I am told this is off an old DEGNAN restaurant menu--------- THE DEGNANS OF YOSEMITE It was in the early eighties that John Degnan entered the Yosemite. He had come a long way since first he took his young wife Bridget and their tiny son from Ireland's green hills to seek a new home in America. His first stop was in New York and though pleased with the beauty and opportunity offered there he was not completely happy in this vast city. The talk of far away mountains, of snow fed streams and beautiful wildflower meadows appealed to him as a native of "the land of poets and scholars." His uncle and brother had preceded him to this new land and their letters from Coulterville in the Sierra Mountains of California whetted his appetite for that far away place of enchantment. This inbred call for beauty in its natural state finally won and John Degnan made ready his then small family for the journey. By train they came across the great plains and mountains of America to California. Here they changed to stagecoach and to horses as they moved into the foothills. After days of weary travel they arrived in Coulterville, a town enjoying its twilight of mining prosperity. Coulterville did not claim them for long for the story of Yosemite was the topic of the day. John Degnan listened to the occasional traveler from the valley and decided that he must see these wonders for himself. He left his wife and child behind under the protection of his uncle Patrick, a veteran of the gold rush era, and proceeded by foot toward the Valley. After a long and fatiguing trip over rough, dusty roads and trails he arrived in Yosemite, which in its beauty and grandeur stood more aloof than it does now. His first night was spent at Big Meadows in the home of James McCauley, builder of the "Four Mile Trail" and the "Mountain House" on Glacier Point, as well as the originator of the Fire Fall. McCauley was to be his lifelong friend and later John Degnan's daughter and McCauley's son were married. Months passed and it was Spring again before he had a home ready for his family. In early June, when wild flowers carpeted the mountain meadows and the wild azaleas fringed the Merced River in beautiful clouds of white blossoms, Bridget joined her husband in the fastness of Yosemite. So they began their life anew in God's great sanctuary, where they were destined to spend the remainder of their days, rear their family of eight children and establish their business. While John worked on the trails and in the fields, Bridget turned her hand to the task of providing for the comfort of the travelers. She baked bread in a Dutch Oven and cooked meals in an open fireplace. A herd of fine Holstein Cows roamed the meadows and provided milk and butter for both the natives and the visitors. These visitors were hardy lovers of the out-of-doors and came into the Valley on horseback or by the eleven passenger stagecoaches which stopped in front of the Sentinel Hotel in the Old Village. From there it was but a short walk to Degnans where they were assured a hospitable welcome, a good meal and anything else within her means that Bridget Degnan could provide. Just before the Autumn storms, the hotels were closed, Coffman & Kenney drove their horses and mules down to the San Joaquin Valley, and there was a general exodus of summer residents. The permanent inhabitants, about fifteen souls, including the Degnans, then settled down for their winter hibernation. All the roads were closed until Spring, and the only contact with the outer world was the mail carrier, who made alternate daily trips into and out of the Valley on horseback, (or at times on a combination of horseback and snowshoes), between Yosemite and Jerseydale by way of the winter trail along the Merced River Canyon and through Hite's Cove. The present All Year Highway occupies a part of this winter mail route. Due to lack of accommodations and hardship of travel, Yosemite in winter was a sight rarely seen by travelers. An occasional visitor, however, enjoyed this rare opportunity by accompanying the mail carrier into the Valley. Once there he was received into the Degnan home as their guest. In this manner was the first winter travel into the Yosemite started. Thus it was that John and Bridget Degnan, with courage in their hearts and faith in their souls, established the "Degnan's of Yosemite."