Ahwahnee Hotel, other lodging at Yosemite National Park to get name changes

Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel ­— one of the country's storied lodges, in one of the great national parks — may soon be no more, at least in name. The structure, tucked into Yosemite Valley with a timbered dining room and oversized stone fireplaces, could soon be given a prosaic new moniker: the Majestic Yosemite Hotel.

The Ahwahnee got its name in the 1920s, when the National Park Service built it. It is a National Historic Landmark.

A new name is also coming to Curry Village, a tent lodging option founded in 1899 by David and Jennie Curry, schoolteachers who couldn't afford the going rate for a hotel room inside the park. It will be called Half Dome Village. Also, the historic Wawona Hotel is to become Big Trees Lodge.

This unfortunate renaming, set to take effect March 1, stems from a business squabble. In June, the Park Service awarded a 15-year contract for running the hotels and other visitor services in Yosemite to Aramark, rather than the current concessionaire, Delaware North. Delaware North filed a lawsuit, claiming it should be paid $44 million for the names and trademarked logos, which appear on mugs, T-shirts and other souvenirs. The Park Service claims the value is a mere $1.6 million. (The hotels themselves belong to the Park Service.) Pending the outcome, the Park Service changed the names — perhaps temporarily.

So, what's in a name? If you're like me, you would be miffed to drop your suitcase at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel. But then you'd head outdoors to experience Yosemite. Such spectacular natural beauty has a way of putting human foibles into context.

I'm not hiking beside Bridal Veil Falls, though, so I remain peeved. I hope that common sense and a reverence for history prevail; I'd like to return one day to the Ahwahnee.

Contact travel editor Kerri Westenberg at travel@star tribune.com; follow her on Twitter: @kerriwestenberg.