Washburn posted a reward, but the perpetrators were never caught. For the next 37 years, holdups were periodic inconveniences on the route.45
By 1888, interests in Mariposa County were angry at the monopoly on transportation to the Valley created by the group's control of the toll road. A special election was held, and the county voters passed a bond resolution for $75,000 to build a new road from Mariposa to Yosemite Valley, and a route to Coulterville, which was already connected to the Valley. The Washburn cartel, which stood to lose much profitable business, challenged the holding of the special election and gained an injunction from the state supreme court. The court later upheld the Washburn group, and the new Mariposa road was forestalled and never built.46 However, that year the Washburns conveyed to the government the 7 miles of the road north of Fort Monroe for $8,000.
For years, Wawona was not included in the National Park, but served as a stopping point for travelers bound for the valley. Galen Clark's rustic stand was the first facility here, but his successors, the Washburn group, developed a fashionable resort, replete with the grand Wawona Hotel, Hill's Photographic Studio, and other attractions. The Wawona area was brought into the park in 1932. The Washburns sold their holdings to the National Park Service, which in turn leased the hotel and other concessions to the Yosemite Park & Curry Company for operation.
By 1900, the Federal government was studying a takeover of the remainder of the Wawona Road within the park and its conversion to a free road. Henry Washburn made a strong argument for the road's importance in testimony presented to the Senate-authorized Commission on Roads in Yosemite National Park:
- Since the construction of this road, a large majority of the tourists visiting the Yosemite Valley have selected it as their route of travel, induced to do so by the location of this road into the Mariposa Big Tree Grove and the points of interest on this road, including Inspiration Point and Glacier Point; also because this road traverses the National Park and enters the valley on the south side thereof, where the most comprehensive views of the wonder of the valley are maintained, and the most beautiful paintings and photographs of Yosemite views are taken from the south side. I also take into consideration the fact that the making of this road a free public highway will remove from the owners the protection now afforded by the tolls fixed by the said [Mariposa county] board of supervisors.47
He stated that the road was open from April through December; maintenance costs ran $2,640 annually.48 Washburn was not opposed to selling the road to the government, provided he got a suitable price. However, even though the Commission on Roads recommended immediate purchase of the toll roads, the government did not take control for another 17 years.
On 22 June 1900, the first automobile to enter Yosemite came in on the Wawona Road. The steam-powered Locomobile was driven down the road from Wawona by Oliver Lippincott, a Los Angeles photographer and advertising man. People were amazed that the machine had reached the area, and Lippincott took a number of the Wawona Hotel guests for a ride on the hotel drive. The next day, Lippincott drove to the Valley, covering the 30 miles in three hours flat. Just over a month later, Frank H. and Arthur E. Holmes brought in the second car over the road, a Stanley Steamer.49
