the grant". His lungs healed, and he explored and climbed much of the area. Clark did not seek to enrich himself from Yosemite Valley or the Sequoia trees. He ran a modest hotel and guide service. A poor businessman, he was constantly in debt. His Clark's Station, for example, had several more employees than required for the number of guests and its short season. Toward the end of his life, Clark was desperately poor. He wrote three books on Yosemite. These include Indians of the Yosemite (1904) and The Yosemite Valley (1910). Clark's book on the sequoia trees is simple, factual, and direct. He left out his personal role in the discovery, popularization, and protection of the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. He served as hotel keeper, guide, and guardian of Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove. Clark spent some time living in Summerland, a Spiritualist colony in Southern California, near Santa Barbara. His house still stands on Shelby Street. On March 24, 1910, he died at the home of his daughter Dr. Elvira M. Lee in Oakland, California. He was buried at a spot near Yosemite Falls which he personally selected and dug decades prior to his death. He had also selected the granite tombstone marker and planted around his gravesite seedlings from the Mariposa Grove sequoias. Legacy and honors Clark gained preservation of what became Yosemite National Park, and raised awareness of the wilderness, setting an example for the preservation of other ecosystems and wilderness areas. Today, the Giant Sequoia that would have been the first of its kind to be seen by Clark at the Mariposa Grove is named and marked "Galen Clark Tree" (240 feet; diameter 15.3 at 10 feet above mean base) in memory of his contribution to the preservation of the Giant Sequoia ecosystem and the idea of the national park. Mount Clark and the Clark Range, located east of Yosemite Valley, were named in his honor. Popular culture Clark's life and efforts to preserve the Giant Sequoias of Yosemite were depicted in the 1976 theatrical feature film Guardian of the Wilderness (also known as Mountain Man). He was portrayed by Denver Pyle with John Dehner as legendary naturalist John Muir and Ford Rainey as Abraham Lincoln. Bibliography Originally published as "A Plea for Yosemite" in Yosemite Nature Notes (February 1927), from a manuscript written c. 1907. See also History of the Yosemite area References