County joins move to memorialize families removed to create national park

A sad tale of how the land we now know and love as Shenandoah National Park was acquired during the “Hungry ’30s” was told by a former Shenandoah Valley school teacher at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Front Royal.

Bill Henry of Greene County described the indescribable: the suffering caused in the early 1930s when the Commonwealth of Virginia used the power of eminent domain to acquire land to create what we now know as Shenandoah National Park.

From left, Darryl Merchant, project historian Jim Lillard and Bill Henry at Warren County’s organization meeting at Front Royal Town Hall on April 6. Lillard presented an astonishing historical record through photographs and two memorable films of mountain families and school children dating to the late 1920s and early 1930s. Photo/Roger Bianchini

More than 500 Blue Ridge Mountain families in eight counties, including Warren, were displaced.  Their homes, on 1,081 tracts of land, were mostly burned to the ground before the very eyes of many, including children, to clear the way for federal park development.  Henry aims, through his Blue Ridge Heritage Project, which he was promoting to Rotarians April 28, to build monuments in each of the counties to recognize and honor the families who lost their homes.

Above, the Madison County Chimney monument; to right an actual chimney standing in Shenandoah National Park marks the site of one lost home. Photos/BR Heritage Project

Since our forefathers’ – some of our forefathers, anyway – homes were razed, inevitably stone chimneys were left standing.  It is these chimneys that Henry is using as models that will memorialize the evicted, shattered, Blue Ridge back country families of the 1930s.

Ironically perhaps, today’s National Park Service “is very supportive” of the project, Henry said.  The eight counties involved are Albemarle, Augusta, Madison, Rappahannock, Page, Greene, Rockingham, and Warren.

The first monuments in Albemarle and Madison counties are already up.  Each county’s “chimney” replica carries its own unique features.  Albemarle’s monument lists by name all the families evicted from their mountain homes. Rappahannock’s memorial is to be dedicated May 20; Greene County has money and is awaiting a site plan.

Duane Vaughan, a removed Beaty family descendant, views a Blue Ridge Heritage Project display at April 6 meeting. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Warren County recently formed a committee under Darryl Merchant, a Town employee, who says his group is in the “early stages” of fund raising, compiling data, studying maps, and seeking a suitable location for a memorial site. Merchant said the committee plans a display booth downtown during the Wine & Crafts Festival on May 20.  Contact with Merchant may be by telephone (540) 683-6878 or email at dmerchant@measure-map.com

An inveterate hiker, Henry, formerly of Fairfax County, tells of finding quite a few standing chimneys in the Blue Ridge back country, remnants of the burned-down homes.

“It was a very powerful experience,” he said.

Henry encouraged members of his audience and the general public to visit his organization’s website: www.BlueRidgeHeritageProject.com; email OnaRock01@yahoo.com; or telephone (434) 985-7905.

Stills (not that kind, though they were represented) from Jim Lillard’s ‘Mountain Memories’ presentation of April 6 (among numerous other dates in involved counties) – above, the home of William Randolph Barbee, “lawyer and sculptor” near Thornton Gap; below, the Dodson family, Rappahannock County, circa 1909.

A brochure produced by the Blue Ridge Heritage Project is replete with sepia photographs of some of the families who lived and worked in the Blue Ridge and who were evicted.  One actually depicts a family carrying out household belongings ahead of their actual eviction.  Henry said descendants of these back country families are coming forward and identifying themselves since he launched the heritage project in 2013.  Many have stories handed down through the generations of their families of exactly what happened when the actual evictions took place.  “We don’t want their stories to be lost,” Henry said.

The project brochure states: “Through educational (and) cultural displays and demonstrations the project hopes to accurately depict the people’s lives and to help preserve their lifestyle, crafts, music and traditions. Each county’s site will reflect the particular culture of the community.”