Yosemite Begins Demolition of Service Buildings

The noise of large equipment smashing buildings in the Yosemite Valley signaled a small step toward returning the area to nature.

“It’s basically a symbolic exhibition,” maintenance chief Kevin Cann said as a Caterpillar with huge jaws ripped off the roof of a building that had served the Park Service for 75 years, first as a mess hall and later as a storage building.

Cann said the buildings that were torn down in the valley last week show a commitment to a major feature of Yosemite’s master plan adopted in 1980. It calls for removing most park support facilities from the Yosemite Valley.

“It’s all going to El Portal,” a town just outside the park’s western border, Cann said. “What you’re looking at here is going to be an oak woodland.”

A new warehouse maintenance complex of nearly 100,000 square feet for about 300 of the Park Service’s more than 800 employees is under construction at El Portal.

F & H Construction of Stockton tore the old mess hall down Wednesday, leaving rubble to be taken to Mariposa County’s landfill.

“A couple days ago the place was full of equipment,” said Steve Druger, Park Service project supervisor. “They got it all out, and they got doors out, fixtures, even some shelving. I was amazed.”

Meanwhile, a crew from C.M. Shaw Construction of Fresno knocked down a former service station near Yosemite Village Store. The old gas station had been used as Yosemite Photo Center in recent years, offering one-hour processing.

The third structure to be demolished in the current project was a jail built in 1927. Over the years, it also served as a morgue and, more recently, as a storage building for the search and rescue team.

Other buildings located behind the visitor center will be demolished later and the land they occupy returned to nature.