During the Second World War, units from the California National Guard were stationed in Yosemite National Park to protect the regions supply of water at Hetch Hetchy and Lake Eleanor. The U.S. Army Signal Corps opened training facilities at Wawona and Badger Pass in 1942. Military units also came to the park for recreational purposes. The U.S. Navy steered a different course, establishing a convalescent hospital in the historic Ahwhanee Hotel in 1943. But the valley’s isolation and towering walls induced claustrophobia rather than calm and the hospital was redesigned to include recreational facilities and even an authorized beer pub. When it was decommissioned in December 1945, it had housed, served, and healed 6,752 patients. Images courtesy the National Park Service. For more information and view the complete set, visit our current exhibition Yosemite: A Storied Landscape (on view through January 25).
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:00:01 +0000
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