Shenandoah National Park
We arrived at Shenandoah National Park after a 5 hour drive from Delaware. The park was beautiful, and had an almost jungle-like feel to it. What stood out the most, however, was the history park; a history that left us with a feeling of both resentment and admiration.
The park was created in the 1930s after the US government decided they needed more parks on the East Coast, since most national parks of the time were clustered around grand features of the West. After sending inquiries, they came up with 2 potential locales: the modern day sites of Great Smokey Mountain National Park, and Shenandoah National Park.
Shenandoah was scattered farmlands in the 1920s, with one small scale resort. The resort owner had convinced the government that his site was ideal for national development since the beautiful mountain ridges were occupied by only a few 5000 acre parcels. (which was actually a significant deviation from the truth). It was also an ideal location for visits from the whitehouse, since it is only 70 miles West of Washington DC.
The Federal government liked the site, and authorized almost 80,000 acres to be reserved as Shenandoah National Park. They charged the state of Virginia with procuring the lands from existing owners. While the few large parcel owners, especially George Pollock, the resort owner, undoubtedly made out very well, many of the other owners of the remaining 5000+ parcels refused to sell their homes.
After multiple court cases, the state of Virginia forced all remaining occupants off their lands under eminent domain. Just a few families were allowed to remain by leasing their property back from the state until the lease owner passed away. Such was the case with one family that had to find a new home years after the National Park was established, since the lease was in the name of a now deceased family member. Imagine having to leave your long-time, perhaps multiple generational home immediately after your grandma passed away. Not only is the death of a loved one difficult, but it’s compounded by now having to give up everything known as home.
The Shenandoah visitor center is filled with many more depressing and heart wrenching stories. It also includes notes about racial segregation in the park. Black people were delegated to only one section of the park, and were not allowed to use most of the park facilities. Coming from the West Coast, it is hard to fathom that there was so much craziness in our society less than 100 years ago!!
But despite our angst about much-to-recent discrimination, and a poor start for park establishment, there is a lot to appreciate about Shenandoah. It is located in the Appalachian mountains, and there is a beautiful drive all along mountain ridges with scenic vistas throughout. It’s lush and green, and has many delightful hikes, most of which are dog friendly.
Our visit to the park was bitter sweet because we greatly appreciate reservation of lands preserving and protecting landscapes such as Shenandoah. If it had not been reserved as a national park, the area we visited would have been fully developed, and all of the lush trees would likely be farmlands, as we had seen on most of the drive from Delaware to the park.
Most of the scenic vistas were occluded by clouds in the 2 days we stayed at the park, but we enjoyed our visit and hiking a few trails nonetheless!
