Yosemite National Park Was Established by Congress, Not a President

No U.S. president founded Yosemite National Park. It was established by an Act of Congress signed into law on October 1, 1890 (26 Stat. 650).

Presidential Roles

• Abraham Lincoln (1864): Signed the Yosemite Grant ceding Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to California as a state park—first federal land protection for public recreation.
• Benjamin Harrison (1890): Signed the national park bill passed by Congress (after lobbying by John Muir, Robert Underwood Johnson).
• Theodore Roosevelt (1903, 1906): Camped with Muir in Yosemite; later used Antiquities Act for other monuments, but Yosemite was already a national park.

Yosemite's creation was a legislative act, not an executive one. The 1890 law created Yosemite National Park (high country) and separately reaffirmed the Mariposa Grove state grant.