have to be rehabilitated. There is a substantial cost in putting that building in first-class condition. We hope to make a working arrangement with a concessionaire to help finance that cost, but there will be some cost to the Federal Government in connection with that. Mr. AUCOIN. Since it's the only National Park in Oregon, would you call it one of the Crown Jewels in the Oregon National Park System? Mr. MOTT. If you want to call it that. Mr. AUCOIN. Thank you. Mr. YATES. Thank you. We'll recess until 1:30. AFTERNOON SESSION HETCH HETCHY Mr. YATES. Mr. Secretary, I give you the right of reply. Yesterday we had Secretary Herrington before us. In the course of our questions, he commented on Hetch Hetchy. I gave him an article that appeared in the Washington Times for February 1, which began with the statement "Verbal warfare has broken out between two members of President Reagan's Cabinet, his Interior Secretary, Donald Hodel saying Energy Secretary John Herrington should worry more about the job at hand than his future employment prospects." Secretary Herrington said that was a low blow. Now, do you want to tell this committee whether it was a low blow or a high blow, or any kind of blow? Let me show you the article. Mr. HODEL. I was asked, Mr. Chairman, about what I thought might be the motivation, and I was responding based on what Secretary Herrington had said to me, and that's a characterization. The fact is that the proposal for a study on whether or not we should restore Hetch Hetchy Valley to the National Parks is a desirable one, and it would be-I keep saying that if the critics are correct about how much cost there would be-that would turn up very quickly in any study, and so we wouldn't even have to complete the study. It seems to me that really the burden ought to be on those who do not wish to restore this kind of area to the National Parks to explain why, when it now appears there is a reason to believe it could be possible, we should not even look at it. I brought with me some pictures of the area which I'd be happy to show you. Mr. YATES. I'd be glad to see them. Mr. HODEL. I have some photographs that are photographs of Hetch Hetchy Valley before the dam was completed in 1923. As you can see, it has many similarities to the Yosemite Valley, including waterfalls. I also have a photograph of the area now as it is, with the same waterfalls but with the reservoir filling the valley. Mr. REGULA. Would the Chairman yield? JOHN MUIR'S OBJECTIONS Mr. REGULA. Mr. Secretary, am I not correct that John Muir objected strenuously to this project? Mr. HODEL. The story has it that within a year of losing this battle, he died and, of course, some say because of this. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to quote a very short statement from John Muir's 1908 essay, which incidentally was published in a San Francisco newspaper in August, 1987. This was before this issue had arisen, before it was in any way public. For some reason I do not know what prompted it-they wrote an article about Hetch Hetchy, and they quoted John Muir's essay of 1908 in which he said: I have always called it the Tuolumne Yosemite for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced Yosemite, not only in the sublime rocks and waterfalls, but in the gardens, groves and meadows of its flowery park-like floor. The floor of Yosemite is about 4,000 feet above the sea; the Hetch Hetchy floor about 3,700 feet. And as the Merced River flows through Yosemite, so does the Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both are of gray granite, rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same style and in both every rock is a glacier monument. And he goes on in that vein. He was obviously very partial to the area. I'd like to submit this to you for the record, if you would like. [The information follows:] San Francisce Examine A-8 Sunday, August 9, 1987 Page 942 Hetch Hetchy Valley, sublime counterpart to Yosemite Editor's note: In these excerpts from a 1908 essay by naturalist John Muir, who spent his final years in futile battle against the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, he argues, Ghat nature" not so poor as to have only one of anything." By John Muir (1830-1910 ... I have always called it the Tuolumne Yosemite," for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced Yosemite, not only in its sublime rocks and waterfalls but in the gardens, groves and meadows of its flowery parklike floor. The floor of Yosemite is about 4,000 feet above the sea: the Hetch Hetchy floor about 3,700 feet. And as the Merced River flows through Yosemite, so does the Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both are of gray granite, rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same style and, in both, every rock is a glacier monument. Standing boldly out from the south wall is a strikingly pictur. esque rock called by the Indians. Kolana, the outermost of a group 2.300 feet high, corresponding with the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite both in relative position and form. On the opposite side of the Val ley, facing Kolana, there is a counterpart of the El Capitan that rises sheer and plain to a height of 1,800 feet, and over its massive brow flows a stream which makes the most graceful fall I have ever seen. Imagine yourself in Hetch Het chy on a sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers (as I have often stood), while the great pinas sway dre Looking northward acros So fine a fall might wel It is the counterpart of the Yo- No two falls could be more unlike Tueeulala out in the open sunshine descending like thistledown: Wapama in a jagged, shadowy gorge roaring and thundering. pounding its way like an earthquake avalanche. Besides this glorious pair there is a broad, massive fall on the main river a short distance above the head of the Valley. Its position is something like that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it plunges into a surging trout-pool may be heard a long way, through it is only about twenty feet high. On Rancheria Creek, a large stream, corresponding in position with the Yosemite Tenaya Creek. there is a chain of cascades joined here and there with swift flashing plumes like the one between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, making magnificent shows as they go their glacier-sculptured way, sliding, leaping, hurrahing, covered with crisp clashing spray made glorious with sifting sunshine. And besides all these a few small streams come over the wall at wide intervals, leaping from ledge to ledge with birdlike song and watering many a hidden cliff-garden and fernery, but they are too unshowy to be noticed in so grand a ¡ place. The correspondence between 1 the Hetch Hetchy wails in their trends, sculpture, physical structure, and general arrangement of the main rock-masses and those of the Yosemite Valley has excited the wondering admiration of every observer. We have seen that the El Capitan and Cathedral rocks occupy the same relative positions in both valleys, so also do their Yosemite points and North Domes. Again, that part of the Yosemite north wall immediately to the east of the Yosemite Fall has two horizontal benches, about 500 and 1,500 feet above the floor, timbered with golden-cup oak. The floor of the Valley is about three and a half miles long, and from a fourth to half a mile wide. The lower portion is mostly a level meadow about a mile long, with the trees restricted to the sides and the river banks, and partially separated from the main, upper, forested portion by a low bar of glacier-polished granite across which the river breaks in rapids. It appears, therefore, that Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, common rock-bound mead ow, as many who have not seen ́it seem to suppose, is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature's rar est and most precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life. Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep.... That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible, but sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. The pros ponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people's parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of the first garden so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste; so much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolum ne scenery going to waste.... These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism; seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the moun tains, lift them to the Almighty Dol lar. Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's enthedrals and churches, for no holfer temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man. |