Wawona is rich in history and memory. Some of our homeowners have stories going back over 100 years to when the army camped each year in Camp A.E. Wood, the present location of the Wawona Campground.

We have created a small booklet and a series of blog posts for those who want to immerse themselves in the personal stories and memories of Yosemite lovers who have chosen to be part of the Redwoods family. If YOU have memories you would like to share, please drop us an email.

As Jon Finney puts it in his thoughtful foreword, “It’s not difficult, you just have to ask yourself, what does the Redwoods mean to you?”

Now, prepare to immerse yourself in Wawona of days gone by through these wonderful recollections.

• Cabin 24 (Anthony Cooley). Read how a young army officer fell in love with Wawona on his first visit in 1954 and on the spur of the moment decided to build a cabin, only to see it destroyed in a major storm in 1996. Now rebuilt, Cabin 24 continues to welcome Wawona lovers.
• Memories from “back then” (Maureen Donahue). How a search for a baby-friendly place to spend the night with young Maureen led her parents to buy a cabin in Wawona.
• The Moores, Redwoods de Cuisine, and Garbage Trucks (Kathie Dunn). Where can you still see the remnants of the log flume used to float the logs that built the Wawona Hotel and which locally famous restauranteur once ran the strangely-named Redwoods de Cuisine?
• Bad Ass Flats, The Moores, and the Wawona Hotel (Kathie Dunn). Memories of the horses, the meadows, and teaching skiing at “Bad Ass Flats,” a local’s name for our favorite ski area back in the day.
• Redwoods Origins (Ralph Harder). Learn about the Moores, their exit from Wawona, and how the cabin owners came together to form a sort of cooperative that is what we know today as the Redwoods in Yosemite.
• History of Cabin 18-B (Judy Hiltbrand). How a young couple wrote a “bad check” and ended up owners of Cabin 18-B.
• Recollection of Life and Events in Wawona (Norman May). Read what it was like to live in Wawona in the 1930s with no propane or electricity, epic snowstorms, cutting ice from Stella Lake for the hotel and store and more tales of bygone days.
• A Uruguayan in Wawona (Fede Peinado). A love story… of a young Uruguayan boy falling in love with Yosemite.
• Monkey Gone Wild in Wawona (Mark Reed). Have monkeys ever lived in Wawona? Well, yes, but just one… as far as we know.
• The Story of Black Oak Lodge (Mark Reed). A story of memories created and passed from generation to generation, family and strangers, “from our heart to yours.”
• Shangri la-de-da (Norm Serra). An attack of arthritis derailed their trip to Wawona in 1960, but they regrouped for the next year, and renting then owning in Wawona has been a family tradition ever since.
• Evening Bear Visits (Norm Serra). How the bears came nightly to dissect garbage cans before bear-proof storage containers were mandated to save our bears.
• The Bruces and their Wawona Sawmill (Leslie Train). A 1903 Stanford graduate comes to Wawona to teach school and marries an army surgeon stationed at Camp A.E. Wood in Wawona.
• The Bare Bear Facts (Virginia Wyatt). Stories of bears in Wawona.
• Good Old Days (Virginia Wyatt). Remembering the old restaurant and the world-class doughnuts made by the local garbage man. You can also read about Mike the doughnut maker on our blog.
• Where are you from? (Kyla King). A poem about being shaped by Yosemite.

Do you have a story to share? Please send it in to info@redwoodsinyosemite.com