Ahwahnee Hotel

The Ahwahnee is a grand hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley. It was built by the Yosemite Park and Curry Company and opened for business in 1927. The hotel is constructed of steel, stone, concrete, wood, and glass, and is a premier example of National Park Service rustic architecture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The Ahwahnee was temporarily renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel in 2016 due to a legal dispute between the U.S. government, which owns the property, and the outgoing concessionaire, Delaware North, which claimed rights to the trademarked name. The name was restored in 2019 upon settlement of the dispute.





== History ==





=== The Currys ===



David and Jennie Curry were schoolteachers who arrived in Yosemite Valley in 1899. The couple ran a tent camp in the valley and, despite the two-week round-trip journey via horse and wagon from Merced, California, the camp registered 292 guests in its first year. The Curry Company went on to dominate the politics of the park for decades, and David wrote the Secretary of the Interior, Franklin Lane, in an effort to extend the park's tourist season so as to expand his business. In the Currys' opinion, national parks were for recreational use, and the couple marketed the park with attractions like the Firefall.