Yosemite Reclaims its Names - Wandering But Not Lost

The battle has ended and Yosemite National Park reclaims its names. Let’s take a quick look back at the journey over the past 3+ years…

Back on March 1st, 2016, Aramark became Yosemite’s new concessionaire and they took the reigns over the operations of the beloved and historic park lodging, dining, and shopping destinations. They also inherited a lawsuit which was filed by the exiting concessionaire, Deleware North Company. Seems as though that the DNC was respsonsible for trademarking many of the park’s iconic names and on March 1st utilizing these names would have been in breach. Because this case was actually filed in 2015 they knew they were up against the wall. Swiftly, almost stleathly, the directional signs around the valley, the guide maps and brochures, and the building signage all converted to a new set of names that not only did not pay homage to the originals but felt like, well, they didn’t even try!

The Ahwahnee Hotel became The Majestic Yosemite Hotel
The Yosemite Lodge at the Falls converted to Yosemite Valley Lodge
Curry Village morphed into Half Dome Village
The Wawona Hotel was renamed the Big Trees Lodge

I believed at the time they didn’t put much thought into it because they always felt that the names would be returned. It took another 3+ years and 12 million dollars for it to happen, but on July 15th the lawsuit was settled and almost immediately the unmasking of the old names began. Social media went alive with shots around the park…

The 12 million dollar settlement was broken into the U.S. government paying $3.84 million and Aramark paying $8.16 million. This was a long cry from the orginal demand of $50 million, but just a tad more than the $3 million that the NPS claimed the trademarks to be worth.

Settlement aside, this travologist was thrilled to see it all unfold that morning and I can’t wait until our next trip to Yosemite to see things back to normal. I wrote a blog post that morning back in March 2016 and I haven’t gone back to check in on that since. After rereading it just now, I had to applaud the 3 year younger me (HA). I was pretty positive about the whole thing. You can check it out if you’d like HERE.

Truth be told, during our next visit after the name change, I have to admit that it truly didn’t feel the same and I wasn’t nearly as positive about what had happened. I did, however, believe that someday all would be right with the world once again -at least at Yosemite National Park. Here’s to all the believers out there!