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Studying, sharing and learning from Yosemite’s long human history.

People have lived in and traveled through the area now known as Yosemite National Park for millennia. Human stories are woven deeply into the park’s past and present, including in knowledge and experiences passed down through generations or still waiting to be told. Your support can fund efforts to study, share, honor and learn from those cultural and historic legacies.

Current Projects

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Yosemite History Center: Inclusive Education
Create a more welcoming, inclusive experience at the Yosemite History Center through new educational panels that go beyond the center’s traditional focus on Anglo-American history.
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Buffalo Soldiers Video
Work with an intern to research and create a video featuring Shelton Johnson’s quest to uncover the Buffalo Soldier Story, highlighting “how we know what we know about history” for Virtual Learning Lab programs.
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Wahhoga: The Path Forward
Continue work to implement the Wahhoga Indian Cultural Site vision. Continue construction of the roundhouse, explore available utilities, and update site plans and signage.
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Sharing Yosemite’s Museum Collection
Create videos of park rangers telling the stories behind artifacts from the Yosemite Museum.
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Digitizing Library’s Lost Treasures
Catalog and digitize Yosemite Library's "lost treasures," including government documents dating back to the 1960s, to make them accessible to researchers within Yosemite and across the NPS community.
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Chinese Laundry Displays
Enhance the interpretive exhibits in Wawona's Chinese Laundry Building and create a video highlighting Chinese American history in the region.
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Incorporating Tribal Narratives
Create a narrative of interwoven Tribal stories from historic, contemporary, academic, and Tribal sources.
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Chinese American History in Yosemite
Fill a gap in Yosemite's cultural history and interpretive offerings by researching and documenting the contributions of Chinese-American laborers to the development of historic infrastructure and other resources in the park, including the construction of the Old Wawona Road and Great Sierra Wagon Road (modern Tioga Road).
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Preserve Rare Species in Historic Orchards
Identify, map, and select rare species of 19th and early 20th century heirloom apple trees in Yosemite’s historic orchards.
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Our cultural and historic preservation projects have helped the park digitize thousands of vintage images, host special museum exhibits, restore buildings and expand educational resources, work with traditionally affiliated tribes to build a roundhouse at the Wahhoga Village site, and much more.

Want to know more? Take a quick journey back in time to see our past projects!

Areas of Focus

Thanks to supporters, we’ve provided over $140 million to Yosemite for more than 700 completed projects. Donor gifts help improve trails, restore habitat, protect wildlife, inspire the next generation of nature-lovers and more. Explore our funding areas to see current and past projects.