His photographs of the valley significantly influenced the United States Congress' decision to preserve it as a National Park.

Born in Oneonta, New York, he was a hunter and fisherman and was involved in the glee club and Presbyterian Church Choir.

[2] In 1851, Watkins and his Childhood friend Collis Huntington moved to San Francisco with hopes of finding gold.

He did this before working as a store clerk at a George Murray's Bookstore,[3] near the studio of Robert H. Vance, a well-known Daguerreotypist.

An employee of Vance's unexpectedly left his job, and Watkins' agreeable personality led to his looking after the studio.

He did many commissions, including "Illustrated California Magazine" for James Mason Hutchings and the documentation of John and Jessie Fremont's mining estate in Mariposa.

[3] He made Daguerreotype stereoviews (two nearly identical images of the same scene, viewed through a stereoscope to create an illusion of depth) at the New Almaden mercury mine near San Jose, California.

[1] In 1867, Watkins opened his first public gallery, in addition to sending his photographs to the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he won a medal.

He displayed over a hundred large Pacific Coast views in addition over a thousand images available through stereoscopes.

[8] When Cook and photographer Isaiah Taber took over Yosemite Art Gallery, they began reproducing his work without giving him credit.

This studio was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, with countless pictures, negatives and the majority of his stereo views.

[4] Three years after Watkins retired to Capay Ranch, he was declared incompetent and put into the care of his daughter Julia.

She cared for him for a year before committing him to the Napa State Hospital for the Insane in 1910, at which point Frances Watkins began referring to herself as a widow.

[1] Watkins often photographed Yosemite and had a profound influence over the politicians debating its preservation as a national park.

In accordance with his influence in preserving Yosemite and the beginning of the National Parks system, Watkins is seen as an important part of that.