ONE RAINY afternoon in the 1880’s John Degnan and Martin Sheehan, wearing bright yellow raincoats—we called ’em ‘slickers’— were patching holes in the road between the old Stoneman House and Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley. Pretty soon the rain started coming down in bucketfulls so they took shelter under a big old black oak tree.

“A party of tourists was returnin’ along the same road from a horseback trip to Nevada Fall. They were strung out along the road, movin’ at a pretty good lope, hurryin’ to get out of the rain. The first horse shied when he saw the two yellow ghosts looming out of the dark shrubbery, dumping his rider smack dab in the middle of the road. Horse number two and then the third did likewise. Before the men could shed their raincoats and go to the rescue a half-dozen riders, dethroned one by one, were piled up like ragdolls in the road!”

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