Description
The Facilities Management Records represent construction and maintenance activities in Yosemite National Park from 1914 to
present, providing essential insight into activities and operations of the park in the 20th century. The collection is comprised
of 17 accessions that were deposited between 1991 and 2012 from various branches within the division, while other accessions
were transferred from the Denver Service Center and the Western Regional Office. The collection contains correspondence, memoranda,
reports, notes, blue prints, Diazo prints, construction and design sketches, black and white photographs and negatives, color
photographs and negatives, slides, Polaroid photographs, and media (VHS tapes, floppy disks, and optical media).
Background
Yosemite's Division of Facilities Management is responsible for the operation and maintenance of roads, trails, bridges, historic
structures, housing units, and utility systems. Since its inception in 1916 the National Park Service has been entrusted with
the care of facilities at Yosemite, and the Facilities Management Division, under various names over the years, has been instrumental
in that care. Originally organized by labor divisions in the early 20th Century: plumbing, carpentry, black smiths, and power
plant operations, the division came to be known as Facilities Management in 2000. Reflected in the collection are many of
the major events and change points that the division has adapted to and/or helped implement: increased visitation (from 69,906
in 1920 to more than four million currently); the National Environmental Policy Act (1970); Mission 66; the General Master
Plan (1974); the Architectural Barriers Act (1968); the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990); the Yosemite Valley Plan;
the 1997 Merced River flood; and the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic River Plan (1990), among many others. Comprised of four Branches:
Design and Engineering, Buildings and Grounds, Roads and Trails, and Utilities, the largest division in the park provides
engineering support, operation and maintenance functions, energy use monitoring, surveying, mapping, historic preservation,
and facilities inventories.
The Facilities Management Records reflect the scale and challenges involved in maintaining a national park the size of Yosemite.
As of 2013, the four branches of the division were responsible for 214 miles of paved roads, 68 miles of graded roads, 20
miles of paved walkways and bike paths, 800 miles of trails, 1504 campsites, 1133 structures, more than 120 pedestrian and
vehicle bridges, and four tunnels, as well as all of the utilities necessary to support more than four million visitors each
year.