June 1948

NATURE.

THE UPPER HOTEL: Copy of first photograph made in Yosemite by C. W. Weed. 1859.

VOL. XXVII JUNE, 1948 NO. 6

THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DIVISION AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION, INC.

C. P. Russell, Superintendent D. E. McHenry, Park Naturalist H. C. Parker, Assoc. Park Naturalist R. N. McIntyre, Acting Asst. Park Naturalist

VOL. XXVII JUNE, 1948 NO. 6 THE HISTORY OF BUSINESS CONCESSIONS IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

By Homer W. Robinson In 1855 the first party of sightseers This was the first of a long series of came to Yosemite Valley. These Acts of Congress which brought pioneers on the tourist circuit did not about the establishment of the wait until they were out of the mounWorld's first system of National Parks tains to shout to the world that they (10). In 1866, private claims upon the were thrilled with their "scenic banYosemite lands were disallowed by duet." J. M. Hutchings, the leader of the Commissioners of the Yosemite the party, when en route to the lowGrant, an action which was finally lands, stopped in the then young mineffected through purchase in 1874 (1, ing town, Mariposa, and provided p. 162), and thereafter business conthe Mariposa Gazette with an article cessions in Yosemite Valley were on the wonderful experience his established in accordance with the party had just enjoyed. This article, regulations of the Commissioners the first written by one uninfluenced and through contracts with the State. by Indian troubles or gold fever, was (Note the indicator at the top of the the beginning of Yosemite publicity, accompanying chart showing the and the Hutchings expedition was the duration of the State administration.) beginning of a mighty pilgrimage A variety of concessions pertaining which has brought to Yosemite Valto about a dozen hotels, a studio, a ley some 10,500,000 visitors from all bakery, provision stores, toll trails, parts of the world. livery service, and saddle horses The development of accommodawere authorized by the Yosemite tions and the provision of services to Commissioners at the beginning of visitors started almost immediately their regime. A little later they enafter the Hutchings party exclaimed tered into agreements with the buildin superlatives regarding the natural ers of toll roads and the operators of beauties to be seen. At first the hotels stage routes. and camps in Yosemite Valley and In 1890, the Yosemite National the routes of travel were crude, inPark ("reserved forest lands") was deed. The earliest enterprises in created by Congress encompassing serving the Yosemite visitor were the state-owned Yosemite Grant. The launched by individuals working enState retained its plan of administratirely "on their own" and in a land tion of Yosemite Valley and the which was still a part of the public Mariposa Grove, and the U. S. Army domain and open to homestead cooperated with the Department of entry. Several such claims were the Interior in protecting and manmade in Yosemite Valley. aging the larger federal reservation Then in 1864 came the action of which surrounded the state park. the Federal Government in granting This dual control of the Yosemite to the State of California, tracts of areas continued for sixteen years. land embracing the Yosemite Valley However, the Army had little to do and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. with business concessions at this

time because most of the enterprises concessioners a measure of financial were located on the state lands adprotection. One of the first acts of ministered by the Yosemite Valley the National Park Service was to Commissioners. convert a part of the hodge-podge of The Yosemite Grant was re-ceded individual permits into a new ordeto the United States in 1905, and in of business controlled by a corpora1906 the recession was accepted by tion, the D. J. Desmond Company. the Congress. Thereupon the busi During the more than thirty years of ness concessions in Yosemite Valley National Park Service administration, became the responsibility of the De the policy of protection of investment partment of the Interior, and the U. S. has characterized the contracts en Army officers who then administered tered into with business concession the entire national park moved their ers in Yosemite National Park. Prog headquarters from Camp A. E. Wood respectively, the smaller operations (Wawona) to a new "Fort Yosemite" have been consolidated until today on the site of the present Yosemite the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. Lodge. The Army administration con conducts all of the business enter tinued to function for several years prises except one restaurant, and one after the recession, and during this photographic studio. time they were responsible for conSometimes the prevailing conditracts with business concessioners. tions in the business concessions of In 1914, "park rangers " replaced Yosemite National Park are referred the military, and the Secretary of the to as a monopoly"; however, there Interior sent his civilian representa is no exclusive private control of the tive to Yosemite as superintendent, industries in the park. The conces to regulate the business concessions sioners' business is under the regu and to exercise general administra lation and control of the Secretary of live authority within the national the Interior; he limits the commercial park. The next year, 1915, Stephen activities in which they may engage, T. Mather entered the picture in specifies the location of their facilWashington as assistant to Franklin ities, defines the standards of their K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, and service, and approves the rates they the ground-work was laid for the charge the public. The use of the present-day scheme of management term "monopoly " is not valid. The in Yosemite National Park. concessioner has exclusive right of operation only so long as he fulfills In 1916, the National Park Service the terms of his contract and render was established by Act of Congress service satisfactory to the Governand Mr. Mather became Director. ment. His contract is properly deWashington B. Lewis was appointed scribed as "preferential" rather than to the superintendency of Yosemite "exclusive." (23, pp. 49-54). National Park, and negotiations were The account of administrative his started looking toward better handling of business concessions. The tory, and some detail regarding

policy of "preferential contracts" many of the individual business conwith concessioners was adopted al

cessions, past and present, of Yo most at once. Because large investse mite National Park may be read in ments were required in providing the the book—One Hundred Years in facilities and services needed by the Yosemite, by Carl P. Russell. On the ever-growing crowd of Yosemite vischart accompanying this present itors, it was deemed necessary to paper, and in the brief digest which provide a contract which would refollows below, there is provided a duce the hazards of operation as convenient reference to the history of much as possible and give to the all business concessions in the park.

The original sources from which this July, 1929, p.71) and Edwin Moore information was obtained are cited entered into partnership with Galen for the benefit of those readers who Clark at Clark's Station, (3, p.40). wish to learn more from the manuIn 1870, Hutchings built River Cot script diaries and journals of the Cage and Rock Cottage to provide

participants in pioneer business ven additional accommodations for vistunes, and from the written stateitors, (9, p.125); Albert Snow built a ments of contemporaries of the busi hotel, La Casa Nevada, below Nevada Fall, (8; 1930, p.4). In 1875, James now serving the Yosemite visitors. McCauley erected a two-story hotel The references cited are preserved at Glacier Point, now known as the in the library of the Yosemite Mountain House, (5, 0-4A McCauley), Museum. and Washburn, Chapman and Coffman purchased Clark's Station in

HOTELS

May of the same year, (3, p.40). Two hotels were under construcThe Yosemite Falls Hotel, later tion in Yosemite Valley as early as known as the Sentinel Hotel, was 1857. The Lower Hotel near the foot of the present Four-Mile Trail, opened started by Coulter and Murphy in in 1858 with Mr. and Mrs. John H. 1875, and finished by J. K. Barnard Neal as managers, (1, p. 100). The the following year, (12, p.35). Cedar Cottage or Upper Hotel was Peregoy's Mountain View House started by Buck Beardsley and G. was put out of business when conbite in 1857, and was ready for ocstruction of the road from Clark's cupancy in May, 1859 with a Mr. Station was completed to Yosemite Peck its first operator, (4, p. 20; 5, Valley, since the road passed sevG-3 E Cedar Cottage; 12, p. 35). J. M. eral miles west of the hotel. A few Hutchings, a writer and publisher, visitors continued to stop there; the purchased the Cedar Cottage and last names on the register were enestablished residence in the Valley tered in June, 1878 (8, July, 1929, p.7). early in 1864, (1, p.131). Due to increased travel to Yosemite Galen Clark settled on the South and inability of existing hotels to acFork of the Merced River in April commodate visitors, the State of Cali1857. By the early 60 's his establishfornia appropriated funds for the ment was known as Clark's Station Stoneman House, and construction (Wawona), and served to accommowas started in 1886, (12, p.35). After date visitors en route to and from it was operated one season, it was Yosemite. (3, p.40). apparent that some of the older In 1869, the Lower Hotel was torn hotels were no longer needed and, down and Black's Hotel was erected as they were considered unsightly, in its place, (6, p.96; 12, p.35). Leidig' s Black's and Leidig 's hotels were torn Hotel was built adjacent to Black's. down in the fall of 1888, (7, 1887-88). (7, p.208; 12, p.35). In the same year, The Stoneman House was completely Charles E. Peregoy started construcdestroyed by fire on August 24, 1896, tion on his Mountain View House at (7, 1895-96, p.9), and the following Peregoy Meadows, then on a saddle year the La Casa Nevada burned, trail 'route to Yosemite Valley, (8, (16, p.49).

AFTER HOMER W. ROBINSON

After the Stoneman House burned, Lake). New camps constructed at the need for additional accommodaLittle Yosemite Valley, Boothe Lake tions for visitors was acute. Extensive and Glen Aulin enabled hikers to repairs were made to the Sentinel make loop trips free from the burden Hotel group, and the new Oak and of carrying blankets or food. Saddle Ivy cottages were built in 1898 and parties as well as hikers took advan 1900 respectively. The camp type of tage of these facilities, and the name accommodation was pioneered by was changed to High Sierra Camps, David A. Curry, who founded Camp (6, pp.113-115). Curry in 1899. Camp Lost Arrow was The Yosemite National Park Co. established in 1901, near the foot of combined with the Curry Camping Yosemite Falls, (12, p.35); Camp Co. to form the Yosemite Park and Ahwahnee was opened by William Curry Co. in 1925, (12, p.37). Sell near the foot of the present FourOn July 14, 1927, the Ahwahnee Mile Trail, in 1908, (12, p.36; 5, 0-3F Hotel was opened for business. This Camp Ahwahnee). de luxe hotel was built by the YoThe operation of Yosemite tourist semite Park and Curry Co. at a cost accommodations was recognized as of about a million and a half dollars, big business about 1915 when the (5, 0-3E Ahwahnee Hotel). D. J. Desmond Co. was granted a The Washburns sold their interests permit to operate a hotel and camp at Wawona to the National Park under the name of Camp Yosemite. Service in 1932, and the buildings The following year this company were leased to the Yosemite Park was granted a 20-year concession and Curry Co. by the Government. and it purchased Camp Lost Arrow, In 1935, the Yosemite Park and Camp Ahwahnee, Yosemite TransCurry Co. built the Badger Pass Ski portation Company, the saddle horse Lodge, (22). business of Mr. Coffman, the store, The old buildings of the Sentinel meat market, and the assets of the Hotel group were demolished by Sentinel and Glacier Point hotels. CCC crews as follows : Rock Cottage, Camps Lost Arrow and Ahwahnee 1937; River and Ivy Cottages, and were discontinued, and a new center the Sentinel Hotel, 1938; Oak and of activity, now known as Yosemite Cedar Cottages, 1941, (20). Lodge, was established. "Lodges" were also established at Merced The Ostrander Lake Ski Hut was Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, and built by National Park Service CCC Tenaya Lake, (21, 12, p.37). The folcrews in 1941, the only unit for the lowing year, 1917, the Desmond Co, accommodation of the public built built a new hotel at Glacier Point, by the Government in Yosemite Na- (21; 12, p.61). tional Park, (20). The Desmond Co. started the Big

STORES AND STUDIOS

Trees Lodge in the Mariposa Grove in 1919, (21; 12, p.72), but failed in In 1876, the Royal Arch Farm (J. C. their entire business, went into the Lamon's homestead) was leased to hands of the receiver, reorganized, A. Harris for public campground purposes and finally emerged in 1920 as the and shortly thereafter Mr. Yosemite National Park Co., (21; 12, Harris sold groceries to campers, thus p.37). becoming the first storekeeper in In 1923, Park Superintendent W. B. Yosemite, (7, p.310; 5, 0 4A, A. Harris). Lewis requested the Yosemite NaDegnan 's Bakery was started in tional Park Co. to establish a series 1884, (5, 0-4A John Degnan) and the of hikers' camps in the back country, same year George Fiske was operat- (camps already existed at Tuolumne ing a photographic business in YoMeadows, Merced Lake, and Tenaya semite as evidenced by Fiske photo-

graphs in the Yosemite Museum Following the death of Mrs. Mabel Boysen in 1884, the Boysen Studio was sold In 1910, Fred McCauley was given to the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. permit to sell fresh meat in Yosemite Valley; he delivered meat in a wagon during 1910 but

TRANSPORTATION

erected a building and opened a meat market in 1911. (17, Permits and The first saddle train business in leases, 1907-1924). Yosemite was started by J. M. HutchD. J. Foley established a print shop ings in 1866; Fred Brightman competed, beginning in 1870, (7, p.123). paper called The Yosemite Tourist, By 1875, Brightman had formed a the earliest known copy of which is partnership with George Kenny, (7, dated 1891. Mrs. Foley continued the p.123 and p.309), but this partnership studio business following Mr. Foley 's dissolved the next year. Brightman death, and although she has not then went to work for Washburn 's done business for several years, she stage lines, and Kenney continued in still (1948) holds her concession. the saddle business, (7, p.123). The About 1898, Chris Jorgensen, land Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Co., scape painter, built a studio near the Washburn 's stage line, was incorp old Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite Val orated November 16, 1877, (21). ley, (13, 1901, p.70).

In 1878, William F. Coffman purIn the early 1900s, various studios chased the stables and stock of J. M. were established. J. T. Boysen started Hutchings in Yosemite Valley and in 1900, (17, Boysen, J. T., 1912-22); entered into the saddle train busiHarry C. Best, landscape painter ness, (5, 0-4A Wm. F. Coffman). started a studio in 1902, (5, 0-4A, George W. Kenney and Wm. F. H. C. Best); and Hallett-Taylor Co. Coffman combined their saddle horse followed in 1903, (13, 1903). Arthur C. businesses in 1885, to form Coffman Pillsbury bought out the interests of and Kenney, and operated stables at Hallett-Taylor Co. in 1907, and Kenneyville, a village which stood changed the name from "Sign of the near the site of the present AhwahThree Arrows" to "Pillsbury's," (17, nee Hotel, (5, 0-4A Wm. F. Coffman). Pillsbury, A. C.). Of these only Best 's The Yosemite Valley Railroad was remains. It is operated by Ansel and completed in 1907, (19, p.236; 12, Virginia Best Adams. p.32), thus making it possible for Chris Jorgensen abandoned his many visitors to see the Valley who studio in Yosemite Valley in 1917, would not undertake the long stage (15; 5, 0-4A Jorgensen). The building trip. The increase in travel resulted has since served as a museum, quarin the formation of the Yosemite ters for rangers, as a rangers' club, Transportation Co. that year, (21), and more recently as a residence. and long lines of horse-drawn buses In November, 1918, George Fiske moved up and down the canyon be pioneer photographer, died by his tween El Portal and Yosemite Valley. own hand at his studio on the bank In February, 1913, the Madera, Yoof the Merced River north of the foot semite, Big Tree Auto Co. was organof the Four-Mile Trail, (18). ized, and the inevitable replacement After a disastrous fire destroyed of stagecoaches by motor buses behis theatre, Arthur C. Pillsbury sold gan. In 1915, this company, working his photo studio to the Yosemite Park under an agreement with the Yoand Curry Co. on February 23, 1928, semite Stage and Turnpike Co., (17, Pillsbury, A. C.). It is now the Lost formed the "Horseshoe Route" stage Arrow Studio of the Yosemite Park line which ran from Raymond to the and Curry Co. at Government Center. Mariposa Grove, Wawona, Glacier

Point, and Yosemite Valley. 1915, Stephen T. Mather purchased The present garage in Yosemite the Tioga Road and presented it Valley was built by the Yosemite the Federal Government. Soon there National Park Co. in 1920, (21). after the National Park Service acOn March 4, 1926, the Horseshoe quired title to all other roads in the Route stage line sold out to the Yo National Park, and "entrance fees semite Park and Curry Co., (22). then replaced the former toll charges

ROADS AND TRAILS

The first trail construction recorded in Yosemite was the trail between Clark's Station, now Wawona, and Yosemite Valley, completed as a toll trail in 1856 by Milton and Houston Mann, (1, p.98). Other approach routes from Coulterville and Big Oak Flat were built in the 50's and 60's. The Four-Mile Trail to Glacier Point was built as a toll trail by James McCauley in 1871, (7, p.221). Albert Snow, Washburn, and McCready, and J. M. Hutchings also engaged in private ventures in trail building on the walls of Yosemite Valley. In 1882, the State took over most of these trails and soon assumed responsibility for the maintenance of all saddle trails in and around the Valley. In 1874 the Coulterville and Big Oak Flat toll roads reached the floor of Yosemite Valley, (7, 1877, p.12); the former is yet a steep narrow road, little modified by modern road builders, but still in use; the old Big Oak Flat Road between Gentry on the north rim and the floor of the Valley near the foot of El Capitan, is no longer passable. The Wawona Road connecting Clark ' s Station and Yosemite Valley was completed in 1875 by Washburn, Chapman, Coffman & Co., (12, p.32), and the Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Co. was incorporated two years later by the Washburns, (21). In 1883, the Tioga Road was completed across the present park to the Tioga Mine, (14, p.26). The right to charge toll on the first three roads above, within the boundaries of the Yosemite Grant, was extinguished by the State in 1886. In

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. In the Heart of the Sierra, J. M. Hutchings Oakland, California, 1886. 2. Discovery of the Yosemite, L. H. Bunnell. Chicago, 1880. 3. The Giant Sequoia, Rodney Sykes Ellsworth, Oakland, California, 1924. 4. The Yosemite Guide Book, J. D. Whitney 1869. 5. YNP separates, a collection of manuscript reprints, and pamphlets, Yosemite Museum Library. 6. One Hundred Years in Yosemite, C. Russell, 1947. 7. Biennial Reports of the Commissioners to Manage Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove, 1877-1904, and Investiga tion of the Commissioners, 1889. 8. Yosemite Nature Notes, file in Yosemite Museum. 9. Son of the Wilderness, Linnie Marsh Wolfe New York, 1946. 10. "Yosemite: The Story of an Idea," Harold Huth, Sierra Club Bulletin, March 1948, pp. 46-76. 11. National Park Service files, Permits, Boysen,

J. T. (MS).

12. The National Parks, A Public Health Problem, D. B. Tresidder, 1927. (MS in Yosemite Museum Library). 13. Yosemite Souvenir and Guide, D. J. Foley 1901. 14. Handbook of Yosemite National Park Ansel F. Hall, New York, 1921. 15. Mariposa Miner, Nov. 26, 1936. 16. Guide to Yosemite, Ansel F. Hall, San Francisco, 1920. 17. National Park Service file No. 900. (MS correspondence). 18. F. C. Alexander, Postmaster, Yosemite National Park. (Oral statement). 19. The Yosemite. John Muir, 1912. 20. C.C.C. completion reports, Engineer's Office National Park Service Administra tion Building. (MS reports). 21. Report on Franchise Situation, Yosemite National Park, March 27, 1923. (MS). National Park Service file No. 900. 22. George Goldsworthy's statement, from of the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. 23. National Park Concessions, Report of Concessions Advisory Group, USDI, Mimeographed), Washington, D. C., 1948.

Digitized by Yosemite Online Library Dan Anderson