“Yosemite Claire”

Claire Marie Hodges Wolfsen (1890-1980)

Claire Marie was born into a California immigrant family in Sea Side, Santa Cruz County in 1890. From what I have been able to find, she was obviously not one to settle for “normal expected” behavior of young girls in those days. At the age of 14 she participated in a horse pack trip that took her into Yosemite Valley after 4 days of riding. This was in 1904. Just to understand what this meant, Yosemite National Park had only been established in 1890 and the Valley plus Mariposa Grove had not yet even been added–they were added to the Park in 1906 two years after her adventure and at the time it was controlled by the United States Army.

As seems to happen with nearly all who ever have the privilege of seeing Yosemite Valley, she instantly fell in love with it. One can only imagine her emotions upon seeing for the first time what was as yet a nearly pristine, untouched, incredible corner of God’s world accessible by only a horse trail/foot path. She went back to San Jose, I am sure with a dream because she went on to study at the San Jose Normal School (Normal Schools were designed to prepare teachers) where she was president of the literary club and in 1916, now a 26 year old single woman full of the spirit of adventure, she returned to Yosemite as a teacher at the Yosemite School. During those 2 years, she rode horseback all over the park becoming totally familiar with every corner of it. She even discovered some previously unknown species of flora and fauna as she wandered through the heights of the Sierra Mountains. She also authored Songs of the Trail.

World War I was in full force those years and as it neared its end, man power in the U. S. was a bit scarce and women were finding themselves entering a new field of possibilities that before were considered only a man’s prerogative. Claire Marie heard that the park was having difficulty finding men to serve as park rangers so she went to the Park Superintendant, Mr. Washington B. Lewis, and as she presented herself she said, “Probably you’ll laugh at me, but I want to be a ranger.” He responded, “I beat you to it, young lady. It’s been on my mind for some time to put a woman on one of these patrols.” She got the job. Visitors must have been surprised as they had opportunity to see a woman in the official Stetson hat and wearing a park ranger badge riding a horse along the trails to and from Tuolumne Meadows . She did not wear the ranger pants but rather a split dress along with her riding boots. And, she chose not to carry a gun as was expected of all rangers due to her religious beliefs. Thus she became the first fully commissioned Lady Park Ranger, a title that would not be seen on another woman for 30 years. Although she only served as a park ranger a short time (between school sessions) she lived and worked in Yosemite so long that she became known as “Yosemite Claire”.

At some point along these years a very successful rancher in Mariposa County by the name of Peter J. Wolfsen entered her life. His first wife had died some years before and although he was about 24 years older than Claire, they married in 1927. (He later died just shy of the age of 92 in 1958.) Claire Marie had owned some property adjacent to the park in what was known as Wawona, named after the huge monolithic dome by that name, and behind a hotel that still stands today along the road through the park. Since with her marriage to Peter, she had less use for that property and her church was looking for property to establish a youth camp, she donated a large portion to the Seventh-day

Adventist church in 1929. The camp is now the oldest continuously functioning camp in the church. She also became the camp naturalist and along with her husband traveled throughout the region providing guide service and presenting nature related topics at camps, schools and other civic organizations. Today Mariposa County has established the Wolfsen Nature Trail in memory of the couple. Yosemite Claire was 89 years old when she died in 1980 at Loma Linda University Hospital.

* Information for this biography was obtained from Guardians of Yosemite, by J. W. Bingaman, 1961. and various on-line sources including the Yosemite National Park historical web site.

–Robert Holbrook