Ahwahnee

Ahwahnee is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 2,326 feet. This unincorporated community is situated between Mariposa and Oakhurst on Highway 49, the historic route of the California Gold Rush.

Ahwahnee is the anglicized form of a Southern Sierra Miwok word. The tribe who inhabited Yosemite Valley called themselves Ah-wah-nee-chee, signifying the dwellers of Awooni or Owwoni , which means “large mouth”.
The stem, Awo or Owwo means “mouth” and the suffix -ni means “large”, and refers to the appearance of the Yosemite Valley walls from the the village of Ahwahnee, which was situated at the foot of Yosemite Falls and served as the residence of Chief Ten-ai'-ya.1 In 1893, the postal authorities transferred the name to a stage station that was to become the modern community of Ahwahnee. In 1908, the Board of Geographical Names judged this attribution to be inappropriate, and recommended the stage station be renamed as Wassumma. The recommendation was ignored.

Wassuma (Wassama) is a Miwok ceremonial meeting place located near Ahwahnee. It boasts one of the few remaining native American round houses in the country.

Interior of a Miwok Roundhouse
Recital of the ancient myths in the roundhouse at night by E.W. Deming
from Dawn of the World: Myths and weird tales told by the Mewan Indians of California
collected and edited by Clinton Hart Merriam, 1910.

Wassama was also known as Poison Switch as the following excerpt shows:


Source: McLaughlin, R.P. and Bradley, Walter W.: Madera County (based on field work in July 1913 and July 1914) Report XIV of the State Mineralogist 1913-1914, 1916: 532.

Poison Switch is described as a crossroads just outside Gertrude, where teamsters would switch off to a saloon after unloading their cargo of lumber at the head of the flume to Madera.2

In 1893, the year Madera County was established, a post office was opened at Ahwahnee. It closed in 1896, but was re-established in 1900, when the postal service moved Gertude post office two miles north and renamed it Ahwahnee post office. This was discontinued in 1907 and re-established in 1917.3

Perhaps the most notable resident of the Ahwahnee area was Frank Femmons, a world-famous horticulturalist.

In 1919, work began on the Ahwahnee Sanatorium, a hospital and school facility built for the treatment of tuberculosis.

1Browning, Peter. Yosemite Place Names, 1988.
2Clough, Charles W. Madera : the rich, colorful, and exciting historical heritage of that area now known as Madera County, California, 1968.
3 Durham, David L. California's Geographic Names, 1998.