The True History of the Shenandoah National Park

"The general consensus was that the people who inhabited these mountains were living as animals and needed to be civilized."

The article linked above is one I highly recommend. The writer is right about the callous treatment of the "mountain folk" who had lived on this land for generations. My wife and I (who share the same great-great grandfather-I'll pause here for the jokes) have ancestors--Coffeys--who experienced similar treatment when the Blue Ridge Parkway was built. The Parkway connects to the Skyline Drive (which runs through the SNP) just a few miles from my home. Much of the land where Route 664 intersects with the Parkway was once owned by our folks. As a matter of fact, when you leave Sherando, Virginia and go up Rt. 664 to Love Mountain, you will pass a house on the left that was moved by the feds. That house was once owned by some of our kinfolk. Also, there is still an old log cabin (restored) that is owned by a distant cousin, right off the parkway. And, near that same place, there is still an old family cemetery. It is in that cemetery that our great-great grandfather--Morris Coffey-- who fought with the 51st Virginia Infantry, is buried.

Men like the defiant mounainteer pictured above, tried in vain to continue to live on land that their ancestors had lived on for generations. But, as the article points out, the federal government can be very cruel when they want what you have. Not much has changed, has it?
"Lizzie Jenkins was five months pregnant when the police dragged her from her home, piled her belongings in horse-drawn wagons, and pulled her chimney down so that she would have no source of heat for the upcoming winter." And who is it that needs to be "civilized?"

It is when I read of these types of injustices that I am reminded why Grandpa Coffey fought the yankees (feds). He knew what was comin'.

(The second image is of my daughters and me at Raven's Roost Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. My home is in the Shenandoah Valley directly behind us, at the bottom of the ridge to my right. Grandpa Coffey is buried about 3 miles due South from where we stand.)