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Register of the Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows,
Calif.) Hotel Register,
1869-1878
Mss166
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Title: Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.)
Hotel Register,
Date (inclusive): 1869-1878
Collection number: Mss166
Creator:
Bea Peregoy
Extent: 0.25 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.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Mountain View House (Peregoy Meadows, Calif.)
Hotel Register, Mss166, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections,
University of the Pacific Library
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).
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."