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Yosemite National Park renames some structures
A former concessionaire trademarked some iconic park names
Ahwahnee Hotel is now the Majestic Yosemite Hotel
CNN
—
Yosemite National Park’s great Ahwahnee Hotel is no more.
It’s now the Majestic Yosemite Hotel.
As of Wednesday, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls is now Yosemite Valley Lodge, the Wawona Hotel is Big Trees Lodge, Curry Village is Half Dome Village, and Badger Pass Ski Area is Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area.
Several of Yosemite National Park’s iconic structures and locations have been renamed – at least temporarily – because of a legal battle over trademarks, the National Park Service said.
National Park Service Centennial coverage
The agency is battling with the concessionaire that ran the park’s lodging, retail and food services for more than 20 years.
The park service says DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, a subsidiary of Delaware North, claims ownership of some of the park’s trade names and trademarks, and is demanding more than $50 million in compensation for the rights to those names.
Happy 125th birthday, Yosemite National Park
Yosemite went through a competitive bidding process and picked a subsidiary of global concessionaire Aramark to provide similar services starting March 1. The new company has a 15-year contact to provide services to over 4 million annual visitors to Yosemite.
Charles Leander Weed
In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the
Yosemite Grant Act on June 30, 1864, paving the way for the national park system. American photographer Charles Leander Weed captured this view of Yosemite Valley that same year.
MPI/Getty Images
President Theodore Roosevelt, left, and conservationist and Sierra Club founder John Muir stand on Yosemite National Park's Glacier Point in 1903. After camping in the wilderness, Roosevelt wrote: "It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man."
Carleton E. Watkins/Getty Images
A horse-drawn cart passes through the
Wawona Tree in the Mariposa Grove, near Yosemite's South Entrance. A tunnel was cut through the tree in 1881 and remained a popular tourist attraction until it was toppled by a snowstorm in 1969.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Yosemite National Park guards climb the staircase leading to the outlet valves of the O'Shaughnessy Dam, which was authorized by Congress in 1913 and completed in 1938.
The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, now the largest single body of water in the park, still provides water to residents of San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Ralph Anderson/NPS/AP
Sailors gather near a tree on the park's Sentinel Dome on July 24, 1944. The Navy took over the
Ahwahnee Hotel during World War II and used it as a convalescent hospital.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
While the valley doesn't usually have enough snow for skiing during the winter, there's proof it has happened: A skier heads in from the Yosemite Valley on December 13, 1945.
The valley does have a winter ice rink dating back to the 1930s, and the Badger Pass ski area is home to the state's oldest downhill skiing area.
Gene Lester/Getty Images
Three young women get ready for work in their three-person tent at Camp Curry in Yosemite National Park, where they were employed for the summer of 1955.
Ralph Crane/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hikers walk past a rainbow caused by mist from Vernal Falls, circa 1962. There are
800 miles of trails at the park.
Ralph Crane//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hot embers are dumped over the edge of Glacier Point, creating what was called the
Yosemite Firefall. The nightly summertime spectacle started in the 1870s and was permanently canceled in 1969.
Walter J. Zeboski/AP
Rock climbers Dean Caldwell, left, and Warren Harding climb El Capitan, which rises more than 3,000 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor, on November 14, 1970. In 1958, Harding led the first team to climb El Capitan, the largest monolith of granite in the world.
Tim Graham/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II visits Yosemite National Park while touring the West Coast of the United States in 1983.
Jonathan S. Blair/National Geographic/Getty Images
ROBERT GALBRAITH/Reuters/Landov
For visitors who prefer calmer activities, there are several popular
camping and
picnicking sites. (Reservations are strongly recommended for camping.) A family enjoys a picnic with a view of the Upper Yosemite Falls.
Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Landov
JTB Photo/UIG/Getty Images
Yosemite became a national park 125 years ago on October 1, 1890. The park celebrates the anniversary on October 1, 2015.
“This is a new era in Yosemite and we are very excited to welcome Yosemite Hospitality LLC as the new primary concessioner in Yosemite National Park,” park Superintendent Don Neubacher said in a statement.
“We would like to thank Delaware North Companies for their exceptional service to Yosemite’s visitors over the course of their contract in Yosemite National Park.”
There could be some bumps in the road during the transition, aside from the legal dispute. In a statement, the park service requested “patience from visitors should they encounter any disruption during this unprecedented transition.”
Delaware North had said in a statement that the park service “is trying to use (beloved names of places in Yosemite) as a bargaining chip in a legal dispute involving basic contract rights.”
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Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told CNN affiliate KFSN, “the names of the structures belong to the American people … and Delaware North is not entitled to any compensation.”
If the park service wins in court, the previous names of the structures and sites could be restored.
“While it is unfortunate that we must take this action, changing the names of these facilities will help us provide seamless service to the American public during the transition to the new concessioner. Yosemite National Park belongs to the American people,” Neubacher said in January.
“This action will not affect the historic status of the facilities, as they are still important cultural icons to the National Park Service and the public. Our stewardship of these properties is unwavering.”
Yosemite is the country’s fourth most-popular national park, generating $535 million in economic benefits, according to the park.