDGE

Pioneer America: The Journey West (K–4) helps students learn about the early pioneers in America and their motivations for moving into the West. Students learn what life was like for these explorers on their journeys, list items necessary for westward travel during the mid-1800s, create a map of the Oregon Trail, conduct research on historical sites along the trail and present findings via class oral presentations. This lesson culminates in the presentation of monologues written by students, in which students present the perspective of an emigrant on a journey westward.

EDSITEment
Born on a Mountaintop? Davy Crockett, Tall Tales, and History (3–5) is a unit that examines tall tale characters, such as Davy Crockett, and their relationship to history. In the lessons, students name tall tale characters and locations that are based on actual people and places and then describe how they are used in an exaggerated way. They also name created characters and events from tall tales, list some of the literary characteristics of tall tales and write an original tall tale.

Xpeditions
In Understanding Wilderness (9–12), students explore the definition of wilderness as found in the 1964 Wilderness Act. They explore several issues affecting wilderness areas, including a controversial 1913 law allowing a dam to flood Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley.