National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT CAMP CURRY HISTORIC DISTRICT CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT CAMP CURRY HISTORIC DISTRICT National Park Service Yosemite National Park 2010 The authors would like to thank all of those who contributed to the development and completion of this report, including: Project Team: Daniel Schaible, Project Lead (Yosemite) Patrick Chapin, Historian (Yosemite) Brian Chilcott, Historical Landscape Architect (Yosemite) NPS Contributors Sueann Brown, Historical Architect (Yosemite) Linda Eade, Librarian (Yosemite) David Humphrey, Branch Chief, History, Architecture & Landscapes (Yosemite) George Jaramillo, Historical Architect (Yosemite) Kevin McCardle, Historical Landscape Architect (Yosemite) Niki Stephanie Nicholas, PhD., Chief, Resources Management and Science (Yosemite) Paul Rogers, Archivist (Yosemite) NPS Reviewers Lisa Acree, Botonist (Yosemite) Cathy Gilbert, Historical Landscape Architect (Pacific West Region) Randy Fong, Project Management (Yosemite) Vida Germano. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Coordinator (Pacific West Region) Laura Kirn, Archeologist (Yosemite) Kimball Koch, Cultural Landscape Program Coordinator (Pacific West Region) Jeannette Simons, Park Historic Preservation Officer (Yosemite) Greg Stock, Geologist (Yosemite) Jim Vandenberg, Project Management (Yosemite) Delaware North Companies (DNC) Don Evans, Project Manager Other Consultants, Reviewers and Advisors Leroy Radanovich, Photographer/Historian CONTENTS PART I Management Summary 11 Introduction 11 Historical Overview 13 Scope of Work and Methodology 16 Description of Study Boundaries 18 Summary of Findings 19 Geographic Information and Site Plans 23 Location Map 23 Inventory Unit Boundary Justification 23 Inventory Unit Boundary Description 24 Boundary Map 24 Boundary UTMs 25 Site Plans 27 Statement of Significance 31 Site History 37 Foundations- Pre-History to 1899 37 The David Curry Years, 1899-1918 44 Growth and Discord: Foster Curry and the Roaring Twenties, 1917-1929 53 Retrenchment and Maintenance: The Depression, Wartime and Postwar Years, 1930-1955 61 Mission 66: Early Experiments in Planning for Development, 1956-1970 71 Disaster Management, 1970-2005 75 Analysis and Evaluation of Integrity 87 Summary 87 Natural Systems and Features 91 Spatial Organization 97 Land Use 101 Vegetation 103 Views and Vistas 105 Buildings and Structures 108 Circulation 135 Archeological Sites 141 PART 2 Treatment 143 Introduction 143 History of Landscape Treatment Approaches 143 Treatment Alternatives and Implications 144 Preferred Treatment Alternative - Rehabilitation 146 Site Standards for Landscape Treatment 146 Treatment Guidelines and Recommendations 147 Recommendations for Future Work and Research 170 Bibliography 171 Appendices 175 Appendix A: Chronology 175 Appendix B: Camp Curry Historic District National Register Nomination 221 Appendix C: Talus Slope Hazard Zone Closure Correspondence 233 Appendix D: Camp Curry Decision Documentation Following SHPO Visit 235 to Yosemite on 09/17/2004 Appendix E: List of Acronyms 237 Appendix F: 11x17 Maps 238 List of Tables Table 1: Historic District UTM Coordinates 25 Table 2: List of Buildings and Structures 133 Table 3: List of Circulation Features 139 List of Figures Figure 1: Location and Context Map 23 Figure 2: Proposed Historic District Boundary Map 24 Figure 3: Site Plan of the Camp Curry Historic Lodging Area 27 Figure 4: Site Plan of the Huff Area and the Bungalows 28 Figure 5: Site Plan of the Orchard parking Area and Boys Town 29 Figure 6: The Stoneman House 41 Figure 7: Camp Curry during its inaugural year 44 Figure 8: LeConte Memorial Lodge 46 Figure 9: Yosemite Firefall 47 Figure 10: Swimming Tank and Bath House 49 Figure 11: Mother Curry Bungalow 51 Figure 12: Camp Curry Sawmill 52 Figure 13: Bungalows 53 Figure 14: Bowling Alley 54 Figure 15: Camp Curry Garage 55 Figure 16: Men’s Dormitory 55 Figure 17: 1925 Map of Camp Curry 57 Figure 18: Toboggan 60 Figure 19: Ice Skating Rink 61 Figure 20: Amphitheater 70 Figure 21: Visitor Services Building 77 Figure 22: Nob Hill Shower House buried following a rock slide 80 Figure 23: Bear Interpretive Sign 92 Figure 24: Staircase Creek Drainage Channel 94 Figure 25: Bungalows built around existing vegetation 96 Figure 26: Tent Cabin streetscape 98 Figure 27: Bungalow streetscape 99 Figure 28: Panorama view of Yosemite Falls, North Dome, Royal Arches and Washington Column 107 Figure 29: View towards Glacier Point 107 Figure 30: View through the Camp Curry Entrance Sign 108 Figure 31: Main Office 110 Figure 32: Historic Post Office 111 Figure 33: Pavilion 111 Figure 34: Camp Curry Entrance Sign 112 Figure 35: Foster Curry Bungalow 113 Figure 36: Mother Curry Bungalow 114 Figure 37: Men’s Lounge 115 Figure 38: Bungalows 116 Figure 39: Fourplex Cabins 117 Figure 40: Camp Curry Substation 118 Figure 41: Original Bungalettes 119 Figure 42: Bungalow #90 120 Figure 43: Women’s Club 120 Figure 44: Comfort Station at the Base of the Terrace 121 Figure 45: Executive Guest Comfort Station 121 Figure 46: Cabin 101 122 Figure 47: Tall Linen Hut 122 Figure 48: Tent Cabins 123 Figure 49: Bungalettes 125 Figure 50: Comfort Station at the Bungalettes 126 Figure 51: 500’s Comfort Station 126 Figure 52: 600’s Comfort Station 127 Figure 53: Amphitheater 128 Figure 54: Transit Shelter 129 Figure 55: Visitor Services Building 130 Figure 56: Nob Hill Shower House 132 Figure 57: Happy Isles Road 135 Figure 58: Packed Earth Paths between Tent Cabins 136 Figure 59: Trail to Happy Isles 137 Figure 60: Orchard Parking Area 137 Figure 61: Camp Curry Circulation Map 140 Figure 62: Original site of the LeConte Memorial Lodge 141 Figure 63: Rock fall damage at Camp Curry 149 Figure 64: Typical interpretive sign 152 Figure 65: Poor drainage at Camp Curry 153 Figure 66: Orchard Parking Area 155 Figure 67: Visual comparison of the central gathering area at Camp Curry 158 Figure 68: Obstructed view from the Main Office 159 Figure 69: Obstructed view through the Camp Curry Entrance Sign 160 Figure 70: Treatment Plan 170 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY MANAGEMENT SUMMARY INTRODUCTION This Cultural Landscape Report provides historical background and treatment recommendations for the Camp Curry Historic District; a concessioner operated commercial camping facility within Yosemite National Park. This 55-acre district is perhaps the longest continuously operating facility of its kind in the National Park System. For 110 years, it has provided visitors with food, lodging, and entertainment. Camp Curry, once very briefly known as Camp Sequoia and currently known as Curry Village, is a vast complex of guest and employee accommodations, residences, service structures, and landscape features situated in a narrow Yosemite Valley alcove at the base of the Glacier Point cliffs. During more than a century of continuous business operation, the camp has faced numerous challenges including managerial conflicts, challenging competition, uniquely complicated ownership issues, a shifting client base, and distant supply resources. But the most difficult and unpredictable constraint has always been the very thing that has made Camp Curry profitable: its physical location. The camp was established in 1899 among the talus boulders at the foot of the soaring Glacier Point rim to the south. The camp was bounded on the north side by the picturesque, half-mile wide Stoneman Meadow, itself encircled by the Merced River. Thus, from the very beginning, the operation has been literally bounded by two natural features and their associated disturbance regimes. River floods and rock falls have constantly threatened sections of Camp Curry from every side. The camp’s historical status and the narrow confines of its situation between the cliffs, meadow, and river have complicated efforts to formulate a comprehensive plan for relocating threatened or potentially threatened facilities. The complexity of resolving this quandary is evident in the long series of Curry Village management plans proposed by both the National Park Service and the concessioner dating back to 1960. Essentially no significant new facilities expansion has taken place within Curry Village since 1936. Several plans have attempted to address the rock fall hazard and ongoing challenges with congestion, particularly vehicle circulation, guest tents, and employee housing. Outside of the unplanned reduction of facilities after the rock fall of October 2008, perhaps the most significant achievement for relieving Curry Village congestion in the last forty years was the elimination CAMP CURRY, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 11 PART I of the Firefall in 1968. 1980 Yosemite General Management Plan (GMP) The GMP called for a substantial reduction of residential and service facility footprints in Valley areas north of Curry Road while also eliminating tents and structures in the active rock fall zone on the south side of Curry Village.1 Thirty years later little progress has been made in achieving these two objectives. In fact, after 1980 a significant new service building (the main bathhouse) was constructed within the rock fall zone and numerous “temporary” buildings have been added north of Curry Road. The GMP also recommended that the camp’s guest tent density be somehow reduced while still retaining 335 tents in a greatly diminished available area.2 Although the GMP specified that “facilities and services [should be] consistent with the historical setting of Curry Village,” it also approved demolition of the Foster Bungalow