To accommodate the rapidly expanding number of visitors, infrastructure was built to service and house them. A variety of lodging was established from the rugged tent cabins of Camp Curry to the stately grandeur of the The Ahwahnee. Sensitive meadow habitats were paved and trees removed for roads, parking lots, stores, restaurants, and ski runs. Even some hiking trails were paved.
Click and drag the circle at the center of the photos left and right to compare the then and now images.
Left image
A stagecoach arrives at the Wawona Hotel.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_13170
Right image
During a drought, the fountain and pond remain empty.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2021
Wawona Hotel and Fountain, ca. 1910
Galen Clark established Clark’s Station, the first stage stop and hotel along the Mann Brothers Horse Trail, completed in 1856. The Washburn Family bought Clark’s Station and built the Wawona Hotel Complex starting in 1875. They also built the Wawona Road to the Yosemite Valley for their Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Company.When the park opened to general automobile traffic in 19141913, automobiles became the primary mode of transport. The Washburns transformed the Hotel hotel Ccomplex into a modern hotel resort, adding a luxurious Hotel hotel Aannex, swimming pool, and a golf course.In 1925, an air strip was built in the Wawona Meadow, and between 1928 and 1939, the new Wawona Road was constructed. It became the primary route through Yosemite.
Left image
A small settlement was located on The Ahwahnee site.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_15389
Right image
The Ahwahnee meadow and Washington Column.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Kenneyville before The Ahwahnee, ca. 1920s
The small settlement of Kenneyville was the site of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company’s stables prior to its 1925 demolition in favor of The Ahwahnee. Kenneyville (and now the The Ahwahnee) occupied the site of the former Indian Camp of Wis’-kah-lah.
Left image
NPS Director Stephen Mather leads a trail ride.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_10634
Right image
The Glacier Point Hotel is gone, replaced by an amphitheater and a series of paved paths.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Stephen Mather at Glacier Point, ca. 1921
In 1917, the Desmond Park Service Company built the luxurious Glacier Point Hotel, linked to Yosemite Valley by the Four Mile Trail and the Glacier Point Road. The old Mountain House Hotel remained as an annex to the larger structure. In this photo, Stephen Mather, Director of the National Park Service, leads a group of riders towards the trail down to Illilouette Falls.
Left image
A bustling Old Yosemite Village.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_14946
Right image
The only remaining building from the old village is the Chapel.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2019
Traffic in Old Yosemite Village, 1925
The Old Yosemite Village was located on the south side of the Merced River between Sentinel Bridge and the current location of the Yosemite Chapel. It included a variety of businesses and the park headquarters. In this historic photo, the bakery and creamery, and a butcher shop are on the right. The General Store, several studios, and the park headquarters are on the left. By the early 1920s, tourist traffic during the summer made the old village obsolete. There was heavy congestion, and the administrative buildings were too small to handle the growing crowds. Buildings appeared shabby, and the area was prone to flooding.
National Park Service Director Stephen Mather decided that a new administrative area on the north side of the Valley was more appropriate. Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, the park administration, stores, studios, and other services were moved to the current location of Yosemite Village. The Yosemite Chapel is the only remaining structure in the old village.
Left image
The parking lot is full in Yosemite Village.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_05928
Right image
The plaza in front of the Yosemite Museum during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
The "New" Yosemite Village, 1927
The 1920s were a period of economic prosperity in the United States. The automobile was rapidly becoming a favorite method to visit the national parks. Traffic and congestion became a logistical and ecological problem for the National Park Service that continues to this day.
Left image
Two women stop to view Bridalveil Fall and El Capitan.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_02977
Right image
The normally crowded Valley View is empty during the Covid-19 shutdown in the spring of 2020.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Women at the Merced River and Bridalveil Fall, 1929
After Highway 140 opened in 1927, annual visitation to the park nearly doubled from the year before, from 274,209 in 1926 to 490,430 in 1927. The boom period at the end of the Roaring Twenties brought a flood of tourists to Yosemite to marvel at its natural wonders. That trend continued until its peak of 498,289 in 1932 just before the onset of the Great Depression. Visitation dropped to just under 300,000 in 1933 and grew steadily throughout the Depression, topping out at 597,863 in 1941, just prior to the United States’ entry into World War II.
Left image
Men cut blocks of ice and hauled them out on a horse-powered conveyer.
Credit: Photographer: Ralph Anderson; Yosemite NP Archives RL_03605
Right image
The levee that created Stella Lake still exists.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Harvesting Ice at Wawona (Stella Lake), 1942
Stella Lake was a reservoir located near Wawona built in 1886 and used primarily for ice production during the winter. Horse power was used to help with the ice harvest. During the summer, guests and residents used the lake for swimming and boating. The Washburn Brothers built both Stella Lake and the Washburn Ditch, a two-mile ditch drawing water from the South Fork Merced River to irrigate farmland across from the hotel and in 1908 to generate electricity for hotel buildings.
Left image
The view down from Glacier Point to Camp Curry.
Credit: Photographer: Ralph H. Anderson; Yosemite NP Archives RL_P_2112
Right image
An early morning look at the Valley and Curry Village from Glacier Point
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2019
Camp Curry from Glacier Point, 1945
In 1899, David Curry and his wife Jennie, established a tent camp at the base of Glacier Point. David and Jennie were both school teachers with meager incomes. Prior to their arrival in Yosemite, and in order to make ends meet, they spent six summer seasons organizing commercial camping trips to Yellowstone National Park; originally for other "teachers, students and anybody of good character." Eventually, the hardships of that life in the pre-auto period wore them down along with having to compete against other companies seeking the same goal. They decided to bring their summer lodging and guiding vision to Yosemite National Park instead.
Initially, only containing 7 seven tents, Camp Curry grew to accommodate over 1,000 guests prior to David Curry's death in 1917. Camp Curry was designed to be inexpensive at $2 per night so less affluent visitors could commune with nature. David was a showman and he brought a number of amusements to the camp, including the Firefall from Glacier Point, a swimming pool, toboggan slide, dance hall, backcountry equipment rentals, vaudeville evening programs, and a barber shop. Renamed Curry Village in 1970 the facility still operates with many of the same initial goals in mind.
Curry Village has had to reduce the number of accommodations in recent years, most notably after a 2008 rockfall that caused 300 units to be removed. In this photo, cars are visible in the open and under trees in the Camp Curry parking area. The large meadow is Stoneman Meadow, the former location of the Stoneman House.
Left image
The Glacier Point Hotel, nestled in the trees at the edge of a cliff.
Credit: Photographer: Ralph H. Anderson; Yosemite NP Archives RL_02768
Right image
The Glacier Point Gift Shop sits behind the site of the old hotel.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Glacier Point Hotel, 1946
The Glacier Point Hotel opened in 1918. Accommodating 200 guests, the hotel boasted one of the great balcony views in the world, including Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, Nevada and Vernal Falls, and the Yosemite High Country. In the winter of 1968-69, heavy snows damaged the hotel and it was closed for repairs that summer. On July 10, 1969, an electrical fire started on the first floor. The closest firefighters were 28 miles away, so the fire completely destroyed the hotel. It never reopened.
Left image
Visitors await the beginning of the firefall at Glacier Point.
Credit: Photographer: Unknown; Yosemite NP Archives RL_06230
Right image
Visitors take in the view looking northeast from Glacier Point.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
The Firefall from Glacier Point, ca. 1940s
A big campfire was built many nights in front of the Glacier Point Hotel to entertain guests, and its ashes were pushed over the edge of the cliff. From Yosemite Valley below, it looked like a waterfall of fire and became a Yosemite tradition, known as the Firefall. The last Firefall was in January 1968 and it ended due to the amound of congestion it caused in Yosemite Valley, along with the fact that it was an unnatural attraction.
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