Editing Yosemite National Park (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the Yosemite area}}

===Ahwahneechee and the Mariposa Wars===
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The indigenous natives of Yosemite called themselves the [[Ahwahnechee|Ahwahneechee]], meaning "dwellers" in Ahwahnee.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Runte |first=Alfred |url=https://archive.org/details/yosemiteembattle00runt |title=Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=1990 |isbn=0803238940 |pages=Chapter 1}}</ref> The Ahwahneechee People were the only tribe that lived within the park boundaries, but other tribes lived in surrounding areas. Together they formed a larger Indigenous population in California, called the [[Plains and Sierra Miwok|Southern Sierra Miwok.]]<ref name="Spence">{{cite journal |last1=Spence |first1=Mark |date=1996 |title=Dispossesing the Wilderness: Yosemite Indians and the National Park Ideal, 1864–1930 |journal=Pacific Historical Review |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=27–59 |doi=10.2307/3640826 |issn=0030-8684 |jstor=3640826}}</ref> They are related to the Northern [[Northern Paiute|Paiute]] and [[Mono people|Mono]] tribes. Other tribes like the Central [[Sierra Miwoks]] and the [[Yokuts]], who both lived in the [[San Joaquin Valley]] and central California, visited Yosemite to trade and intermarry.{{sfn|Greene|1987|p=78}} This resulted in a blending of culture that helped preserve their presence in Yosemite after early American settlements and urban development threatened their survival.<ref name="Spence" /> Vegetation and game in the region were similar to modern times; acorns were a dietary staple, as well as other seeds and plants, salmon and deer.<ref name="Spence" />

The 1848–1855 [[California Gold Rush]] was a major event impacting the native population. It drew more than 90,000 European Americans to the area in 1849, causing competition for resources between gold miners and residents.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Starr |editor-first1=Kevin |editor-last2=Orsi |editor-first2=Richard J |year=2000 |title=Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |isbn=978-0-520-22496-4 |page=57 }}</ref> About 70 years before the Gold Rush, the indigenous population was estimated to be 300,000, quickly dropping to 150,000, and just ten years later, only about 50,000 remained.<ref name=":1" /> The reasons for such a decline included disease, birth rate decreases, starvation, and conflict. The conflict in Yosemite, which is known as the [[Mariposa War]], was part of the [[California genocide]], which was the systemic killing of indigenous peoples throughout the State between the 1840s and 1870s.<ref name="Adhikari">{{cite book |last=Adhikari |first=Mohamed |date=25 July 2022 |title=Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ht9dEAAAQBAJ |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |pages=72–115 |isbn=978-1647920548 |access-date=March 21, 2023 |archive-date=March 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164810/https://books.google.com/books?id=ht9dEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> It started in December 1850 when California funded a state militia to drive Native people from contested territory to suppress Native American resistance to the European American influx.<ref name="miwuk">{{cite web |title=Who We Are |url=https://www.southernsierramiwuknation.org/about-2 |access-date=July 23, 2021 |publisher=Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation |archive-date=August 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806040156/https://www.southernsierramiwuknation.org/about-2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Yosemite tribes often stole from settlers and miners, sometimes killing them, in retribution for the extermination/domestication of their people, and loss of their lands and resources.<ref name=":1" /> The War and formation of the [[Mariposa Battalion]] was partially the result of a single incident involving [[Jim Savage|James Savage]], a [[Fresno]] trader whose trading post was attacked in December, 1850. After the incident, Savage rallied other miners and gained the support of local officials to pursue a war against the Natives. He was appointed [[United States Army]] Major and leader of the Mariposa Battalion in the beginning of 1851.<ref name=":1" /> He and Captain John Boling were responsible for pursuing the Ahwahneechee people, led by [[Chief Tenaya]] and driving them west, and out of Yosemite.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sketch of Yosemite National Park and an Account of the Origin of the Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys (History of Yosemite National Parkr) |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yose/matthes/sec1.htm |access-date=2022-04-19 |website=www.nps.gov |archive-date=July 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704055441/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yose/matthes/sec1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In March 1851 under Savage's command, the Mariposa Battalion captured about 70 Ahwahneechee and planned to take them to a reservation in Fresno, but they escaped. Later in May, under the command of Boling, the battalion captured 35 Ahwahneechee, including Chief Tenaya, and marched them to the reservation. Most were allowed to eventually leave and the rest escaped.<ref name=":1" /> Tenaya and others fled across the [[Sierra Nevada]] and settled with the [[Kucadikadi|Mono Lake Paiutes]]. Tenaya and some of his companions were ultimately killed in 1853 either over stealing horses or a gambling conflict. The survivors of Tenaya's group and other [[Ahwahnechee|Ahwahneechee]] were absorbed into the Mono Lake Paiute tribe.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Bingaman |first=John W. |date=1966 |title=The Ahwahneechees: A Story of the Yosemite Indians |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_ahwahneechees/chapter_1.html |access-date=April 11, 2022 |website=yosemite.ca.us |archive-date=June 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623094147/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_ahwahneechees/chapter_1.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite web |last1=Godfrey |first1=Elizabeth |title=Yosemite Indians; Yesterday and Today |url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_indians/history.html |access-date=26 August 2021 |website=Yosemite Indians |archive-date=February 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219202803/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_indians/history.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Chief Tenaya by Sculptor Sal Maccarone carved in 1990.jpg|thumb|226x226px|Sculpture of Chief Tenaya made by Sal Maccarone for the Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite National Park]]
Accounts from this battalion were the first well-documented reports of European Americans entering Yosemite Valley. Attached to Savage's unit was Doctor [[Lafayette Bunnell]], who later wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley in ''The Discovery of the Yosemite''. Bunnell is credited with naming Yosemite Valley, based on his interviews with Chief Tenaya. Bunnell wrote that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Ahwahnee colony.<ref name="Bunnell17">{{cite book|title=Discovery of the Yosemite and the Indian War of 1851 Which Led to That Event |last=Bunnell |first=Lafayette H. |url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/discovery_of_the_yosemite/17.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005171611/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/discovery_of_the_yosemite/17.html |archive-date=October 5, 2012 |chapter=Chapter 17 |publisher=F.H. Revell |year=1892 |access-date=January 27, 2007 |isbn=0939666588 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bunnell falsely believed that the word "Yosemite" meant "full-grown grizzly bear".<ref>{{cite book|title=Discovery of the Yosemite and the Indian War of 1851 Which Led to That Event |last=Bunnell |first=Lafayette H.}}</ref>

===Indigenous peoples' continuing presence ===
[[File:Lucy Telles basket.jpg|thumb|Basket woven by Lucy Telles (1885–1955), a [[Kucadikadi|Mono Lake Paiute]] and [[Miwok#Southern Sierra Miwok|Southern Sierra Miwok]] Native American artist from the Yosemite region|163x163px]]
After the [[Mariposa War]], Native Americans continued to live in the Yosemite area in reduced numbers. The remaining Yosemite [[Ahwahneechee]] tribe members there were forced to relocate to a village constructed in 1851 by the state government.<ref name=":1" /> They learned to live within this camp and their limited rights, adapting to the changed environment by entering the tourism industry through employment and small businesses, manufacturing and selling goods and providing services.<ref name="Spence" /> In 1953, the National Park Service banned all non-employee Natives from residing in the Park and evicted the non-employees who had residence. In 1969, with only a few families left in the Park, the National Park Service evicted the remaining Native people living within the Park (all Park employees and their families) to a government housing area for park employees and destroyed the village as part of a fire-fighting exercise.<ref name="SpenceBookChapter8">{{cite book |last1=Spence |first1=Mark David |title=Dispossessing the wilderness: Indian removal and the making of the national parks |chapter=Yosemite Indians and the National Park Ideal, 1916-1969 |date=1999 |pages=115–132 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dispossessingwil0000spen/page/114/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="miwuk" /> A reconstructed "Indian Village of Ahwahnee" sits behind the [[Yosemite Museum]], located next to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center.<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Village of the Ahwahnee – Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/yosemite-indians.htm |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=March 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302223136/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/yosemite-indians.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Yosemite Indians – Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/indian-village-of-the-ahwahnee.htm |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=February 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221140746/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/indian-village-of-the-ahwahnee.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Yosemite Valley map |url=https://www.nps.gov/carto/hfc/carto/media/YOSEmap2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012171335/https://www.nps.gov/carto/hfc/carto/media/YOSEmap2.pdf |archive-date=2018-10-12 |url-status=live |access-date=1 March 2021}}</ref>

By the late 19th century, the population of all native inhabitants in Yosemite was difficult to determine, estimates ranged from thirty to several hundred. The Ahwahneechee people and their descendants were hard to identify.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Solnit|first=Rebecca|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/876343009|title=Savage Dreams: a Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West.|date=2014|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-520-95792-3|location=Berkeley|oclc=876343009|access-date=February 22, 2022|archive-date=February 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205174233/https://search.worldcat.org/title/876343009|url-status=live}}</ref> The last full-blooded Ahwahneechee died in 1931. Her name was Totuya, or Maria Lebrado. She was the granddaughter of Chief [[Tenaya]] and one of many forced out of her ancestral homelands.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="miwuk" /> The Ahwahneechee live through the memory of their descendants, their fellow Yosemite Natives, and through the Yosemite exhibit in the [[Smithsonian Museum of American History|Smithsonian]] and the Yosemite Museum.<ref name=":1" /> As a method of self-preservation and resilience, the Indigenous people of California proposed treaties in 1851 and 1852 that would have established land reservations for them, but Congress refused to ratify them.<ref name=":1" /> The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation is seeking tribal sovereignty and federal recognition.<ref name="miwuk" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Federal Recognition {{!}} Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation |url=https://www.southernsierramiwuknation.org/federal-recognition |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=SouthernSierra Miwuk |language=en |archive-date=April 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421080511/https://www.southernsierramiwuknation.org/federal-recognition |url-status=live }}</ref> The National Park Service created policies to protect sacred sites and allow Native People to return to their homelands and use National Park resources.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |first=Jeanette |last=Wolfley |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1305864036 |title=Reclaiming a presence in ancestral lands : the return of Native Peoples to the National Parks |date=2016 |publisher=[University of New Mexico, School of Law] |oclc=1305864036 |access-date=April 21, 2022 |archive-date=February 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205174241/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1305864036 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Early tourists===
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In 1855, entrepreneur [[James Mason Hutchings]], artist [[Thomas Ayres (artist)|Thomas Ayres]] and two others were the first tourists to visit.<ref name="GeologyNP326">{{harvnb|Harris|1998|p=326}}</ref> Hutchings and Ayres were responsible for much of Yosemite's earliest publicity, writing articles and [[Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine|special issues]] about the valley.{{sfn|Wuerthner|1994|p=20}} Ayres' style was detailed with exaggerated angularity. His works and written accounts were distributed nationally, and an exhibition of his drawings was held in New York City. Hutchings' publicity efforts between 1855 and 1860 increased tourism to Yosemite.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/RAILROAD/yosemite.html|title=Discovery and Invention in the Yosemite|work=The Role of Railroads in Protecting, Promoting, and Selling Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks|first=J.S.|last=Johns|publisher=University of Virginia|year=1996|access-date=August 20, 2010|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200437/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/RAILROAD/yosemite.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Natives supported the growing tourism industry by working as laborers or maids. Later, they performed dances for tourists, acted as guides, and sold handcrafted goods, notably woven baskets.<ref name="Spence" /> The Indian village and its peoples fascinated visitors, especially James Hutchings who advocated for Yosemite tourism. He and others considered the indigenous presence to be one of Yosemite's greatest attractions.<ref name="Spence" />

[[Wawona, California|Wawona]] was an early Indian encampment for Nuchu and Ahwahneechee people who were captured and relocated to a reservation on the Fresno River by Savage and the Mariposa Battalion in March 1851.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sargent |first=Shirley |date=1961 |title=Wawona's Yesterdays |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/wawonas_yesterdays/indians.html |access-date=April 14, 2022 |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617221051/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/wawonas_yesterdays/indians.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Galen Clark]] discovered the [[Mariposa Grove]] of [[giant sequoia]] in Wawona in 1857. He had simple lodgings and roads built. In 1879, the [[Wawona Hotel]] was built to serve tourists visiting Mariposa Grove.<ref>{{cite book |title=Wawona Hotel Complex Cultural Landscape Report , Yosemite National Park |date=August 2012 |publisher=Mundus Bishop for National Park Service |pages=15}}</ref> As tourism increased, so did the number of trails and hotels to build on it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schaffer |first1=Jeffrey |title=Yosemite National Park: A complete hiker's guide |date=June 2006 |publisher=Wilderness Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=0899973833 |page=11 |edition=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4fSi0EjFHoC |access-date=31 August 2021 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627231037/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4fSi0EjFHoC |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Wawona Tree]], also known as the [[Tunnel tree|Tunnel Tree]], was a [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoia]] that grew in the [[Mariposa Grove]]. It was {{convert|234|ft|m}} tall, and was {{convert|90|ft|m|abbr=on}} in circumference. When a carriage-wide tunnel was cut through the tree in 1881, it became even more popular as a tourist photo attraction. Carriages and automobiles traversed the road that passed through the tree. The tree was permanently weakened by the tunnel, and it fell in 1969 under a heavy load of snow. It was estimated to have been 2,100 years old.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Myth of the Tree You Can Drive Through |url=https://www.nps.gov/seki/faqtunnel.htm |website=nps.gov |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=26 August 2021 |archive-date=August 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827150438/https://www.nps.gov/seki/faqtunnel.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Yosemite's first concession was established in 1884 when John Degnan and his wife established a bakery and store.{{sfn|NPS|1989|p=58}} In 1916, the National Park Service granted a 20-year concession to the Desmond Park Service Company. It bought out or built hotels, stores, camps, a dairy, a garage, and other park facilities.{{sfn|Greene|1987|p=360}} The [[Hotel Del Portal]] was completed in 1908 by a subsidiary of the [[Yosemite Valley Railroad]]. It was located at [[El Portal, California]] just outside of Yosemite.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Yosemite Valley Railroad|last=Radanovich|first=Leroy|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated|year=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0BqfELO5QsQC|page=|isbn=9781439640333|access-date=2021-12-27|archive-date=April 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409043107/https://books.google.com/books?id=0BqfELO5QsQC|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Greene|1987|pp=362, 364}}

The Curry Company started in 1899, led by David and Jennie Curry to provide concessions. They founded Camp Curry, now [[Curry Village, California|Curry Village]].{{sfn|Wuerthner|1994|p=40}}

Park service administrators felt that limiting the number of concessionaires in the park would be more financially sound. The Curry Company and its rival, the Yosemite National Park Company, were forced to merge in 1925 to form the [[Yosemite_Park_and_Curry_Company|Yosemite Park & Curry Company]] (YP&CC).{{sfn|Greene|1987|p=387}} The company built the [[Ahwahnee Hotel]] in 1926–27.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Gene Rose |title=The Ahwahnee: Yosemite Grandeur |journal=Skiing Heritage Journal |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_x1gEAAAAMBAJ|date=March 2003|publisher=International Skiing History Association|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_x1gEAAAAMBAJ/page/n20 21]|issn=1082-2895}}</ref>

===Yosemite Grant===
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| image2 = Willard Worden, Yosemite Falls, c1910.webp
| footer = [[Eadweard Muybridge]], [[Vernal Fall]], 1872; [[Willard Worden]], [[Yosemite Falls]], c. 1910.
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Concerned by the impact of commercial interests, citizens including [[Galen Clark]] and Senator [[John Conness]] advocated protection for the area.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Yosemite: The Story of an Idea |author=Huth, Hans |journal=Sierra Club Bulletin |publisher=Sierra Club |issue=33 |pages=63–76 |url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_story_of_an_idea.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508220101/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_story_of_an_idea.html |archive-date=May 8, 2012 |date=March 1948 |access-date=April 20, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[38th United States Congress]] passed legislation that was signed by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] on June 30, 1864, creating the Yosemite Grant.<ref name="Schaffer48">{{harvnb|Schaffer|1999|p=48}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://constitution.org/uslaw/sal/013_statutes_at_large.pdf|page=325|chapter=Thirty-Eighth Congress, Session I, Chap. 184 (June 30, 1864): An Act authorizing a Grant to the State of California of the "Yo-Semite Valley" and of the Land embracing the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove"|title=[[United States Statutes at Large|The Statutes At Large]], Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America from December 1863, to December 1865|editor=[[George P. Sanger|Sanger, George P.]]|volume=13|location=Boston|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=1866|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116010746/http://constitution.org/uslaw/sal/013_statutes_at_large.pdf|archive-date=November 16, 2011}}</ref> This is the first time land was set aside specifically for preservation and public use by the U.S. government, and set a precedent for the 1872 creation of [[Yellowstone National Park|Yellowstone]] national park, the nation's first.<ref name = "historyculture">{{cite web | title = History & Culture | publisher = United States National Park Service: Yosemite National Park | url = http://www.nps.gov/yose/historyculture/index.htm | access-date = January 27, 2007 | archive-date = May 2, 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070502182407/http://www.nps.gov/yose/historyculture/index.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> Yosemite Valley and the [[Mariposa Grove]] were ceded to [[California]] as a [[state park]], and a board of commissioners was established two years later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.150.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27539|title=Yosemite "State Park"|website=www.150.parks.ca.gov|access-date=April 30, 2021|archive-date=October 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016155602/http://www.150.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27539|url-status=live}}</ref>

Galen Clark was appointed by the commission as the Grant's first guardian, but neither Clark nor the commissioners had the authority to evict [[Homestead Act|homesteaders]] (which included Hutchings).<ref name="Schaffer48"/> The issue was not settled until 1872 when the homesteader land holdings were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court.<ref>''Hutchings v. Low'' {{ussc|82|77|1872}}</ref> Clark and the commissioners were ousted in a dispute that reached the Supreme Court in 1880.<ref>''Ashburner v. California'' {{ussc|103|575|1880}}</ref> The two Supreme Court decisions affecting management of the Yosemite Grant are considered precedents in land management law.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred |last=Runte |year=1990 |title=Yosemite : The Embattled Wilderness |url=https://archive.org/details/yosemiteembattle00runt |url-access=registration |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0803289413 |pages=34–35, 50}}</ref> Hutchings became the new park guardian.<ref name="Schaffer49"/>

Tourist access to the park improved, and conditions in the Valley became more hospitable. Tourism significantly increased after the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was completed in 1869, while the long horseback ride to reach the area was a deterrent.<ref name="Schaffer48"/> Three [[stagecoach]] roads were built in the mid-1870s to provide better access for the growing number of visitors.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/olmsted/report.html|title=Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove: A Preliminary Report|year=1865|first=Frederick|last=Law Olmsted|access-date=September 1, 2021|archive-date=May 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529082917/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/olmsted/report.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[John Muir]] was a Scottish-born American naturalist and explorer. Muir's leadership ensured that many National Parks were left untouched, including Yosemite.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/historical/muir/|work=The National Parks: America's Best Idea|title=People&nbsp;– John Muir|publisher=PBS|access-date=September 18, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923104845/http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/historical/muir/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Muir wrote articles popularizing the area and increasing scientific interest in it. Muir was one of the first to theorize that the major landforms in Yosemite Valley were created by alpine glaciers, bucking established scientists such as [[Josiah Whitney]].<ref name="Schaffer49">{{harvnb|Schaffer|1999|p=49}}</ref> Muir wrote scientific papers on the area's biology. Landscape architect [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] emphasized the importance of conservation of Yosemite Valley.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Olmsted |first1=Frederick Law |title=Olmsted Report on Management of Yosemite, 1865 |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/anps/anps_1b.htm |website=National Park Service |access-date=1 September 2021 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812125501/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/anps/anps_1b.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Increased protection efforts===
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 | caption2     = [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[John Muir]] on Glacier Point
 }}

[[Overgrazing]] of meadows (especially by sheep), logging of giant sequoia, and other damage led Muir to become an advocate for further protection. Muir convinced prominent guests of the importance of putting the area under federal protection. One such guest was [[Robert Underwood Johnson]], editor of ''[[Century Magazine]]''. Muir and Johnson lobbied Congress for the Act that created Yosemite National Park on October 1, 1890.<ref name="Schaffer50">{{harvnb|Schaffer|1999|p=50}}</ref> The State of California, however, retained control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove. Muir's writings raised awareness about the damage caused by sheep grazing, and he actively campaigned to virtually eliminate grazing from the Yosemite's high-country.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yosemite |url=https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/muir.htm |website=nps.gov |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=1 September 2021 |archive-date=September 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903062250/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/muir.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The newly created national park came under the jurisdiction of the United States Army's Troop I of the [[4th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|4th Cavalry]] on May 19, 1891, which set up camp in Wawona with Captain [[Abram Wood|Abram Epperson Wood]] as acting superintendent.<ref name="Schaffer50"/> By the late 1890s, sheep grazing was no longer a problem, and the Army made other improvements. However, the cavalry could not intervene to ease the worsening conditions. From 1899 to 1913, cavalry regiments of the Western Department, including the all Black [[9th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|9th Cavalry]] (known as the "Buffalo Soldiers") and the [[1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)|1st Cavalry]], stationed two troops at Yosemite.

[[File:View of Tutocanula Pass Yosemite California by Carleton Watkins.jpg|thumb|[[Bridalveil Fall]] and [[El Capitan]], by [[Carleton Watkins]] ({{circa|1880}})]]
Muir and his [[Sierra Club]] continued to lobby the government and influential people for the creation of a unified Yosemite National Park. In May 1903, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] camped with Muir near [[Glacier Point]] for three days. On that trip, Muir convinced Roosevelt to take control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove away from California and return it to the federal government. In 1906, Roosevelt signed a bill that shifted control.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/jomu/learn/historyculture/people.htm#onthisPage-2|title=John Muir and President Roosevelt|work=John Muir National Historic Site, California|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=2021-08-31|archive-date=August 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819190816/https://www.nps.gov/jomu/learn/historyculture/people.htm#onthisPage-2|url-status=live}}</ref>

===National Park Service===
The [[National Park Service]] (NPS) 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.<ref name="Schaffer52">{{harvnb|Schaffer|1999|p=52}}</ref> Automobiles started to enter the park in ever-increasing numbers following the opening of all-weather highways to the park. The Yosemite Museum was founded in 1926 through the efforts of [[Ansel Franklin Hall]].{{sfn|NPS|1989|p=117}} In the 1920s, the museum featured Native Americans practicing traditional crafts, and many Southern Sierra Miwok continued to live in Yosemite Valley until they were evicted from the park in the 1960s.<ref>{{cite news |last=George |first=Carmen |title=American Indians share their Yosemite story |url=http://www.fresnobee.com/news/special-reports/yosemite-at-150/article19521750.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722135414/http://www.fresnobee.com/news/special-reports/yosemite-at-150/article19521750.html |archive-date=July 22, 2017 |access-date=July 12, 2017 |work=The Fresno Bee}}</ref> Although the NPS helped create a museum that included Native American culture, its early actions and organizational values were dismissive of Yosemite Natives and the Ahwahneechee.<ref name=":1" /> NPS in the early 20th century criticized and restricted the expression of indigenous culture and behavior. For example, park officials penalized Natives for playing games and drinking during the Indian Field Days of 1924.<ref name="Spence" /> In 1929, Park Superintendent Charles G. Thomson concluded that the Indian village was aesthetically unpleasant and was limiting white settler development and ordered the camp to be burned down.<ref name=":1" /> In 1969, many Native residents left in search of work as a result of the decline in tourism. NPS demolished their empty houses, evicted the remaining residents, and destroyed the entire village.<ref name=":1" /> This was the last Indigenous settlement within the park.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="miwuk" />

In 1903, a dam in [[Hetch Hetchy Valley]] in the northwestern region of the park was proposed. Its purpose was to provide water and [[hydroelectric power]] to [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]]. Muir and the Sierra Club opposed the project, while others, including [[Gifford Pinchot]], supported it.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Moseley |first=W. G. |year=2009 |title=Beyond Knee-Jerk Environmental Thinking: Teaching Geographic Perspectives on Conservation, Preservation and the Hetch Hetchy Valley Controversy |journal=Journal of Geography in Higher Education |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=433–51 |doi=10.1080/03098260902982492 |s2cid=143538071 }}</ref> In 1913, the [[O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)|O'Shaughnessy Dam]] was approved via passage of the [[Raker Act]].<ref name="Schaffer51">{{harvnb|Schaffer|1999|p=51}}</ref>

In 1918, [[Clare Marie Hodges]] was hired as the first female Park Ranger in Yosemite.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web
 |title        = Women of Yosemite
 |url          = https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/women.htm
 |access-date  = 2023-04-18
 |year         = 2022
 |publisher    = National Park Service
 |archive-date = March 30, 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230330045408/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/women.htm
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> Following Hodges in 1921, [[Enid Michael]] was hired as a seasonal Park Ranger<ref name=":6" /> and continued to serve in that position for 20 years.<ref name=":6" />
[[File:O'Shaughnessy Dam.jpg|thumb|left|[[O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)|O'Shaughnessy Dam]] in [[Hetch Hetchy]] Valley]]

In 1937, conservationist [[Rosalie Edge]], head of the Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC), successfully lobbied Congress to purchase about {{convert|8,000| acres}} of old-growth sugar pines on the perimeter of Yosemite National Park that were to be logged.<ref>{{cite book |last=Furmansky |first=Dyana Z. |year=2009 |title=Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists |url=https://archive.org/details/rosalieedgehawko00zasl |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0820336763 |pages = 200–07}}</ref>

By 1968, [[traffic congestion]] and parking in Yosemite Valley during the summer months has become a concern.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dolan |first=Jack |date=2025-01-30 |title=As Trump cuts federal jobs, even national parks are on the chopping block |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-30/national-parks-on-chopping-block-as-trump-cuts-federal-jobs |access-date=2025-02-01 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> NPS reduced artificial inducements to visit the park, such as the ''[[Yosemite Firefall|Firefall]]'', in which red-hot embers were pushed off a cliff near Glacier Point at night.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-january-25-1968-last-firefall-yosemite-tradition-flames-out/|magazine=Earth Magazine|title=Benchmarks: January 25, 1968: The last firefall: A Yosemite tradition flames out|first=Sara E|last=Pratt|date=December 14, 2017|access-date=December 2, 2023|archive-date=October 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025083407/https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-january-25-1968-last-firefall-yosemite-tradition-flames-out/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1984, preservationists persuaded Congress to designate {{convert|677600|acre}}, or about 89 percent of the park, as the Yosemite Wilderness. As a [[wilderness area]], it would be preserved in its natural state with humans being only temporary visitors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/legal/parklaws/1/laws1-volume1-appendix.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203175920/http://www.nps.gov/legal/parklaws/1/laws1-volume1-appendix.pdf |archive-date=February 3, 2012 |title=California Wilderness Act of 1984 - 98th U.S. Congress |access-date=May 8, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2016, [[The Trust for Public Land]] (TPL) purchased Ackerson Meadow, a {{convert|400|acre||adj=mid| tract}} on the western edge of the park for $2.3&nbsp;million. Ackerson Meadow was originally included in the proposed 1890 park boundary, but never acquired by the federal government. The purchase and donation of the meadow was made possible through a cooperative effort by TPL, NPS, and Yosemite Conservancy. On September 7, 2016, NPS accepted the donation of the land, making the meadow the largest addition to Yosemite since 1949.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/news/ackersonaddition.htm|title=Ackerson Meadow Gifted to Yosemite National Park|author=National Park Service|access-date=September 8, 2016|archive-date=September 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920195915/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/news/ackersonaddition.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> With extensive erosion from years of cattle ranching , the land is being transformed back into a healthy meadow.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=Paul |date=2024-08-23 |title=Yosemite National Park: Crews restore damaged landscape back to conditions not seen in 150 years |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/08/23/yosemite-national-park-crews-restore-damaged-landscape-back-to-conditions-not-seen-in-150-years/ |access-date=2024-08-24 |website=The Mercury News |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2025 National Park Service workers displayed a giant upside down "distress" flag at El Capitan to protest layoffs recently made by the Trump administration.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=McIntyre |first1=Iain |last2=Commons Librarian |date=2025-03-12 |title=Where to Fight Back: Lessons from US Anti-Coup Actions |url=https://commonslibrary.org/where-to-fight-back-lessons-from-us-anti-coup-actions/ |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>