Did you know the Yosemite Firefall was a summer time event that began in 1872 and continued for almost a century? Burning hot embers were pushed over the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park to the valley floor 3,000 feet below. From a distance it appeared as a burning waterfall. The Firefall was orchestrated by the Glacier Point Hotel owners. Each night, as a signal to start pushing the embers over, David Curry, founder of Curry Village, would yell across the valley: “Let the fire fall.”
The National Park Service ordered the Firefall to stop in January 1968. The NPS was trying to preserve the Valley, and protect it from the overwhelming number of visitors who trampled meadows in order to see something that was not a natural event was. Ironically, the Glacier Point Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1969 and was never rebuilt.
Yosemite Firefall