Pioneer Yosemite History Center: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service
Hoke A. 2011. Pioneer Yosemite History Center: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975546. NPS Pacific West Regional Office. Pacific West Regional Office/CLI Database
The Pioneer Yosemite History Center is a component landscape of the parent Wawona Basin Historic District. The ten-acre site, located on the South Fork of the Merced River, is comprised primarily of a collection of historic buildings moved to the complex from various locations within and outside the park during the Mission-66 era to interpret the early pioneer history of Yosemite, but also includes a few buildings and structures that were sited there prior to Mission 66. The Pioneer Yosemite History Center is significant under the National Register Criterion A for its association with the development of tourism and outdoor recreation during Mission 66. The period of significance is 1956 to 1964, which reflects the planning phase through the completion of the installation of the pioneer buildings. The period begins with the year Chief Naturalist Douglass Hubbard initiated a proposal to acquire and relocate a collection of historic pioneer buildings from various locations within or near the park and ends with the dedication of the Pioneer Yosemite History Center, concurrent with the 100th anniversary of the Yosemite Land Grant. Wawona was deemed by park planners to be an ideal location to interpret the Anglo-American history of Yosemite. The combination of the early Western architecture of the Wawona Hotel and a historic covered bridge that was originally constructed in 1868 by the area’s original steward of the Yosemite Grant, Galen Clark, and later covered by the Washburn family in 1878, provided an atmosphere that was unique within the park. The location held additional appeal; situated in the southwest corner of the park and away from the Yosemite Valley, it created an opportunity to attract visitors out of the critically overcrowded area of the park. The Pioneer Yosemite History Center features ten Pioneer-era buildings moved to the Wawona Basin during the period of significance and informally arranged in a circular cluster with the majority located on the north bank of the South Fork of the Merced River. Although most of the buildings and structures that make up the Pioneer Yosemite History Center are more than a century old, and some of them individually listed on the National Register, the district is significant for its planning and development during the Mission-66 era when many of the buildings were relocated to Wawona for interpretive purposes. The site retains historic integrity embodied in its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The site’s historic character continues to be conveyed through the following landscape characteristics: spatial organization, natural systems and features, land use, buildings and structures, views and vistas, small scale features and circulation.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hoke, Amy
- Date of Issue
- 2011-04-25
- Publisher
- NPS Pacific West Regional Office
- Units
- PWR , YOSE
- Keywords
- Acting Superintendent's Headquarters, Anderson Cabin, Army Tack Room, Chinese Laundry, Chris Jorgenson Studio, Crane Flat Ranger Cabin, exhibit, Historic Designed Landscape, Hodgdon Homestead Cabin, Interpretation, Jail, Landscape architecture, Mission 66, Morgue, Museum, Pioneer Era, Powder House, Recreation, Sierra Club, Social History, Tourism, Wagon Shelter, Washburn Barn, Wawona Basin Historic District, Wawona Covered Bridge, Wawona Stables, Wells Fargo Utility Building, Yosemite Village
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 975546: Pioneer Yosemite History Center