The Earth Story

Update on a story we covered previously...

Renaming Yosemite

This panorama was taken behind the 88 year old Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite National Park. Although I’m not sure I can call it that any more.

The term “Ahwahnee” is an original term used to describe what we today know as Yosemite Valley by some of the Native American Miwok population that inhabited the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The exact meaning of the word is apparently still a matter of debate as much of the memory of that language has been lost.

The hotel was constructed in the 1920s during an expansion of the camping and hotel facilities in the park. Several of the interior rooms were used as templates for the rooms built for the fictional “Overlook Hotel” in the movie “The Shining” and the list of famous guests who have stayed there would overwhelm this post.

In 1993, the US National Park Service contracted with a hospitality company known as DNC, a part of the large services company Delaware North, to run the hotel and concession facilities in the park. In 2014, the Park Service put that contract up for bids and DNC was outbid by another company, Aramark, and thus DNC lost that contract.

Last year, the Park Service learned that while DNC had their contract, they began filing trademark statuses for many of the names in the park, including the Ahwahnee hotel and even the name Yosemite National Park. Having these trademarks protected their ability to sell park branded merchandise, but it also created value for the company by trademarking names of public facilities.

In 2015, after they lost the contract, DNC filed a lawsuit against the US Government demanding value in return for sending their trademarked names over to the next company. While it is fighting this lawsuit, the Park Service declared that it is going to change the names of many of the buildings DNC has trademarked, including renaming the Ahwahnee as the Majestic Yosemite Hotel.

As of now, the Park Service states they don’t intend to rename the entire park, so it’s uncertain how that trademark will work. The lawsuit filed by DNC estimates the value of the trademarks they hold at $51 million.

By March 1, when the Park opens for business, signs throughout Yosemite will need to be changed to reflect the new names. A spokesperson for the Park stated that they were unaware that the company was filing these trademarks or that they had been granted; instead they believed that the names were associated with the buildings in the park and that therefore the trademarks belong to the American People.

-JBB

Image credit: derlandsknecht https://flic.kr/p/7HQZZB

References: http://bit.ly/1UXG5fE http://bit.ly/1Py2Hzx