Mark Schuler (American, B. 1951) "Flag over Yosemite" Signed lower right. Original Mixed Media painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original which was published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 25c Flag over Yosemite stamp issued June 8, 1996. The Indians called it Ahwahnee, the deep, grassy valley. To Horace Greeley it was "the greatest marvel of the continent." Teddy Roosevelt found Yosemite "the most beautiful place in the world. " But perhaps it was writer and naturalist John Muir who was most profoundly inspired by the naturally magnificent grandeur that is now Yosemite National Park. Until the end of his life, he wrote of the region's natural majesty. It was Muir, in fact, who led the way to the creation of Yosemite as a protected National Park. A great wilderness of glittering lakes, rushing streams, jagged peaks and granite domes, Yosemite lies in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in east-central California, about two hundred miles from San Francisco. The park is a haven to flora and fauna as varied as it is plentiful, a place where everything from deer to bear find shelter among towering sequoias and lush ferns. After seeing a painting of the area, Muir was so drawn to it that he would later spend six years exploring the park's 790,000 acres of High Sierra territory and lower-level giant sequoia groves. His fervor about the area aroused public interest, and led Congress to create Yosemite National Park in 1890. The state of California ceded Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, not then part of the park, to the United States government to complete the beautiful reserve in 1906. Thus, as John Muir had hoped it would be, the breathtaking splendor of Yosemite has been preserved to inspire awe in generations to come. Image Size: 16.25 x 14.75 in. Overall Size: 22 x 19.75 in. Unframed. (B11612)