Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park, which is long and narrow, follows the Blue Ridge from the southwest to the northeast. Today, the forests are returning; they are covering over the scars of cattle grazing, farming, and logging. Native animals are returning as well; black bears, raccoons, and opossums, America's only marsupials, now roam here again, as they did in pioneer days.

Visitors to Shenandoah National Park can walk into the past by visiting the Corbin Cabin, a typical mountaineer's home. The cabin was built in 1910 by George Corbin and several of his friends, who cut and hewed its logs.

The Corbin family lived there for many years, subsisting on what they could grow or make. Today, the cabin is maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, which rents it to members and the general public. The club also operates other rustic cabins along the Appalachian Trail.

At the Byrd Visitor Center, exhibits tell more of the story of the people who lived in these mountains from prehistoric times to the opening of the park. The park is also the home of Camp Hoover, which was President Hoover's getaway from Washington, D.C.

Hoover's initial mandate for his retreat was fairly simple: He required it to be within 100 miles of the capital, at an elevation too high for mosquitoes, and very close to a trout stream. Government officials still use the cabins at Camp Hoover on weekends.

Hikers in Shenandoah will find a variety of trails, many leading to panoramic overlooks that take in the rolling Piedmont country to the east or the wide Shenandoah

Valley to the west.

Shenandoah National Park Photo Opportunities

Be sure to capture some shots for your family photo album during your visit to Shenandoah. Here are a few photo ops you don't want to miss:

The Shenandoah region has a rich and colorful history, which we will examine on the next page.

For many years, the so-called Blue Ridge was an insurmountable obstacle to our nation's westward expansion. Its mild eastern flank sloped down to the agricultural heartland of Virginia and farther east to the burgeoning towns and cities along the Atlantic coast. Pioneers who wanted to go west from here thought twice about the ruggedness of the ridge, its height, and the fact that there were no low-lying passes through it.

But the pioneers and adventurers who made it to the top of the ridge were greeted by a spectacular sight: the lovely Shenandoah Valley. This green paradise of endless forests and meadows cut by winding rivers and streams was so inviting that the valley itself seemed to hold all the promise of the West.

Shenandoah contains more artifacts of human history than most other national parks. It lies along a spectacular but populated section of the Blue Ridge that nearly cuts Virginia in two. Unlike most national parks, Shenandoah is a place where people have lived for many generations. The section of the great ridge encompassed by the park is crossed by few passes, and the imposing mountain range forced early pioneers through the Cumberland Gap and into broad Shenandoah Valley.

To make this area suitable for a national park, which was mandated by Congress in 1926, the Commonwealth of Virginia acquired an estimated 4,000 privately owned tracts of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley. The state then donated the land to the nation. No other park required the acquisition of so much private land or required the National Park Service to create a park out of land that had been so widely inhabited by people.

At the time it was established, much of the future parkland consisted of eroded hillsides, worn farmland, and thin second- or third-growth forests. Timber had been harvested from these woods since the early 18th century. But the people who worked these mountain areas would have to leave to make room for the park.

Some left by 1935, when the park was opened to the public, and in the next few years hundreds of families vacated the area, either voluntarily or by force. Many moved from their cabins and farmhouses to resettle outside the park's borders at government expense. A few mountain people continued to live in the park even after it opened, but they are all gone now.

Make the trek to Shenandoah National Park and explore this unique land. From hiking to camping to scenic driving, the activities available are sure to suit the needs of everyone in your traveling group.

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