Register of the Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.) Hotel Register, 1869-1878

Processed by Don Walker; machine-readable finding aid created by Don Walker

Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

University Library, University of the Pacific

Stockton, CA 95211

Phone: (209) 946-2404

Fax: (209) 946-2810

URL: http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections.html

Register of the Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.) Hotel Register, 1869-1878

Collection number: Mss166

Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

University Library

University of the Pacific

Contact Information

Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
University Library, University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA 95211
Phone: (209) 946-2404
Fax: (209) 946-2810
URL: http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections.html

Processed by:: Don Walker
Date Completed:: September 1998
Encoded by:: Don Walker

Descriptive Summary

Title: Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.) Hotel Register,

Date (inclusive): 1869-1878

Collection number: Mss166

Creator: Bea Peregoy

Extent: 0.5 linear ft.

Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

Stockton, CA 95211

Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.) Hotel Register, Mss166, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

Biography

Born in Baltimore (1826) Charles Peregoy came to California in search of gold (1849). He engaged in mining in Calaveras and Mariposa counties. Sometime in the 1850's Peregoy bought a ranch at Mormon Bar about two miles from the town of Mariposa. Shortly after Charles Peregoy made the final payment on the Mormon Bar ranch, John C. Fremont claimed the land as part of his Mexican land grant and demanded that Peregoy pay him rent on his property. The latter refused and took the case to court where it was litigated for seventeen years before finally being settled in Peregoy's favor. Faced with the possibly of losing his property, he decided to concentrate on stock raising rather than making costly improvements on the land. During the summer months Peregoy drove his cattle through Mormon Bar, past Clark's Station (Wawona) and up toward Glacier Point to the spot later known as Peregoy Meadows. Here he established a cattle camp and lived with his wife and five children during the summer.

In the late 1860's tourist travel into Yosemite increased considerably. Tourists could travel by stage as far as White and Hatch's mill on Chowchilla Mountain. They made the remainder of the trip on horseback as there was then no roads into the Valley. Tourists took the trail from White and Hatch's to Clark's Station, where they stopped to visit the Big Trees. The next day they usually rode to Inspiration Point then down to the Valley floor. The trail led past the Peregoy cattle camp and many weary travelers stopped to ask for food or a night's lodging, so Charles and Mary decided to put up a small hotel, called Mountain View House (1869). This consisted of two buildings with accommodations for sixteen people. Mountain View House ceased to be important as an overnight stopping place when wagon roads from Coulterville, Big Oak Flat, and Wawona were completed (1875). Charles Peregoy died in Mariposa (1904) at the age of 78. The inn was not used after 1919 and was dismantled by a Civil Conservation Corps crew during the 1930s. The location of the fireplace is still barely visible. See Pacific Historian vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 123-128. "Charles and Mary Agnes Peregoy--Yosemite Pioneers" by Bea Peregoy (Great-Granddaughter).

Scope and Content

Photocopy of original hotel register, unpaginated, bound volume of approximately 207 pages with preface and copies of two photographs. The register has also been microfilmed and is held by the University of the Pacific and the University of California. The Hotel Register is first addressed "To Chas. E. Peregoy, from his friends Geo B. Bayley & Clinton Day. June, 1870. First entries are signed by them on June 11, 1870. However the second page lists entries for September 10, 1869 and June 3, 1870. An estimated 5,000 guests enjoyed Peregoy's hospitality. Inn visitors came from throughout the United States and twenty-two foreign countries. Famous guests included Mark Hopkins, De Witt Talmage, Joaquin Miller, Asa Gray, Horace Greeley, and John Muir. Many guests made comments about their sightseeing and the views, expressed appreciation of the guides, wrote poems about the hotel, or disparaging remarks about hotels in the valley. The last guests

registered at Mountain View House on October 24, 1874. Nearly four years later, in June 1878, the final entries were made in the hotel register by members of the "Dr. Dio Lewis Camping Party."

CONTAINER LIST

BOX 1: MT. HOUSE HOTEL REGISTER, 1869-1878

1.1: STAFF RESEARCH FILE

- "An inn's register gives glimpse of Yosemite's Past," Fresno Bee (November 20, 1979)

-Bea Peregoy. "Charles and Mary Agnes Peregoy--Yosemite Pioneers," The Pacific Historian vol. 6, no. 3 (August, 1962), pp. 123-128

1.2: MOUNTAIN VIEW HOUSE LEDGER [Bound photocopy of the original register, unpaginated, with preface and copies of two photographs added. Approximately 207 pages.]

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