Concessions History

People have long traveled to Yosemite for recreation. The stunning views that visitors enjoy today are much the same as those that helped inspire the creation of the national parks over a century ago. How we experience the park, however, has changed greatly within those years.

The Yosemite region was the first area in the United States to be protected for its scenic beauty. Later, the National Park Service was established to manage these lands with the goal of protecting nature, history, and scenery while providing public access to it in a way that left the parks unimpaired for future generations. This task, never simple, has adapted in many ways to changes in technology American society, as well as our growing understanding of ecology and conservationism.

The National Park Service has many partners in these goals. Visitors, volunteers, and neighbors become park stewards, whether it’s for a day or years. Park employees, from a ranger leading a hike, to a biologist collecting samples, to a mechanic fixing a shuttle, tackle a wide spectrum of tasks. Conservancies and foundations like Yosemite Conservancy join in to bridge gaps and further conservation goals. Many of these partners’ work may be largely invisible to park visitors. Park concessioners, on the other hand, often work directly with the public, facilitating a wide scope of services to make each trip memorable.

Park concessioners, the private companies that operate within national parks, offer lodging, recreation, dining, education, equipment, tours, souvenirs, and much more. Some of these companies focus on a particular service in a particular park, while others have a broader reach. Concessioners have been a driving force throughout national park history, from their inception and popularization to the construction efforts in the 1950s and 1960s (“Mission 66”) and now into the 21st century.

Concessioner influence can been seen in park services and in the facilities themselves. Some concessioner-built or operated buildings are iconic, like The Ahwahnee hotel. Others are nearly hidden. Few people imagine office buildings within national parks, but for 83 years, the General Office building housed Yosemite employees tasked with coordinating park concessions. Until 1932, these managers worked from a building in Old Yosemite Village. Like many early structures, this building was destroyed in a fire. Due to the Great Depression, few visitors made it to Yosemite that summer and so the concession managers moved into empty rooms in the majestic Ahwahnee. At first, they occupied only three rooms. They quickly expanded until the administration offices used an entire hotel floor with 12 rooms, as well as the former employee locker rooms.

With the end of the Great Depression, concessioner president Don Tresidder asserted the hotel’s need for those guest rooms again. The company planned a new office building with a “friendly small-scale non-monumental exterior” that would blend into the Valley environment. The plan emphasized low-cost materials, used only existing roads, and allowed employees to walk from their housing to their offices in order to reduce traffic in the park. The building’s location served almost as a buffer between visitor centers and commercial buildings and employee and administrative buildings. The move into the General Office building in 1939 allowed both the national park and the concessioners operations to expand. Over the next century, the employees who worked here facilitated once-in-a-lifetime experiences for millions of visitors. Although this historic office was removed in 2020 to relocate its function outside the Merced River corridor (as called for in the Merced River Plan to comply with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act), the work continues in new spaces. In ways visible and not, privately-owned concessions have long helped shape Yosemite National Park.

The First Entrepreneurs, 1855-1864

In July 1855, James Mason Hutchings was wandering California to gather material for a proposed magazine about the new state. He’d read newspaper stories about the Mariposa Battalion’s expeditions and was eager to see the wondrous valley for himself. Hutchings, with a small group, hired two former members of the decimated Yosemite tribe to lead them into the valley. Their vivid descriptions and drawings were published first in the Mariposa Gazette, and then in newspapers across the country. By that fall, work had begun on the first toll trail to Yosemite.

Those who had seen Yosemite knew that it would be a popular travel destination. In the next decade, several land claims and competing toll routes sprung up. Most were soon out of business. Local businessmen, curious hunters, and roaming photographers and artists found their way into the valley, but the expected crowds took years to materialize. A trip to Yosemite was expensive and difficult, requiring weeks of travel and dangerous risks.

Entrepreneurs, mostly from the nearby mining towns of Mariposa and Coulterville, continued to lay the groundwork for future development. Land in Yosemite was not officially open to private claims, as the area had never been surveyed. This did not, however, stop hopeful businessmen from staking their claims and by 1862 nearly all of the Yosemite Valley floor had been claimed. They built lodging, roads, and memorabilia shops. Their lodges were rough, but gained the acclaim of newspapers across the country. Although the expense and difficulty of the journey prevented most people from visiting themselves, artists and newspaper articles publicized the virtues of the natural landscape and the developing accommodations. To them, California and Yosemite presented new opportunities for the growing country. By 1864, the United States government was also convinced of the value of the Yosemite landscape as a sightseeing destination. The Yosemite Grant bill mandated the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove be “held for public use, resort, and recreation.” The grant gave the land to the state of California under the management of nine commissioners. California was permitted to lease portions of the land, as long as this income was used for preservation or to build roads and other improvements. The existing land claims and buildings were not mentioned. This act marks the first land preserved in the United States in order to protect its scenery for the use of all people.

The California Forest Preserve

From 1864-1906, Yosemite was preserved by a California state grant. The area surrounding Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove was protected as a forest reserve, patrolled by the US Army, 26 years before the creation of the National Park Service. At first, a California governing board administered Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove. Under the leadership of Yosemite Guardian Galen Clark, they settled the legal claims of the Yosemite businessmen and issued short-term leases for the existing and new buildings. They also issued licenses for temporary businesses like photography studios. Leases were issued on a 10-year, five-year, or yearly basis, and accusations of favoritism and dirty dealing were rampant. In 1906, the state ceded the Valley and grove to the federal government. The Department of the Interior and the US Army were left to juggle the complaints of the 19 competing concessioners.

Creation of the National Park Service

In 1916 the National Park Service was established. Faced with this new challenge, the secretary of the interior determined that “First, that the national parks must be maintained in absolutely unimpaired form for the use of future generations as well as those of our own time; second, that they are set apart for the use, observation, health, and pleasure of the people; and third, that the national interest must dictate all decisions affecting public or private enterprise in the parks.” There were few details, however, dictation how they should be managed. With little to no funding from Congress, the National Park Service relied on concessions leases and permits for revenue. Concessioners, especially railroad companies and photographers, also played a critical role in attracting visitors and building popular support for the parks.

The first NPS director, Stephen Mather, built favorable partnerships with park concessioners. He enticed entrepreneurs with profitable terms on 20 year leases, partnered on advertisement campaigns, and inspired investment into resort development. To Mather, "scenery [was] a hollow enjoyment to a tourist who sets out in the morning after an indigestible breakfast and a fitful sleep on an impossible bed." About Yellowstone, he wrote: "Golf links, tennis courts, swimming pools, and other equipment for outdoor pastime and exercise should be provided by concessions, and the park should be extensively advertised as a place to spend the summer instead of five or six days of hurried sightseeing…” He also facilitated the consolidation of concessioner services. In Yosemite, the decades of personal and legal squabbles between the myriad of companies, seasonal entrepreneurs, and real estate developers had come to an end. Some were bought out, others left, and some joined the new monopoly company. Nearly all concession services were now provided by a single company: the Yosemite Park and Curry Company.

Driving Change

The establishment of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company (YP&CC) in 1925 was a harbinger of change in the national parks. Instead of coaches and trains, families increasingly drove their own automobiles. Meanwhile, the Great Depression hit Americans across the country, and few had the means to travel or sightsee. Concessioners in Yosemite had been rapidly expanding and renovating, particularly in Camp Curry. In the Great Depression, development slowed. During the world war that followed, it stopped entirely. Some Yosemite hotels were even converted to housing and rehabilitation for military servicemembers.

After World War II, travel to Yosemite exploded. More people than ever before visited the park, and it was soon clear that Yosemite was not equipped for the crowds. Concessioners needed to adjust to more than just the number of visitors, however. The way people experienced national parks was also changing. Travel was no longer a luxury only available to the wealthy, but a fundamental part of middle class family life. New audiences and new technology meant new concession services. Visitors needed fewer transportation services and luxury resorts, and more rental cabins and cafeterias. While funding from Congress increased, the National Park Service continued to encourage concessions development as a means to serve visitors. In 1955, NPS devised a new development plan for the parks called "Mission '66"—a master plan for the next ten years, when eighty million annual visits were expected. This plan spurred new roads, new visitor centers, new lodging, and even a new architectural style. Supported by concession companies, national parks across the country developed robust visitor services.

Developing the Future

The number of people who travel to Yosemite continues to rise every year. The national parks’ early drive to amplify the number of visitors and public support has transformed into managing the diverse needs of visitors, the environment, and historic features. The National Parks today face the question of how to balance modern amenities with an increased focus on introducing travelers to the values of secluded wilderness. The primary concession company in Yosemite has changed several times since 1925, but each has added to the character of the park.

Both early developers and the government foresaw the powerful draw of Yosemite. It is unlikely, though, that they could have imagined the magnitudes who now make the journey to see Half Dome and the towering sequoias. There was no blueprint for how to bring the public into these natural landscapes. Over time, Yosemite National Park has pioneered different ways to meet travelers’ needs, easing the difficulty of the journey and facilitating once-in-a-lifetime memories. Though there have been many changes, Yosemite managers and visitors continue to face the same question introduced by the Yosemite Grant: How to allow visitors to enjoy Yosemite while preserving it unimpaired for future generations.

 

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