Yosemite National Park was established in 1890.
Congress created Yosemite National Park on October 1, 1890, protecting the spectacular mountain landscapes surrounding Yosemite Valley. The park’s establishment followed a major conservation campaign led by naturalist John Muir and Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson, who argued that federal protection was needed to prevent damaging development and overgrazing.
The year 1890 is sometimes confused with 1864. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, transferring Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to California for preservation as a public trust. That was an important early conservation milestone, but it did not create the national park itself. California later returned control of the valley and grove to the federal government in 1906.
Yosemite became an influential model for the modern national park idea. The National Park Service, created in 1916, now manages the park, which is renowned for granite cliffs, waterfalls, giant sequoias and high-country wilderness.