This month in 1870, a magazine called The Galaxy published a puzzling article that essentially asks, what’s the big deal about Yosemite?

And those pyramids in Egypt, are they REALLY wonders of the world?

Just to be really clear, this stunning area of east central California has been a big deal since the Miwok, Paiute, and Ahwahneechee people first called it home more than 4,000 years ago.

Millions of people go there each year to see the waterfalls, the mountains, the giant sequoias, and so much more.

Which is why this article stands out: here’s this majestic natural space and the author is like why do any of you care about this?

The article is called “Does It Pay To Visit Yo Semite”?

The author, Olive Logan, complains that anytime anyone talks of going out west, someone inevitably asks whether they’re going to see Yosemite.

She travels out that way herself, with people all around her excited that they’re going to see some of the most beautiful sights the eye could ever behold.

Then she writes, “And what do we see? Tall rocks, a few tall trees, a high and narrow waterfall, a pretty little river! No more. A lovely natural scene, I grant you; but oh! where in this broad and beautiful land of ours are not lovely natural scenes the rule?”

She runs the place down over and over for not really being that great.

And she claims that most of the people who had been there only say it was awe-inspiring because they don’t want to admit that they’d gone all this way to see the place and that they’re ashamed to admit that it wasn’t so great, or “because you know you have made an idiot of yourself.”

To be a little fair to Olive Logan, getting to Yosemite in her day was a lot harder than it is now.

After a long train trip, she had to ride in a stagecoach for two days and a horse for another.

The accommodations for Yosemite visitors back then were extremely basic and there weren’t many good options for food.

Plus, as Outside noted, all of this would’ve cost as much as staying in a grand hotel with lots of amenities.

Most visitors to Yosemite would disagree with Logan that the trip wasn’t worth the views, but not all.

One infamous Yelp reviewer wrote, “there are too many grey rocks.”

The channel Jamie’s Lego Jams just used LEGO to build an air-powered pipe organ.

And I totally want to play “In-A-Gadda-da-Vida” on that keyboard now.

Is Yosemite Worth It? This 150-Year-Old Negative Review Laughingly Misses the Mark (Outside via MyYosemitePark.com)

LEGO Pan Pipe Organ (The Awesomer)

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Photo by edward stojakovic via Flickr/Creative Commons