Howdy, As you recall, we left our Mariposa Battalion on the evening of March 18th, 1851 at the Indian dance. Their scheduled next day departure experienced a rain delay. But they did depart around 9:00 PM on March 19th. In describing the Battlion's next several days, I have seen many map & charts outlining their route - some differ/some agree. Frankly, I believe that my word picture of their travels based on Robert ECCLESTON'S diary would do nothing but confuse us all:-). I defer to historical maps and more scholarly descriptions. So let's return to Eccleston's diary: "Saturday. March 22nd. We started this morning before 9:00 o'clk.. We soon got into the region of snow which increased in depth as we ascended the Sierra, sometimes it being over a foot deep.[23rd]. We started again last Evening....This was for the purpose of obtaining guides to the Large Rancheri where all the Indians this side of the Fresno nearly have united & are prepared for war. It is said there are 3000 warriors & the ground they are supposed to occupy is a natural fortification." Eccleston then further describes their travel trials and tribulations. On the 25th he writes, "the tribe we are to fight are the YOOSEMITA'S & after the friend[ly] disposed leave, it is supposed that from 3 to 500 warriors will remain....Before night 100 Indians came in from below on the River. " In the afternoon, we had some foot racing[remember this], jumping matches, &c....The chief here offers to send with us 50 warriors to fight against the Yoosemita's providing we give them the WOMEN as prisoners.[:-)] FOLKS, we now come to the Eccleston diary's most famous/important sentence: "Thursday, March 27th. Today about noon Major SAVAGE started for the Yoosemita Camp with 57 men & an Indian Guide." Only that! Can you believe it? They left without taking the only guy in the entire Battalion, Eccleston, who kept a daily diary. Why not Eccleston? Some historians say that the purpose of the March 23rd races was to select the fastest runners to go to the Yoosemita's camp .Maybe because he lost, Eccleston is silent on this. Poor ole slow-foot Eccleston got left behind. Poor us too, we have no first hand, on-the-spot, description of the first ENTRY into the Yosemite Valley. But Eccleston's diary takes its place in Yosemite history. Historians now credit the Mariposa Battalion as the first to enter the Yosemite Valley{Ok, Joe Walker?:-) on March 27, 1851 - Eccleston's diary date Even Mariposa Battallion member Lafayette BUNNELL, who first viewed Yosemite with Maj.Savage, et al, goofed when he first wrote the Yosemite entry date as " about the 21st of March,1851." I understand Bunnell subsequently recanted and corrected to the March 27th date.. OK, I can't leave you hanging:-)).. In additon to Eccleston's diary, the only other known CONTEMPORARY account of this Yosemite discovery/entry/exploration was written three WEEKS after the Mariposa Battalion returned from Yosemite by Quartermaster John G. MARVIN based on information supplied by Adjutant M.B. LEWIS and Lieut. BROOKS. This unsigned article( credited elsewhere in the paper to Marvin) appeared in the April 23, 1851 edition of San Francisco's "Alta Calfironia," It reads as follows: "THE INDIAN WAR- On the 19th of March, Major SAVAGE, with Captains BORLING[aka BOLEN,BOWLING,BOLING] and DILL"S Companies started from Camp No. 3 for the head waters of the Merced river to subdue the Semitees and Neuch-Teus who refused to come into the treaty made with the tribes in their vacinity by the Indian Commissionners at Camp FREMONT. The volunteers after three days march arrived in the neighborhood of the Indians and on the morning of the fourth day surprised the Neuch-Teus and took them prisioners. "The volunteers having selected camping ground about two miles from the rancheria, sent up for the mules, and the next day made preparation to march against the YO-SEMITES, living about twenty five miles distant, on the middle fork of the Merced. In the mean time an Indian courier had been dispatched by Maj. Savage to the Indians informing them of his approach to their country and the objects of his mission with a request that the chief, YO-SEMITEE, together with his tribe, should come into the camp. "The rancheria of the YO-SEMITEES is described as being a valley of surpassing beauty, about 10 miles in length and one mile broad. Upon either side are high perpendicular rocks, and at each end through the Middle Fork runs, deep canyons, the only accessible entrances to the Valley. "The best of feeling exists between the regular and volunteer forces, and in the course of a month it is believed the Indian difficulties will be satisfactorily settled from the Calaveras to the Tulare Lake, opening to the miners some of the best mining and agricultural districts in the State.-"DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA.[San Francisco] April 23, 1851." NOTE: In addition to Eccleston's diary and Marvin's account in the"Daily Alta California", another Battalion member, L.H. BUNNELL, wrote his first Yo Semite Valley discovery account in"Hutchings' California Magazine, III(May, 1859). His "Discovery of Yosemite" book came out in 1880. Also, Bunnell wrote the article, "The Date of the Discovery of Yosemite by One of the Party of Discovery," "Century Illustrated Magazine," XL(September, 1890). My most favorite photograph is of 12 year old me, with arm(left) raised holding a rubber dagger, standing on a little peninsula jutting into Yosemite's Mirror Lake. Rolo crushed me recently when he said the lake is no more - earthquake, rockslides or something:-(( Bob Norris in Dallas <BNorris166aol.com>