Yosemite Resource Management Records

Title: Yosemite Resource Management Records

Dates: 1917-2008

Collection Number: YCN: 1002 (YOSE 229554)

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 389 LF

Repository: Yosemite National Park Archives

Abstract: The Yosemite National Park Resource Management Records consist of the documents created, received, and managed by the National Park Service as the park “central files” from the mid-1950s to 2008. These documents are fundamental program records that contain critical information regarding the administration and management of the park over time, The Resource Management Records are organized in functional record groups, reflecting fundamental park operations including Administration, Concessions, Development and Maintenance, Fiscal, History and Archaeology, Interpretation and Information, Lands, Natural and Social Science, Personnel, Supplies and Procurement, Law and Legal, and Fire Management. These records contain correspondence, reports, agreements, contracts, forms, SOPs, notes, photographs (prints, negatives, and slides), blueprints, diazotypes, maps, plans, drawings, and newspaper clippings.

Language of Material: English

Some folders have sensitive information which requires a park permit to access.

Materials are in public domain and available to researchers.

Yosemite Resource Management Records. Yosemite National Park Archives

These records were created and received by park staff as part of normal operations.

The Yosemite National Park Resource Management Records consist of the documents created, received, and managed by the National Park Service as the park “central files” from the mid-1950s to 2008. These documents are fundamental program records that contain critical information regarding the administration and management of the park over time, including the establishment of park policies and planning efforts. The Resource Management Records are organized in functional record series, reflecting fundamental park operations including Administration, Concessions, Development and Maintenance, Fiscal, History and Archaeology, Interpretation and Information, Lands, Natural and Social Science, Personnel, Supplies and Procurement, Laws and Legal Matters, and Fire Management. Beginning in the 1950s, the NPS changed the agency’s central file record keeping system from a numerical file coding system, as found in the Old Central Files Collection (YOSE 107896), to an alphanumeric record keeping system outlined in the NPS Records Dispositions Schedule (Director’s Order 19). The agency instituted slight modifications to the schema over the years, but the core structure has remained unchanged. When the new filing system was implemented, official park correspondence was done in triplicate, and the park secretary would keep the park's copy in a central location. Other copies were often sent to the Pacific West Regional Office (PWRO) and the Washington Support Office (WASO). Yosemite records sent to WASO have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at College Park, Maryland, and likely contain documentation that is not located on site at Yosemite. The centralized concept began to disappear in the 1980s as offices within the park stopped using the triplicate forms and began keeping copies of records within division or program offices. This change also coincided with park management reducing the number of file clerks and park secretaries so that no single person remains responsible for coding and/or filing records, thus the quantity of records from the more recent past is much smaller than in prior years. The Yosemite National Park Archives has primarily received these records in two ways; through return of materials stored at the Federal Records Center (FRC) at San Bruno, CA, and through direct transfer of inactive records from staff managing the central files at the park. The bulk of the records were returned to the park from the FRC between 1975 and 2005, but park Museum and Archives staff also completed accessions directly from the park Mail & Files Clerk between from 2003 to 2008. The majority of these records were kept in the Yosemite Museum Building until they were transferred to the new archives facility at the El Portal Administrative Site in the early 2000s. The Yosemite Resource Management Records not only contain important documentation regarding the continuing administration of Yosemite, but also reflect important trends and changes in the management of the NPS as an agency over time. The documentation provides insight into some of the developments that have shaped Yosemite, and the national park system, over the last sixty years, including the evolution of park law enforcement, development of a new natural and cultural resource management ethics, administration of park concessions operations, park wilderness designation and management, infrastructure and facilities development and maintenance, changing approaches to interpretation and education, and major park planning efforts and initiatives in the eras before and after passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Records are generally arranged by alphanumeric file code, and then chronologically within each file code; some sub-series in Series 7 are arranged alphabetically and then chronologically. The collection is organized into 12 series, one Series for each of the 12 alpha codes. The files are mostly arranged alphanumerically, and then by date, from earliest to latest, within each specific alphanumeric code. Folder numbers start over within each series and box numbers are consecutive throughout all 12 series. The alpha codes are A, C, D, F, H, K, L, N, P, S, W, and Y, and more specific subcodes are under each main code. SERIES 01: A Files - Administration SERIES 02: C Files - Concessions SERIES 03: D Files - Development and Maintenance SERIES 04: F Files - Fiscal SERIES 05: H Files - History and Archeology SERIES 06: K Files - Interpretation and Information SERIES 07: L Files - Lands and Recreation SERIES 08: N Files - Natural and Social Sciences SERIES 09: P Files - Personnel SERIES 10: S Files - Supplies, Procurement, and Property SERIES 11: W Files - Laws and Legal Matters SERIES 12: Y Files - Fire Management