May Lake (California)
lake in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California, United States of America
May Lake is a lake in Yosemite National Park, as well as a High Sierra Camp where backpackers can stay in tent cabins located near the lake. There are eight cabins that accommodate a total of thirty six guests. The hike to May Lake is from a parking area off Tioga Pass Road and is 1.2 miles (1.9 km). The lake is overlooked by Mount Hoffmann.
May Lake was named by Charles F. Hoffmann, for Lucy Mayotta ("May") Browne, who became his wife in 1870.
“May Lake (California)” enters the record as lake in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California, United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lake, California and lake can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“May Lake (California)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lake, California and lake provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6796533. Authority coordinates are 37.847, -119.494. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1870.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “May Lake (California)”, its source revision and the description used here.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “May Lake (California)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.