

Does Delaware North Co. own the name to the Wawona Hotel? A prominent historian doesn't think so/David and Kay Scott Does Delaware North Co. own the name to the Wawona Hotel? A prominent historian doesn't think so/David and Kay Scott

While the Delaware North Company maintains that it can claim place names in Yosemite National Park as part of its intellectual property with a $51 million value, a prominent historian of the national parks disagrees and hopes the National Park Service will challenge the company's belief.

The issue arose earlier this year when the National Park Service prepared a prospectus for companies interested in running concessions in Yosemite. During the process of putting the prospectus together, Delaware North notified the Park Service that it held ownership to such names as The Ahwahnee Hotel, the Wawona Hotel, Curry Village, Badger Pass, and other places in the park. Furthermore, the company said that if it lost the bidding for the 15-year contract that begins in 2016, the winning bidder would have to pay it $51 million for the right to those names.

While the Park Service has not officially recognized Delaware North's claim, it has in the prospectus left open the door for a renaming of all the places to which the claim extends if another company wins the contract.

In claiming the place names as their own, Delaware North officials point out that when they won the concessions business at Yosemite in 1993, the Park Service required the company "to buy the stock of the previous concessioner, Yosemite Park & Curry Co. (the Curry Company) at a price that was established in advance by the NPS," DNC's Yosemite spokeswoman, Lisa Cesaro, said in an email to the Traveler. "With this stock purchase, because DNC Yosemite then owned the entirety of the Curry Company, it also became the owner of all the assets of the Curry Company, both tangible and intangible, and responsible for all of the liabilities of the Curry Company, which the Curry Company had accumulated since its inception in 1899.

"The assets purchased included many significant structures, such as The Ahwahnee hotel, Yosemite Lodge and Curry Village, all of which had been built by the Curry Company with its own capital; operating assets such as the furniture, fixtures, buses, business systems and other equipment used in the concession operation, all of which were purchased by the Curry Company with its own capital; and intangible assets such as the various registered place names operated under the concession contract, mailing lists, employee data and policies and procedures, which were also accumulated over the years by the Curry Company," she wrote.

While Delaware North was required under terms of that 1993 contract to give up its interest in the physical facilities, such as The Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village, noted Ms. Cesaro, it retained the intellectual property rights to place and facilities in Yosemite.

But Dr. Alfred Runte, author of National Parks, The American Experience (now in a 4th edition), and Yosemite, The Embattled WIlderness, which examined the attempt to balance environmental preservation and human recreation and enjoyment in the park, disagrees with Delaware North's position.

'DNC's insistence that it owns intellectual property rights to the place names of Yosemite is ludicrous. This is nothing more than a 'poison pill' meant to discourage other bidders," said Dr. Runte, who is a contributing writer to the Traveler. "I cannot imagine why the National Park Service is playing along, but then, most in the Park Service don't know the history, either. It's in my Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness, if they would care to read it. Even then, they should not have to read it here.

"The rights of concessionaires do not extend to the place names of our national parks. If the Park Service is allowing that suddenly these place names are private property, the managers responsible should resign. Nor should Delaware North ever be allowed to bid on a park contract again," said the historian.

Park officials have not indicated whether they will challenge DNC's claim beyond giving other companies the option to rename buildings and places in Yosemite if they were to win the next concessions contract, rather than paying DNC $51 million.

However, in a possibly related move, the Park Service at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, where a new concessions contract is up for bid, is allowing the next concessionaire to "develop a cohesive, marketable brand" for the concessions operation, but specifically states that "(T)he Service will not consider any name changes as intellectual property of the Concessioner."