Sentinel Rock (3270 feet high) and Hutchings' Hotel

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Sentinel Rock rises roughly 3,270 feet above the valley floor, and this stereoview frames it beside Hutchings' Hotel, one of the earliest visitor lodgings in Yosemite Valley. James Hutchings, a publisher and guide who was among the first tourists to promote the valley to eastern audiences, built the hotel in the 1850s, so the pairing shows the granite monolith and the modest human foothold that grew up at its base. Stereoviews like this were sold widely in the late nineteenth century, letting viewers feel the depth of a landscape that many would never see in person. Notice how the hotel looks small against the cliff, a scale contrast that was itself part of the appeal.

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