This exclusive ornament celebrates Yosemite National Park and is part of our National Park Heritage Collection®. Manufactured to the highest standards with solid brass, this will be a cherished collectible in the years to come!
Details
- Designed by and exclusive to: White House Holidays
- Material: Solid brass
- Origin: Made in the USA
- Can I swim in the ornament's waterfall? Only if you're Ant-Man!
What the ornament celebrates
Yosemite's journey toward protection began with the Gold Rush of the 1850s, which brought settlers, miners, and tourists, and with them, concern about the damage being done to the land. Minister Thomas Starr King and architect Frederick Law Olmsted began writing about the threat in newspapers, while photographer Carleton Watkins's early images showed the rest of the country the valley's scale and beauty. In 1864, those efforts convinced President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Yosemite Grant, ceding Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the state of California, the first time the federal government had set aside land purely to preserve its natural beauty.
That protection didn't yet cover the whole valley. Naturalist John Muir spent years studying Yosemite and campaigning for full national park status, achieving it in 1890. He kept pushing for complete protection, and after camping with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and making his case in person, Congress placed all of Yosemite under federal control in 1906.
Today Yosemite is the third-oldest national park in the country, known for El Capitan, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls, and home to black bears, bighorn sheep, peregrine falcons, and great gray owls. Three to four million visitors come each year to see the granite cliffs, waterfalls, and giant sequoias that convinced a president to protect them more than 160 years ago.