Why go
The Yosemite Grant and later national-park protections joined scenic stewardship with unresolved questions about access, settlement, tourism, and Indigenous displacement. Use From Yosemite Grant to National Park to frame the subject, then let From Yosemite Grant to National Park separate broad patterns from visitor choices. Return to From Yosemite Grant to National Park when deciding what belongs in one realistic Yosemite day.
The full story
The National Park Service was formed in 1916, and Yosemite was transferred to that agency's jurisdiction. Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, Tioga Pass Road, and campgrounds at Tenaya and Merced lakes were also completed in 1916.Automobiles started to enter the park in ever-increasing numbers following the construction of all-weather highways to the park. The Yosemite Museum was founded in 1926 through the efforts of Ansel Franklin Hall. In 1903, a dam in the northern portion of the park was proposed. Located in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, its purpose was to provide water and hydroelectric power to San Francisco. Muir and the Sierra Club opposed the project, while others, including Gifford Pinchot, supported it. In 1913, the U.S. Congress authorized the O'Shaughnessy Dam through passage of the Raker Act. In the late 1920s, in an attempt that would be impossible to make today, a bid for Yosemite for the 1932 Winter Olympics was put forward. More recently, preservationists persuaded Congress to designate 677,600 acres (274,200 ha), or about 89% of the park, as the Yosemite Wilderness—a highly protected wilderness area. The Park Service has reduced artificial inducements to visit the park, such as.