Page:Tioga Road (HAER No. CA-149) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/20

 Opposition continued to gather nonetheless. One of the most vocal opponents was Ansel Adams. The celebrated photographer had long been associated with Yosemite, and came to live there after marrying Virginia Best, daughter of Harrie C. Best, who ran a photographic studio in Yosemite Valley. Adams, an outspoken advocate for the protection of the wilderness, was aghast when he learned of the Park Service's plan to push the new road along the edge of Tenaya Lake and across the granite domes to the southwest. Adams had originally supported the alternate route north of Mount Hoffman, which would have followed McGee Creek to meet the existing road at the west end of Tuolumne Meadows, avoiding the Tenaya Lake region.114

To Adams, the Tenaya Lake area was the heart of the high country. In July 1957, he tried to rally the Sierra Club, of which he was a director, to vigorously oppose the proposed road alignment. In a letter to the club's leaders, he wrote: "Is it necessary to desecrate the Lake Tenaya area by construction of a road of 'highway' standards? What justification can they (the National park Service) present for such a road?... Tenaya Lake is infinitely more important than the Park Service." If the Sierra Club would not take immediate action, Adams stated he would resign and fight the project on his own.115 Bradley and the other directors rejected his resignation, but still hoped to be able to reach a compromise with the Park Service. When no such agreement was reached, the club directors reluctantly joined the opposition to the project.116

The controversy caused a major crisis within the ranks of the Sierra Club. Some of the club leaders continued to support the Park Service's plans for the reconstruction of the road. Former club president William E. Colby, who as a young attorney had helped Stephen Mather with the acquisition of the road for the park, remained an advocate of the road improvement project. Colby was so angered by the club's stance that he resigned from the board of directors. Another former club president, Walter Huber, as a civil engineer had formerly consulted with the Park Service on road projects, and had reviewed and approved the preliminary plans for the central portion of the road in the 1930s. Huber argued that the Sierra Club, having supported the original plans for the road improvements, could not now turn its back on the Park Service. Edgar Wayland, chairman of the club's Conservation Committee, and his wife, Peggy, wrote an article supporting the road for the April 1956 issue of the Sierra Club Bulletin in which they argued that 90 percent of the money allocated to Yosemite's Mission 66 road projects was devoted to the reconstruction of existing park roads. They did, however, complain that the Park Service had not solicited the involvement of the club and other outdoor groups in the planning of the project,117 In return, NPS Director Wirth charged that the Sierra Club, long an ally of the Park Service, had turned against the agency.118

Despite the conservationists' objections, the National Park Service on 8 July 1958 ordered the contractor to begin work on the controversial section. The Sierra Club immediately began a virulent public campaign to seek an adjustment in the road plans, and club officers and members bombarded NPS and Interior Department officials with telegrams and letters of protest. In particular, the Sierra Club objected to a proposed "high level" route of the road over a prominent granite dome to the southwest of Tenaya Lake. The road was designed to pass over the brow of the dome, where a parking area would be provided to offer a vista of the Tenaya Canyon and the rear side of Half Dome. The club, fearing unsightly scarring of the exposed granite, sought to have the road rerouted along the base of the dome, and to have the vista accessible only to motorists willing to leave their cars for a short hike up onto the mountainside. On 4 August, the Sierra Club asked Wirth to shut down the work and to make a persona 1 inspection of the project.119