Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. I went on a trip
Speaker 1: to Asheville, North Carolina, a couple of weeks ago. That's
Speaker 1: always been one of my favorite places, but I don't
Speaker 1: think I had been back there since moving to Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Parts of that whole region have only barely started to
Speaker 1: recover from Hurricane Helene, which weakened to a tropical storm
Speaker 1: as it moved over Georgia, but it still produced truly
Speaker 1: devastating destruction in the southern Appalachian Mountains. But while I
Speaker 1: was there, I talked to a lot of people who
Speaker 1: worked in hotels and restaurants and shops and galleries around Asheville,
Speaker 1: and they were all very anxious for tourism to get
Speaker 1: back toward its normal levels there. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I did on this trip was I drove the
Speaker 1: small stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway that is open
Speaker 1: near Asheville. At this point, I stopped at the Folk
Speaker 1: Arts Center, which is at one end of that open section,
Speaker 1: and there was a historical display outside about construction of
Speaker 1: the Blue Ridge Parkway that made me think, you know,
Speaker 1: that might be a really good episode. The Blue Ridge
Speaker 1: Parkway was inspired by another kind of similar scenic drive,
Speaker 1: which is Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, which the
Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Parkway also connects to. So my plan was
Speaker 1: to have an episode where we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about Skyline Drive and then focused the rest of the
Speaker 1: time on the Blue Ridge Parkway. But during my whole
Speaker 1: note taking process, Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park evolved
Speaker 1: into their own entire episode. So that's today's episode. If
Speaker 1: you've been like Tracy, why are you talking about the
Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Parkway, that one's actually gonna be on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: This isn't really a two parter. It's more like two
Speaker 1: episodes that have some interconnectedness. So if you're one of
Speaker 1: the folks who likes to listen to the two parters together,
Speaker 1: I think in this case you don't really need to wait.
Speaker 1: Like there are some points where these two stories touch
Speaker 1: each other. But this isn't exactly a two part episode.
Speaker 1: So we'll start with a little background on the national parks.
Speaker 1: The first national park in the United States was created
Speaker 1: under the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, which President Ulysses S.
Speaker 1: Grant signed into law in eighteen seventy two. This Act
Speaker 1: quote set apart a certain tract of land lying near
Speaker 1: the headwaters of the Yellowstone River as a public park.
Speaker 1: Under this law, this tract of land was quote hereby
Speaker 1: reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the
Speaker 1: Laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart
Speaker 1: as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit
Speaker 1: and enjoyment of the people, and all persons who shall
Speaker 1: locate or settle upon, or occupy the same or any
Speaker 1: part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers
Speaker 1: and removed therefrom This law placed Yellowstone under the control
Speaker 1: of the Secretary of the Interior, who was directed to
Speaker 1: create rules and regulations to quote provide for the preservation
Speaker 1: from injury or spoliation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities,
Speaker 1: or wonders within said park, and their retention in their
Speaker 1: natural condition. Any structures built on the designated land were
Speaker 1: to be for the accommodation of visitors. Fish and game
Speaker 1: were to be protected from quote wanton destruction and from
Speaker 1: their capture or destruction. For the purposes of profit. Under
Speaker 1: this law, anyone settling on or occupying land in Yellowstone
Speaker 1: would be considered a trespasser and removed. This Act was
Speaker 1: ostensibly about conserving and preserving Yellowstone and its natural wonders,
Speaker 1: but it really didn't make any provisions or exceptions for
Speaker 1: the Indigenous peoples who had been living on, using, and
Speaker 1: acting as stewards of this land since time immemorial. While
Speaker 1: some tribes and nations were still supposed to have fishing
Speaker 1: or hunting rights by treaty, later legislation made that explicitly illegal.
Speaker 1: In other words, federal policy and the whole mindset around
Speaker 1: the National Parks framed Yellowstone as an untouched wilderness rather
Speaker 1: than as a place where people had been living, hunting, gathering,
Speaker 1: and harvesting for thousands of years. The fish, game and
Speaker 1: plants in the park had been a vital source of
Speaker 1: food for indigenous peoples, and those protected mineral deposits included
Speaker 1: sources of obsidian that Indigenous people had been using to
Speaker 1: make tools and projectile points. Yellowstone also holds a deep
Speaker 1: spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous nations, and it's
Speaker 1: considered sacred. The federal government forcibly removed Indigenous peoples who
Speaker 1: had been living on or using the land in Yellowstone,
Speaker 1: including the Tukadika, to reservations outside the bounds of the park,
Speaker 1: and publicly presented a fiction that Yellowstone had always been
Speaker 1: uninhabited and unused. This included a pretty insulting, made up
Speaker 1: story about how Indigenous people didn't come to Yellowstone because
Speaker 1: they were afraid of the geysers. I do want to
Speaker 1: say I love the national parks. I'm glad that we
Speaker 1: have them. There are complicated things that I do not
Speaker 1: like about their history. We'll talk about that a bit
Speaker 1: more in a second. After the creation of Yellowstone, other
Speaker 1: national parks followed that included Yosemite National Park in eighteen ninety.
Speaker 1: We talked about Yosemite in a two parter that ran
Speaker 1: on August eighth and ten tenth of twenty sixteen. And
Speaker 1: through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the creation of
Speaker 1: these parks generally followed a really similar pattern. They were
Speaker 1: formed from federal land under legislation that framed it as
Speaker 1: being conserved and protected for the people, but the United
Speaker 1: States had obtained this land through warfare, genocide, and exploitive
Speaker 1: treaties with the indigenous peoples, and then the government forcibly
Speaker 1: removed those people from the land while maintaining this fiction
Speaker 1: that the park was protecting something that was pristine and
Speaker 1: untouched by humanity. So we can't really cover the entire
Speaker 1: history of indigenous people's relationships to these parks in one episode,
Speaker 1: but more than a century would pass before the federal
Speaker 1: government started to take an approach that was more cooperative
Speaker 1: and collaborative than when these parks were established. It's also
Speaker 1: not really clear at this point how the Trump administration
Speaker 1: will be approaching co stewardship agreements that were signed under
Speaker 1: the Biden Yeah, I think a lot of those agreements
Speaker 1: were a step in addressing some of the historical wrongs
Speaker 1: of these parks. In nineteen sixteen, the National Park Service Act,
Speaker 1: also known as the Organic Act, created the National Park Service.
Speaker 1: Like the first National Parks, the National Park Service was
Speaker 1: established under the Department of the Interior, and the words
Speaker 1: of this Act quote, the Service thus established shall promote
Speaker 1: and regulate the use of the federal areas known as
Speaker 1: National parks, monuments, and reservations, hereinafter specified by such means
Speaker 1: and measures as conformed to the fundamental purposes of the
Speaker 1: said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve
Speaker 1: the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the
Speaker 1: wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the
Speaker 1: same in such manner and by such means as will
Speaker 1: leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Most
Speaker 1: of the US population lived in the eastern half of
Speaker 1: the country, but with the exception of Mackinaw National Park,
Speaker 1: which had been on Mackinaw Island in Lake Huron from
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five to eighteen ninety five, there were no
Speaker 1: national parks east of the Mississippi River when the National
Speaker 1: Park Service was founded. That changed with the creation of
Speaker 1: Acadian National Park, originally known as Lafayette National Park in
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen. Acadia is in Maine, so it was closer
Speaker 1: to people in the eastern US than the parks in
Speaker 1: the west were, but it still really wasn't convenient to
Speaker 1: major cities in the east, so Stephen T. Mather, first
Speaker 1: Director of the National Park Service, advocated for the creation
Speaker 1: of a park that was closer to some of the
Speaker 1: major eastern cities. He convinced Secretary of the Interior, Hubert
Speaker 1: work to appoint a committee to find a place for
Speaker 1: a park, specifically in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, ideally within
Speaker 1: an easy drive of Washington, d c. To that end,
Speaker 1: the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee was established in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four. Please don't come at me for how I
Speaker 1: said Appalachian. That same year, Congress passed legislation to authorize
Speaker 1: and fund the construction and reconstruction of roads, trails, and
Speaker 1: bridges in the National Parks, which was becoming more of
Speaker 1: a necessity as more people had access to cars. At
Speaker 1: this point, the good Roads movement was well under way,
Speaker 1: having started in the late nineteenth century after the development
Speaker 1: of practical and affordable bicycles. We talked about this more
Speaker 1: in our episode on Kitty Knox and the Bike Boom
Speaker 1: that came out on January ninth, twenty twenty three. By
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, the good Roads movement's focus had shifted
Speaker 1: more to the needs of cars and motorists rather than
Speaker 1: bicycles and cyclists. In nineteen twenty four, when this law
Speaker 1: was passed, the US had a population of about one
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen million people, and there were about sixteen
Speaker 1: million cars on the road. This was also tied to
Speaker 1: the Sea America First Movement. That slogan was coined in
Speaker 1: the early twentieth century, encouraging people to travel along these
Speaker 1: newly established roads and the railroads, including going to the
Speaker 1: national parks to travel and vacation in the United States
Speaker 1: rather than going to Europe. After the passage of this
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty four legislation, the National Park Service worked out
Speaker 1: a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Public Roads,
Speaker 1: which would later be known as the Federal Highway Administration.
Speaker 1: This agreement laid out standards for the survey, construction, and
Speaker 1: improvement of roads and trails in the National parks and
Speaker 1: national monuments. The Bureau of Public Roads provided engineers and
Speaker 1: technical expertise, while the National Park Service provided landscape architects
Speaker 1: who focused on designing roadways that had a naturalistic design.
Speaker 1: The actual construction was typically done by private firms under
Speaker 1: contract to the BPR. So all of this, the roads
Speaker 1: and this agreement, and the Sea America First Movement was
Speaker 1: part of the creation of Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive.
Speaker 1: We'll have more on that after a sponsor break in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty four, the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee developed
Speaker 1: a questionnaire to solicit public feedback about possible locations for
Speaker 1: a national park. The committee traveled all around the Southern
Speaker 1: Appalachian Mountains. They mainly looked at sites in North Carolina, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and Virginia, but some of the members also went to
Speaker 1: West Virginia, Alabama, and Kentucky. Every state that was under
Speaker 1: consideration was interested in this project due to the potential
Speaker 1: to bring in tourism dollars and to have federal investments
Speaker 1: into the roads and other infrastructure that would be needed
Speaker 1: to support the park. So cities and towns all around
Speaker 1: hosted all kinds of festivals and what not to try
Speaker 1: to attract attention. The committee was looking for sites that
Speaker 1: met these criteria quote One mountain scenery with inspiring perspectives
Speaker 1: and delightful details. Two areas sufficiently extensive and adaptable so
Speaker 1: that annually millions of visitors might enjoy the benefits of
Speaker 1: outdoor life and communion with nature without the confusion of overcrowding.
Speaker 1: Three a substantial park to contain forests, shrubs, and flowers,
Speaker 1: and mountain streams with picturesque cascades and waterfalls overhung with foliage,
Speaker 1: all untouched by the hand of man. Four abundant springs
Speaker 1: and streams available for camps and fishing. Five opportunities for
Speaker 1: protecting and developing the wildlife of the area. The whole
Speaker 1: to be a natural museum, preserving outstanding features of the
Speaker 1: Southern Appalachians as they appeared in the early pioneer days.
Speaker 1: Six accessibility by rail and road. In their report, the
Speaker 1: committee wrote that quote, several areas were found that contained
Speaker 1: topographic features of great scenic value, where waterfalls, cascades, cliffs,
Speaker 1: and mountain peaks with beautiful valleys lying in their midst
Speaker 1: gave ample assurance that any or all of these areas
Speaker 1: were possible for development into a national park, which would
Speaker 1: compare favorably with any of the existing national parks in
Speaker 1: the West. All that has saved these nearby regions from
Speaker 1: spoliation for so long a time has been their inaccessibility
Speaker 1: and the difficulty of profitably exploiting the timber wealth that
Speaker 1: mantles the steep mountain slopes. With rapidly increasing shortage and
Speaker 1: mountain values of forest products. However, we face the immediate
Speaker 1: danger that the last remnants of our primeval forests will
Speaker 1: be destroyed. However, remote on steep mountain side or hidden
Speaker 1: away in deep, lonely cove, they may be. Ultimately, the
Speaker 1: committee recommended the creation of a park in the Blue
Speaker 1: Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It noted that this site was
Speaker 1: within about a three hour drive of Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: And was within about a day's drive of forty million people,
Speaker 1: and it described what it thought would be the park's
Speaker 1: greatest single feature quote a possible skyline drive along the mountaintop,
Speaker 1: following a continuous ridge and looking down westerly on the
Speaker 1: Shenandoah Valley, some two thousand five hundred to three thousand
Speaker 1: five hundred feet below, and also commanding a view of
Speaker 1: the Piedmont Plain stretching easterly to the Washington Monument, which
Speaker 1: landmark of our national capital may be seen on a
Speaker 1: clear day. Few seen drives in the world could surpass it.
Speaker 1: In other words, this recommended park would be a place
Speaker 1: where people could hike and fish and camp and picnic
Speaker 1: and learn all about plants and wildlife, and get away
Speaker 1: from the noise and the pollution of the city. And
Speaker 1: it would also be a scenic drive that you could
Speaker 1: travel by car. The committee also recommended a second location,
Speaker 1: roughly three hundred miles south of the first, in the
Speaker 1: Great Smoky Mountains on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.
Speaker 1: The committee thought this site was superior quote because of
Speaker 1: the height of mountains, depth of valleys, ruggedness of the area,
Speaker 1: and the unexampled variety of trees, shrubs, and plants. But
Speaker 1: the Smokies also presented some challenges that the land in
Speaker 1: Virginia did not, including that it was very rugged with
Speaker 1: higher elevations, which would make road and park development more difficult.
Speaker 1: The Smokies also seemed to be prone to excessive rainfall,
Speaker 1: something that the committee couldn't really quantify, but that should
Speaker 1: be studied more thoroughly. When Secretary of the Interior Hubert
Speaker 1: Work passed these recommendations on to the House Committee on
Speaker 1: the Public Lands, he said, in part quote, recognizing the
Speaker 1: tremendous popularity and value of the National park system in
Speaker 1: its service to our people, it is my opinion that
Speaker 1: a definite policy should be adopted by the government for
Speaker 1: the creation of additional National parks in the Eastern Section
Speaker 1: for the public use and general welfare of its millions
Speaker 1: of inhabitants. Most of these live in densely populated communities
Speaker 1: and cannot afford the time or the money required to
Speaker 1: visit the Western national parks. The East contributes its share
Speaker 1: to the upkeep and maintenance of the existing national park system,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, too should be entitled to recognition.
Speaker 1: There were immediate calls for public support for this proposed park.
Speaker 1: For example, the committee's report to Secretary Work was printed
Speaker 1: in National Parks and Conservation Magazine alongside a notice to
Speaker 1: the Women of America by missus John Dickinson Sherman, President
Speaker 1: of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. It's said, in
Speaker 1: part quote, the General Federation of Women's Clubs is a
Speaker 1: service organization. The Women of America constitute the largest body
Speaker 1: for service in the world, and there are none more devoted.
Speaker 1: I appeal not to General Federation women only, but to
Speaker 1: the women of America to support wholeheartedly and enthusiastically the
Speaker 1: choice of Secretary Works Committee. Our National Park system is
Speaker 1: a service system or it is nothing. I am glad
Speaker 1: you read that part, because the last sentence makes me cry.
Speaker 1: We've had good fortune in handing off the cry bits
Speaker 1: to the other person lately. We sure have so Congress
Speaker 1: past legislation authorized the creation of both of the recommended parks,
Speaker 1: which President Calvin Coolidge signed into law on May twenty second,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty six. The site in Virginia would become Shenandoah
Speaker 1: National Park, and the site in North Carolina and Tennessee
Speaker 1: would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Three days after that,
Speaker 1: Coolidge also signed legislation approving the establishment of Mammoth Cave
Speaker 1: National Park. There was a big difference between these three
Speaker 1: parks and the ones that had been established in the West. Yellowstone, Yosemite,
Speaker 1: and others had been created from land that the federal
Speaker 1: government already purportedly owned, So the government was setting aside
Speaker 1: land to serve as a park without having to make
Speaker 1: arrangements or spend the money to acquire it. But the
Speaker 1: land for these three parks was privately owned, mostly by
Speaker 1: small individual landowners. It would require a lot of time, money,
Speaker 1: and work to buy all of that land and then
Speaker 1: transition it into a park. The Southern Apalachian National Park
Speaker 1: Committee had referenced this situation in its report, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: we have not attempted to estimate the cost of acquiring
Speaker 1: this area, as we are not sure that it falls
Speaker 1: within the scope of our committee's work. We suggest, however,
Speaker 1: that a spirit of constructive cooperation on the part of
Speaker 1: the State of Virginia and among some of the large
Speaker 1: landowners of this region with whom we have been in
Speaker 1: touch promises reasonable prices and perhaps a number of donations.
Speaker 1: We suggest that of Congress thinks favorable of this proposed
Speaker 1: park site, a commission be appointed to handle the purchase
Speaker 1: and to solicit contributions and to arrange condemnation proceedings. If
Speaker 1: the State of Virginia deems it wise. The creation of
Speaker 1: such a park may well be made contingent on a
Speaker 1: limited total land cost. We talked about the process of
Speaker 1: acquiring land for Mammoth Cave National Park in our episode
Speaker 1: on the Kentucky Cave Wars, which came out on August nineteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains
Speaker 1: National Park is also its own story for Shenandoah National
Speaker 1: Park and Skyline Drive. It was a whole process. The
Speaker 1: plan was for the Commonwealth of Virginia to purchase the
Speaker 1: land and then donate that land to the federal government.
Speaker 1: Virginia didn't actually have a budget to buy that land,
Speaker 1: though the money would at least in theory, be coming
Speaker 1: from donations. So the land that would become Shenandoah National
Speaker 1: Park is the ancestral and traditional homeland of multiple indigenous
Speaker 1: nations and peoples. This includes speakers of at least three
Speaker 1: different language groups, suin, Iroquoian and Algonquian. It's an incredibly
Speaker 1: diverse area, but by the time the park was being proposed,
Speaker 1: most of the region's indigenous peoples had been forced out
Speaker 1: through colonisation, warfare, and removals. This process of displacement and
Speaker 1: erasure was still going on into the twentieth century, including
Speaker 1: through the passage of a Racial Purity Act in Virginia
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four that defined indigenous people with any
Speaker 1: amount of African ancestry as quote colored. We talk about
Speaker 1: this more in our two part episode on Loving versus Virginia,
Speaker 1: which was the nineteen sixty seven Supreme Court decision that
Speaker 1: found laws banning interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. That two
Speaker 1: parter came out on April fifteenth and seventeenth, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: So by the time Congress authorized the creation of Shenandoah
Speaker 1: National Park, most of the people living in these mountains
Speaker 1: and valleys were white. They were mainly subsistence farmers who
Speaker 1: lived primarily on small tracts of land that had some
Speaker 1: planted crops, some pasture for their animals, and some forest
Speaker 1: for timber and other resources. There were some people who
Speaker 1: had land they were willing to sell, but for the
Speaker 1: most part it was land they didn't have some other
Speaker 1: kind of use for otherwise. This was often land that
Speaker 1: people had been living and working for generations and they
Speaker 1: didn't want to leave it. So two overlapping, interconnected projects
Speaker 1: started at this point. One was securing the land and
Speaker 1: the right of way that would be necessary to build
Speaker 1: that quote possible skyline drive along the mountaintop that the
Speaker 1: committee had described as the possible greatest single feature of
Speaker 1: this National park. That road was intended to travel all
Speaker 1: the way from one end of the park to the other,
Speaker 1: where it would provide access to campgrounds and picnic areas
Speaker 1: and other amenities while also functioning as a scenic road
Speaker 1: for sightseeing. The construction of this road would be paid
Speaker 1: for largely through federal funding. And then the other project
Speaker 1: was to survey and acquire all the land for the
Speaker 1: rest of the park, and that was meant to be
Speaker 1: funded by private donations. We will talk about that more
Speaker 1: after we pause for a sponsor break. When Congress passed
Speaker 1: legislation authorizing the establishment of Shenandoah National Park, it described
Speaker 1: a five hundred and twenty one thousand acre park, with
Speaker 1: that land purchased through donations and private funds not from
Speaker 1: the federal budget. An organization called the Shenandoah Valley National
Speaker 1: Park Association had already been established before this to try
Speaker 1: to raise funds, and it had set an initial goal
Speaker 1: of two point five million dollars. By April of nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty six, it had raised more than one point two
Speaker 1: million dollars in pledges, and that had been enough to
Speaker 1: be able to get that congressional authorization for the park.
Speaker 1: Once Congress had passed the legislation, Virginia Governor Harry F.
Speaker 1: Bird established the Conservation and Development Commission to survey, a praise,
Speaker 1: and actually purchase the necessary land. It became clear almost
Speaker 1: immediately that the two point five million dollar fundraising goal
Speaker 1: was not going to be enough. As we said earlier,
Speaker 1: a lot of people didn't want to sell their land,
Speaker 1: or they didn't want to sell it as cheaply as
Speaker 1: those initial estimates had assumed. Property values also started to
Speaker 1: increase because of the proposed park. As five hundred twenty
Speaker 1: one thousand acres started to seem impossible, William E. Carson,
Speaker 1: chair of the Conservation and Development Commission, advocated for the
Speaker 1: size of the park to be reduced. This was the
Speaker 1: first in a series of size reductions for the park
Speaker 1: in progress, but it was not enough to bridge the
Speaker 1: gap between the estimates and the reality. It also didn't
Speaker 1: address the fact that the state needed to acquire land
Speaker 1: from hundreds of individual landowners, some of who were adamantly
Speaker 1: opposed to selling, like sometimes appraiser showed up at somebody's
Speaker 1: home and they were greeted with a shotgun. Even in
Speaker 1: the best circumstances, this would have been immensely time and
Speaker 1: labor intensive, but the circumstances really just seemed to be
Speaker 1: getting more and more contentious. So in nineteen twenty eight,
Speaker 1: Virginia passed a Blanket Condemnation Act, which allowed the state
Speaker 1: to file one condemnation notice in each of the counties
Speaker 1: where the park was going to be, and then condemn
Speaker 1: all of the applicable land and purchase it by eminent domain.
Speaker 1: The thought process behind this law went back to the
Speaker 1: aftermath of the Spanish American War, when the US used
Speaker 1: a similar tactic to compensate the Vatican for Church owned
Speaker 1: land that residents of the Philippines had settled on during
Speaker 1: and after the war. Carson's brother had served on the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court of the Philippines and was very familiar with
Speaker 1: this strategy. Of course, this blanket condemnation led to pushback
Speaker 1: and court cases, but it did allow the state to
Speaker 1: start acquiring the necessary land a little more quickly. People
Speaker 1: were paid for their land, but there were a lot
Speaker 1: of disparities in terms of how much they were paid.
Speaker 1: Like people who could afford a lawyer or who knew
Speaker 1: how to contact to get help, they generally did better
Speaker 1: than people who were poor, isolated and didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of access to education or resources. Like if you
Speaker 1: had a personal line to your state rep who could
Speaker 1: argue with this committee on your behalf, you might get
Speaker 1: a lot more money than somebody who really didn't know
Speaker 1: where to start with all of this. But then the
Speaker 1: Great Depression started in nineteen twenty nine, and that meant
Speaker 1: it got a lot harder to bring in new donations
Speaker 1: to pay for the condemned Lane and to collect on
Speaker 1: people's earlier pledges. By nineteen thirty two, the minimum acreage
Speaker 1: needed for the park had been reduced to one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty thousand acres. It ultimately took ten years and
Speaker 1: an appropriation of a million dollars from the Virginia General
Speaker 1: Assembly to acquire the necessary land. Virginia had not been
Speaker 1: paying to or had not been intending to do that,
Speaker 1: and was like, if we don't put in this million dollars,
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen. As all of this was
Speaker 1: going on, the federal government was also building Skyline Drive
Speaker 1: as the park's access road and scenic parkway. This started
Speaker 1: with the creation of a fishing camp for President Herbert Hoover,
Speaker 1: who was the president at the time. William E. Carson
Speaker 1: had secured exclusive fishing rights on a part of the
Speaker 1: Rapidan River and convinced the President to establish his fishing
Speaker 1: camp there. The presidential fishing camp required a road, and
Speaker 1: this area was also in the middle of an intense drought,
Speaker 1: so this road building became a federal drought relief project.
Speaker 1: The Federal Drought Relief Administration paid for out of work
Speaker 1: farmers and fruit pickers to build the Road, and then
Speaker 1: the road became part of Skyline Drive and the President's
Speaker 1: Fishing Camp became part of Shenandoah National Park. This first
Speaker 1: phase of work initially connected the Fishing Camp to Big Meadows,
Speaker 1: Skyland and Thornton Gap. The idea behind Skyline Drive was
Speaker 1: that the road would be easy to drive on, with
Speaker 1: gentle spiral curves and a speed limit of thirty five
Speaker 1: miles an hour. In most places. Engineers and landscape architects
Speaker 1: used techniques that had been refined on roads and parkways
Speaker 1: in the parks in the West. It was built in
Speaker 1: segments of about ten to twelve miles, with each segment
Speaker 1: being built with a different crew, most of them locally hired.
Speaker 1: Much of the manual labor was paid for by relief programs,
Speaker 1: first drought relief and then relief from the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: These segments had their differences based on the needs of
Speaker 1: the land along each stretch, but there was also a
Speaker 1: sense of unity stemming from the landscape architect's initial work
Speaker 1: to plan a road that would simultaneously have the best
Speaker 1: views and the least impact on the landscape. So the
Speaker 1: road was built along a mountain side or carved out
Speaker 1: from the mountain with soil that was then used to
Speaker 1: fill in other areas for the road. Blasting was limited
Speaker 1: and tightly controlled to minimize any scarring or destruction of
Speaker 1: the landscape, and large trees were protected as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Retaining walls, tunnels, and bridges were built from local stone,
Speaker 1: and originally there were also guard rails made from local
Speaker 1: chestnut logs. By the time this road building got underway,
Speaker 1: it had been seven years since the Southern Appalachian National
Speaker 1: Park Committee had made its recommendation for the establishment of
Speaker 1: Shenandoah National Park. While there was plenty of controversy around
Speaker 1: the park and the fundraising and the land acquisition, people
Speaker 1: were also incredibly impatient for it to be open. An
Speaker 1: unpaved portion of the road from Camp Rapidan was open
Speaker 1: to the public temporarily in the fall of nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: and while drivers did seem to enjoy the view, the
Speaker 1: temporary opening made it clear how much work there really
Speaker 1: was left to do. Not only did the road need
Speaker 1: to be paved, but there needed to be overlooks, guardrails,
Speaker 1: and other features and amenities added before it could be
Speaker 1: really suitable as the scenic drive that it was intended
Speaker 1: to be. Herbert Hoover lost the nineteen thirty two presidential election,
Speaker 1: and his successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, established the Civilian Conservation
Speaker 1: Corps not long after taking office in nineteen thirty three.
Speaker 1: This was part of the New Deal, the set of
Speaker 1: projects and programs to try to help the United States
Speaker 1: get through the Great Depression. The CCC was created through
Speaker 1: the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which was legislation passed by
Speaker 1: Congress as well as Executive Order sixty one oh one
Speaker 1: Relief of unemployment through the performance of useful public work.
Speaker 1: The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for unemployed, unmarried young men,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that work was related to parks
Speaker 1: and natural resources. The CCC was racially segregated, and while
Speaker 1: there were CCC camps for black workers elsewhere in Virginia,
Speaker 1: the ones at Shenandoah were all white and most of
Speaker 1: the people working in them were from small towns in Virginia. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: there were twelve CCC camps connected to Shenandoah National Park
Speaker 1: and Skyline Drive. CCC workers built hiking trails and fire trails,
Speaker 1: picnic areas, campgrounds, and other amenities in the park. They
Speaker 1: also planted native trees and shrubs, and built overlooks and
Speaker 1: guardrails along Skyline Drive. They graded the land around the road,
Speaker 1: helping it to blend in naturally with the landscape, and
Speaker 1: they helped restore land that had been overfarmed, again focusing
Speaker 1: on native plants and trees. In some areas they cut
Speaker 1: down trees and other vegetation to improve the view from
Speaker 1: the road and from overlooks, but in others they replanted
Speaker 1: areas that had been clearcut or otherwise depleted. There was
Speaker 1: a focus on restoration of the native ecosystem, but also
Speaker 1: about creating and maintaining of vieute that looked natural, maybe
Speaker 1: not wild, and untouched in the way the national parks
Speaker 1: in the West had been constructed but scenic and rustic.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the Great Depression, about four thousand
Speaker 1: people found work in Shenandoah National Park and on Skyline Drive.
Speaker 1: The first finished section of Skyline Drive open to the
Speaker 1: public in nineteen thirty four. This was the central part
Speaker 1: of the parkway. The northern section opened in nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: and the southern part in nineteen thirty nine, which was
Speaker 1: after the park had opened. President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally
Speaker 1: dedicated Shenandoah National Park on July third, nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: at Big Meadows, which is one of the park's recreation areas.
Speaker 1: In his address, he said, quote, the creation of this
Speaker 1: park is one part of our great program of husbandry,
Speaker 1: the joint husbandry of our human resources and our natural resources.
Speaker 1: He spoke about the young men who had found work
Speaker 1: in building the park and how the park was a
Speaker 1: work of natural conservation that would give vacationers a respite
Speaker 1: that was good for their souls. He concluded, quote, we
Speaker 1: seek to pass on to our children a richer land,
Speaker 1: a stronger nation. I therefore dedicate Shenandoah National Park to
Speaker 1: this and succeeding generations of Americans for the recreation and
Speaker 1: for the recreation which we shall find here. We are
Speaker 1: bat thousand on the opposite person reading the thing that
Speaker 1: made us cry. Hooray. I mean that was a close
Speaker 1: call for me, but I made it okay. So the
Speaker 1: park's struggles had not ended with the acquisition of the
Speaker 1: necessary land like this address made it sound really lovely,
Speaker 1: but there had still been a lot of strife. In
Speaker 1: February of nineteen thirty four, National Park Director Arno B.
Speaker 1: Cameer had announced that anybody living in the park would
Speaker 1: have to leave before the park could open. From the
Speaker 1: federal government's point of view, this had always been the expectation,
Speaker 1: like that was how it was supposed to work, but
Speaker 1: that had not always been communicated very clearly, including to
Speaker 1: people who were tenants on land that was being sold
Speaker 1: to make the park. They were now being considered squatters.
Speaker 1: A resettlement project called the Shenandoah Homesteads Project had been
Speaker 1: established in nineteen thirty four and then was taken over
Speaker 1: by the Resettlement Administration, which was a new deal anti
Speaker 1: poverty program. This program was incredibly controversial, including among some
Speaker 1: people who had been supporters of the park since the beginning.
Speaker 1: For example, Harry F. Byrd, who had served as Virginia's
Speaker 1: governor until nineteen thirty and then had been elected as
Speaker 1: a US Senator, found it paternalistic and wasteful. The goal
Speaker 1: of this program was to resettle people out of the
Speaker 1: park and into newly established communities. People who earned a
Speaker 1: living by farming were to be moved to similar homesteads,
Speaker 1: and others were expected to find work in other industries.
Speaker 1: But some of the people who were displaced by the
Speaker 1: creation of the park had been getting at least part
Speaker 1: of their income from gathering and selling chestnuts. The chestnut
Speaker 1: blight that was introduced to the United States from Asia
Speaker 1: reached this part of Virginia as the park was being built.
Speaker 1: That dramatically affected the landscape of the park, and it
Speaker 1: also destroyed chestnuts as a source of income. So that
Speaker 1: meant that some of the people who were being resettled
Speaker 1: were not only being displaced, but they also had to
Speaker 1: figure out an entirely new way of life. Roughly two
Speaker 1: thousand people from four hundred and sixty five families were
Speaker 1: forcibly relocated for the creation of Shenandoah National Park, and
Speaker 1: most of them did not make it on the homesteads
Speaker 1: where they had been resettled, and they were ultimately displaced again.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of reasons for this, including that
Speaker 1: many of them went from living on land that their
Speaker 1: family had owned outright for generations to land where they
Speaker 1: had to pay rent or a mortgage. There were also
Speaker 1: people who tried to return to their cabins after being
Speaker 1: forced out of them, and others who tried to take
Speaker 1: shelter in them due to the financial strains of the
Speaker 1: Great Depression, The National Park Service eventually destroyed many of
Speaker 1: these cabins to try to stop people from squatting in them.
Speaker 1: A very small number of elderly people were allowed to
Speaker 1: remain in their homes within the park until the end
Speaker 1: of their lives or until they needed to move somewhere
Speaker 1: that they could have more support. None of this was
Speaker 1: really known to park visitors unless they were maybe locals,
Speaker 1: and after Sanando A National Park officially opened in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty six, it quickly became one of the most visited
Speaker 1: national parks. It was the first national parks who get
Speaker 1: a million visitors in a year. Skyline Drive had also
Speaker 1: been instantly popular after its first section opened in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty four, and of course, there were black visitors to
Speaker 1: the park and black motorists on Skyline Drive right from
Speaker 1: the beginning. Perhaps surprisingly considering that this was a southern
Speaker 1: state in the nineteen thirties, this doesn't seem like something
Speaker 1: that park planners or the federal government had really thought
Speaker 1: much about before the park opened. Yeah, if they thought
Speaker 1: about it, they didn't like take action to make any
Speaker 1: kind of official policy, and by nineteen thirty eight there
Speaker 1: were about ten thousand black visitors to Shenandoah National Park
Speaker 1: every year, and there were also ongoing issues with black
Speaker 1: visitors being given contradictory messages from park staff about where
Speaker 1: they were allowed to be, what facilities they were allowed
Speaker 1: to use, as well as being hassled by white staff
Speaker 1: and visitors. So the National Park Service eventually established segregated
Speaker 1: accommodations in the park at Lewis Mountain, including a coffee shop,
Speaker 1: picnic area, campground, and cottages. These accommodations opened in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty nine, and soon they became so popular that white
Speaker 1: visitors were asking to be admitted to them as well.
Speaker 1: Apparently this had some of the best food in the park,
Speaker 1: and there was also a musical performance series that was
Speaker 1: very popular. The Pinnacle's picnic ground was also established specifically
Speaker 1: to be an integrated facility. There was no formal segregation
Speaker 1: policy for the rest of the park, but it was
Speaker 1: just broadly treated as whites only until the park started
Speaker 1: desegregating in the late nineteen forties. It finished that process
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty, although to be clear, there are still
Speaker 1: criticisms today about park visitors and staff, and the National
Speaker 1: Park Service more broadly being disproportionately white. Today, Skyline Drive
Speaker 1: runs for one hundred and five point five miles and
Speaker 1: it's the only public road in Shenandoah National Park. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, it was listed on the National Register
Speaker 1: of Historic Places. Shenandoah National Park encompasses nearly two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand acres of land today when nearly eighty thousand acres
Speaker 1: designated as wilderness. There are also more than five hundred
Speaker 1: miles of hiking trails, including one hundred and one miles
Speaker 1: of the Appalachian Trail, which runs parallel to Skyline Drive.
Speaker 1: There is an entry fee of fifteen dollars per person
Speaker 1: entering on foot or thirty dollars for private vehicles entering
Speaker 1: on Skyline Drive. Motorcycles are twenty five dollars. Shenando A
Speaker 1: National Park which I haven't said this earlier because it's
Speaker 1: going to be in the behind the scenes, but just
Speaker 1: in case people are wondering, it is an indigenous word,
Speaker 1: but we're not actually sure from which language are what
Speaker 1: specifically it meant. But shenando A National Park is also
Speaker 1: connected to Great Smoky Mountains National Park via the Blue
Speaker 1: Ridge Parkway, and that's what we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: next time. Do you have listener mail? I do I
Speaker 1: have listener mail. So this listener mail is from Kieran.
Speaker 1: They titled this email Roman Baths and Butts. The email says,
Speaker 1: Hello Tracy and Hilly. I hope this email finds you
Speaker 1: as well as can possibly be. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: write a quick note that I hope might bring you
Speaker 1: a little bit of a laugh. Like most people, I've
Speaker 1: been having a chaotic year and fell behind on my listening,
Speaker 1: but just caught up and had to laugh at the
Speaker 1: timing of the Roman bathing traditions mentioned in the unearthed
Speaker 1: episodes Tasting History with Max Miller. Also just at a
Speaker 1: recent episode on Roman banquets, this time specifically roasted flamingo
Speaker 1: and quoted a few wonderfully spicy quips from the poet Marshall,
Speaker 1: infamous for his copious writings about whether or not he
Speaker 1: was invited to someone's dinner and his perceived quality of
Speaker 1: their company. Marshall wrote two slash of one acquaintance quote,
Speaker 1: you don't invite anyone to dinner, Katta except your bathing companions.
Speaker 1: The baths alone supply you with guests. I've been wondering
Speaker 1: why you never invite me, Kada, but now I understand
Speaker 1: you don't like the site of my but clearly modern
Speaker 1: humans are not the only ones to perhaps have some
Speaker 1: misgivings about bathing and dining with all your work colleagues
Speaker 1: and acquaintances. Lol. I have not yet read Marshall's copious epigrams,
Speaker 1: but this episode made me want to put them on
Speaker 1: my reading list. Anyway, Thank you to so much for
Speaker 1: all that you do. I cannot express in words how
Speaker 1: much I appreciate you both. I want to add my
Speaker 1: name to the list of people thanking you, particularly for
Speaker 1: the unearthed episodes and especially their introduction. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. I know this year has been a doozy
Speaker 1: thus far, to say the least, so I hope that
Speaker 1: people in your life bake you cupcakes or something else
Speaker 1: nice soon as a treat for all of your hard work.
Speaker 1: You deserve all the special treats. Thanks again and all
Speaker 1: the best, Kieran. Thank you so much for this email. Kieran.
Speaker 1: This was a delight, but I don't really have anything
Speaker 1: else at that and I hope that Marshall is how
Speaker 1: Marshall's name was pronounced as an ancient Roman person. I
Speaker 1: did not go look it up. If it's some other
Speaker 1: pronunciation that pronounces letters differently, Sorry, Now I want Tina
Speaker 1: Belcher to become obsessed with Roman butts, because you know
Speaker 1: she has a butt fetish. If you'd like to send
Speaker 1: us a note about this or any other podcast or
Speaker 1: history podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else
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Speaker 1: History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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