Shenandoah Moon presented by the Waynesboro Players

Some people enjoy the factual aspects of history while others prefer the drama. Those who enjoy a combination of the two are probably those who enjoy reading historical fiction. If you are one of these individuals, then perhaps you should have a look at the novel Shenandoah Moon, penned by the late Duane Hahn.

The novel takes place in the 1930s during the creation of Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive. It follows the story of Kathy Shifflett and her conflicted attraction to a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and it also presents the struggles between the CCC and the families that were being driven from their homes in order for the park to be established.

Not only does Hahn’s novel present a multitude of facts that would rival any history book, it also illustrates the personal struggles that everyone faced during the Depression Era. This area of Virginia is rich with history, and to read this narrative of characters so similar to the people who once lived here is to almost feel as though one has had a firsthand experience of that history. It certainly lends itself to a greater appreciation of this beautiful area as we see it today!

(One note of interest: Duane Hahn helped to transform his novel into a script which was then performed by the Waynesboro Players Community Theater in April of 2009.)

In 2010, 88 people died walking or cycling on our Virginia roadways. 621 cyclists and 1,585 pedestrians were injured. By contrast, 84 people died walking or cycling in 2009.

Drive Smart Virginia and Bike Walk Virginia want Virginia motorists to ‘Share the Road’ with cyclists and pedestrians and are partnering for the third year in a campaign designed to save lives and reduce the number of injuries.

Lack of knowledge and risky behavior often leads to crashes between roadway users. Taking time to learn the laws and safety practices can save a life, especially with area schools starting back up and many students walking, cycling and driving on the roadways.

In Virginia, a bicycle is considered a vehicle. “Many people don’t realize that,” said Janet Brooking, Executive Director for DRIVE Smart Virginia. “Bikes, just like cars, have to obey all the traffic signs, signals, lights and markings.” A bicycle should always travel in the same direction as motor vehicle traffic.

Motorists must leave at least two feet when passing a bicyclist and pass at a reasonable speed. Bike Walk Virginia Executive Director Kimberly Perry said, “Whether you’re on a bike, walking or in a car, if you behave in a predictable manner you can reduce the risk of crashes.” Whether riding in a car or on a bicycle, all safety precautions should be used, including a safety belt in a car, and a helmet on a bicycle.

Cyclists can also protect themselves by wearing bright clothing, using flashing lights during day and night, and by securing loose clothing.

Pedestrians can improve safety by wearing bright colors during the day and reflective material or blinking lights at night. Light colored clothing is slightly helpful in making you visible at night, reflective tape or reflective fabric is much better.

For more information please contact Rob Richardson, Public Relations and Outreach Manager at Drive Smart Virginia at (804) 929-2988. Shane Cusick, Programs and Outreach Manager at Bike Walk Virginia (804) 859-4820.

One can find 42 different species of amphibians along the trails, and of course, this includes the salamander. According to the National Park Service, the Southern Appalachians are the “center of of salamander diversity on earth.” Not only that, but the Blue Ridge Parkway is at the “heart of this zone.”

One can also find more than 250 species of birds along the parkway, including bobolinks, eastern meadowlarks, American kestrels, great blue herons, kingfishers, and peregrine falcons. This is an ideal setting for the avid bird-watcher!

Along with amphibians and birds, the Blue Ridge Parkway is also home to 50 different species of fish, 22 species of snakes, and 7 species of turtles.

Grandfather Mountain’s

“Hiking 101″ is designed to teach beginners how to successfully complete a day hike.  Presented Saturday, August 20 at 11 am, the class will cover equipment, clothing, footwear and what to pack for a day in the woods.   Whether you consider yourself a seasoned outdoorsmen or a novice, everyone should find this class a great planning discussion before striking out into the unknown.

“There are a lot of variables that one should consider while planning a hiking or camping trip,” said Chief Interpretive Ranger Gabe Taylor. “Having the proper equipment and being prepared for a variety of weather is a must.”

“How High Is That Tree?” will teach visitors to identify the types of trees they encounter and how to use a clinometer to measure the height of a tree.   Participants will make their own clinometers (an optical device for measuring elevation over horizon) and apply the tool not only to trees but also to a variety of other calculations. The program will be offered Saturday, August 27 at 11 am.

Programs with Grandfather’s interpretive rangers last approximately one hour and are free with the price of admission to Grandfather Mountain ($15/adult and $7/children ages 4-12).

The Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation merged its trails and naturalist departments in June in order to create an interpretive ranger staff that provides visitors with additional ways to experience and learn about the mountain’s diverse environment.

The rangers are also offering guided hikes along the Mountain’s famed Grandfather Trail. A half day hike to MacRae Peak and back (0.9 miles) is $15 per person and a full day hike to Calloway Peak and back (2.4 miles) is $30 per person. A minimum of two people are required to book a guided hike.

These hikes allow participants to learn more about the history, geology, flora and fauna of Grandfather. The Grandfather Trail is strenuous and has some extremely steep sections where hikers use in-place cables and ladders.

To book a guided hike or for any questions on interpretive ranger programming please call 828-737-0833 or send an e-mail.

These films focus on themes of environment, culture and adventure in the mountains and represent the best of the best. Hundreds of entries were submitted from around the world and Outdoor Programs has selected films for this viewing that will not only educate, but will also inspire and entertain you.

Online ticket sales for Banff can be purchased through Farthing Auditorium, or if you’re in downtown Boone, NC you can pick up your tickets at Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters. Tickets are $9 (students can grab tickets at $7).

Check out the Banff Mountain Film Festival trailer for 2010-2011:

For more information on the Banff Mountain film festival, please visit Outdoor Programs, including a list of sponsors that make this event possible, and to see clips of other films available for viewing.

To view the video in its entirety, go to the YouTube link below:

You will note in the video that the bison gave several warnings that he was uncomfortable with the approach of humans.  First he tried to move away and place a tree line between the threat and himself.  When the person still came on through the trees the bison then lifted his head and looked at him with his head moving up and down.  The bison then kicked his heels up lowering his head and the woman still kept filming him.  Finally the wild animal stressed by the perceived threat had to revert to flight or fight mode.  Since the threat had kept moving toward him even after he attempted to calmly make flight from the area he most likely felt he had no choice but to fight and attack.

These same behaviors can been seen in any wildlife you may encounter in a National Park even if  it is a  bear, deer, or chipmunk on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Always give wildlife their space.  Revel in the opportunity to view animals in their native habitat, but do not crowd or stress them into instinctual reactions.

This incident once again illustrates the lesson I have told several times on this blog and in my book, “A Park Ranger’s Life”, that park visitors should always enjoy viewing wildlife from afar.

Anne’s appearance is part of the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway and is sponsored by ASU’s Belk Library and Information Commons. It is also part of the library’s Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Lecture Series. Parking for this event is available on campus in the parking deck on College Street. For more information please contact Lynn Patterson at 828-262-2087.

A little about Anne:  She has earned degrees from Birmingham Southern College and UNC-Chapel Hill. She currently teaches state and public history at UNC-CH. Anne has been a consultant to the National Park Service and a member of the Board for both the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the BRP 75th, Inc. She is also a member of our Blue Ridge Parkway Blog Community. Visit Anne’s profile.

Along with the popular “Super-Scenic Motorway”, Anne has also published the first-ever Parkway children’s book. This book, titled “When the Parkway Came”, is a unique look at the impact the Parkway made on local families and farms when it was first being built.

You can find both of Anne’s books for sale at the Virtual Blue Ridge Bookstore.

During the war 25,000 CO’s served in non-combat roles in all branches of the military.  Some worked in understaffed mental institutions.   Another 20,000 fought forest fires and worked on conservation projects in rural areas through the Civilian Projects Service.  Although they may not have served directly, they still likely had a similar experience to many soldiers serving on the front lines, from training drills to Poker and other bonding sessions with those they served with. This later group was placed in camps which had been previously used by the Civilian Conservation Corps that was disbanded in 1942 as most of the 18 to 24 year old men in that program were taken into the military.

The CCC participants were unskilled labor recruited from areas with low employment due to The Depression.  The Conscientious Objectors were made up of men who were from a variety of backgrounds including successful farmers, craftsmen, and intellectuals.  CO’s came with a variety of skills that were put to work on many rural improvement and park projects.

One CO Camp was located at Sherando Lake in Virginia. This was a former CCC Camp on US Forest Service property. Out of this camp men worked on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the area of Humpback Rocks on trails and construction of stone walls such as those found at the Humpback Rocks Parking Area (MP 6) and Reeds Gap (MP 13). The military started to accumulate prisoners of war from mainly naval engagements. They needed facilities to accommodate these growing populations and consequently the Sherando Camp was transferred to the military and the CO’s moved to Camp #121 in Bedford, Virginia. There the men began work in the Peaks of Otter area of the Parkway. Once again they constructed trails placing stone steps and what were called fire lanes to help contain forest fires. Stone work was also done on walls and around buildings. Today if you visit the Peaks of Otter Nature Center you will walk on a stone patio that goes across the front of the building, through the breezeway, and to the rear of the building where you will find picnic tables. At the front of the building there is a flat stone with the letters “CO” carved. This is one of the few signs left by this group of men who served their country in an alternative way during World War II.

Thanks to Dave Benavitch, USFS Ret. who first told me the story of the CO’ of WWII

Photos taken from Wikipedia

Here are a few tips that will help you understand the dynamics of deer movement and how to avoid collisions that can cause serious property damage and at times personal injuries.

• Deer are most active at dawn and dusk.  This is when they like to feed so you are most likely to see deer on road shoulders. 
• Remember that deer can also be encountered any other time of day.
• Drive the speed limit or below when in areas frequented by deer.  This applies to most park areas.
• Be alert scanning tree lines and road shoulders for deer including the reflection from their eyes at night.
• Once you see deer or the reflection of eyes, slow down, and stay alert for movement.
• If you see deer running across the road in front of your vehicle, do not follow where they are going with your eyes.  Instead look to where the deer came from.  Deer do not travel alone and more deer may come from the same direction.
• At times deer will run down the road in front of your vehicle in a zig-zag pattern.  Drivers are often confused by this behavior.  Their natural instincts are kicking in and this is how they attempt to escape a predator.  If you stop your vehicle, they will finally run off the road.
• Should a deer jump into the road in front of you, hit your brakes and stay in your lane.  More extensive damage and more serious injuries can result from swerving to avoid the deer and striking a tree, rock, or oncoming vehicle.
• You will see devices sold that you can place on your vehicle that make whistling sounds to scare deer away.  It was my experience that these do not guarantee safety and I saw many vehicles with this equipment in place still have collisions with deer.

Today we are facing similar threats to native species of vegetation in the Southern Appalachians.  The new peril is coming in the form of funguses, insects, and exotic plants.

Hemlock Wooly Adelgid was first found on the east coast in 1951 near Richmond, Virginia.  Scientists believe that these microscopic insects originated in Southern Japan.  The adelgids are first noted as a foamy looking substance on the bottom of needles and branches.  The appearance is that they eventually suck the life from the trees to the point that entire stands on mountain sides quickly die.  Along The Blue Ridge Parkway the impact can be seen in the canopies of dead trees in the area of mile post 35 at Yankee Horse Gap and the Peaks of Otter Picnic area where the National Park Service has had to cut down some of these once majestic trees to maintain public safety on trails and roadways.

Dogwood trees provide a beautiful spring displays and provide food sources for birds and animals in the mountains of the East.  These native trees are being eradicated by a fungus known as the Dogwood Anthracnose first identified in the mid 1970s.  Vistas along The Blue Ridge Parkway that were once carpeted with dogwoods are now completely devoid of these trees.  The good news is that individual specimen trees do appear to be resistant to the fungus.  Scientists are studying these individual trees attempting to find an answer to this mystery.

Unfortunately there is no easy fix for either of these important species of trees.  The treatment in the open forest environment does not appear feasible at this time.  One scientist explained to me that the only way to save any single tree is to treat it with as much care as you would give a prized rose bush.  Research continues including experimenting with natural enemies for the adelgids and breeding of fungus resistant dogwood species.  Scientists will continue to work on these challenges as they are still striving to reintroduce the chestnut to the Southern Appalachian mountain slopes.

For more information you can refer to:

http://na.fs.fed.us/fhp/hwa/

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/dogwoodanthracnose/dogwood%20anthracnose.htm

Here are some simple tips to help prevent you or a family member from becoming a statistic in a report and ruining a wonderful Blue Ridge Parkway experience.

• Plan ahead for your hike.  Review a map of the area or check for a map posted at the trail head.  Having a vision of the trail route and where it goes will be helpful should you become confused by unofficial social trails.
• After reviewing a map and if available a description of the trail, do not take on a hike that is more physically difficult than all the members of your group can handle.
• Check the weather report for the area before your hike.  Dress and carry appropriate gear to remain comfortable and safe during your time outdoors.  Remember that in mountainous terrain temperatures drop sharply at night, so be prepared to prevent hypothermia should you be late getting to your destination or vehicle.
• Proper foot wear is essential not only for comfort but to prevent injuries.  If hiking in rocky terrain, be sure to wear stout hiking boots with good tread.  Most of the injuries treated by park rangers involve slips and falls on trails by people wearing inappropriate foot wear.
• Stay on the designated trails.  The vast majority of the searches for lost hikers I worked during my career involved people getting off the trail, getting confused, and then trying to cut cross country to get to their destination.
• Keep your group within sight of each other.  Never let some members, especially children, run ahead of the group.  This is a recipe for disaster when members of your hiking group take a different trail and become separated.  The result is generally people overreacting and contributing to the complexity of the situation.  This reaction is amplified when the missing hikers are children.  Well intended emotions then kick in and decision making becomes more difficult for members of the group.  One tip is to have the slowest member of your group walk in the front and everyone has to stay behind them.
• Carry water even on short hikes.  You may be amazed how quickly you can dehydrate while hiking outdoors.  Dehydration and hypothermia both result in confusion and a loss of decision making skills.

Following these simple practices will help you to enjoy your next visit to any park.

These park rangers show up with unbounded enthusiasm and with many hopes.  It is energizing for year round employees to see new seasonal rangers arriving for training.  Their passion is contagious and they show up anxious to start their work helping to educate and protect visitors.  When you visit a National Park it is most likely that the park ranger you meet will be a seasonal employee. 

Seasonal park rangers come from a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience.

There are the college students working in the parks for the summer to gain experience and help pay for school.  Many are hopeful of future opportunities that could develop into full time permanent National Park Service employment.

There are teachers who escape the classroom to the outdoors to refresh their outlook on life, supplement their meager income, and grow in ways that can provide enhanced experiences that can be brought back to the classroom.

Increasingly you will find retirees from a first career now working in National Parks as seasonal park rangers.  Many are taking advantage of this opportunity to live a dream they have had since childhood of working as a park ranger.

Returning military veterans will also be found working as seasonal park rangers attempting to establish themselves back in civilian life and perhaps start a new career.

There are many others who will work this summer as seasonal park rangers.  They all share the sense of adventure and dedication that is necessary to achieve the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect our nation’s resources for future generations.

Thanks seasonals for all you do.

Mr. Bytnar spent 27 years as a park ranger on the Blue Ridge Parkway working in three districts in both North Carolina and Virginia.

Trillium – This wildflower seems quite simple when first found, but when examined more closely it reveals a complex symmetry that always draws my attention.  The plant is well named for tri having the root meaning of three is quite descriptive of this low growing plant that can cover some forest floors like a brightly colored carpet.  When in bloom during May every plant has three pedals and layers of three leaves.  Colors vary from a deep pink to a faded almost white.  Although there are several species of this showy plant, the most prevalent species I have seen is the painted trillium.  They generally bloom from April to June and I viewed several impressive displays in the mountains this week.

Azalea – There are two species of native azaleas found in the Southern Appalachians.  The one that is bright pink is known as pinxter flower.  My favorite and much less seen is the orange flame azalea.  Both of these plants are in full bloom now on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

Many wildflowers will not be seen from a moving car.  Stop and take the time to hike a trail anywhere in the Southern Appalachians within the next few weeks.  Walk slowly, look around you, and you may be greeted with a beautiful gift of nature.

Twenty seven of  my years as a National Park Ranger were spent working on the Blue Ridge Parkway and many of the tales have the Parkway as their setting.

What is a park ranger’s life?

• A wild bear who favors Kentucky Fried Chicken
• A fugitive wanted in eight states
• A dog that saves his owner’s life
• Wildland firefighters battling nature and fire
• A ghost haunting a colonial mansion
• Hikers who stay lost because they think searchers calling their names are wild animals
• Being willing to risk your life to make our parks safe and help preserve them for the future

These are just a few experiences you will read about in A Park Ranger’s Life. Drawn from the thirty-two-year career of National Park Ranger Bruce W. Bytnar, you will discover what it takes to be a park ranger, what threats to visitors and resources they deal with on a daily basis, and what you can do to help protect and preserve our national heritage.

The idea that an individual could just toss their trash out the window of a moving car is incomprehensible to the type of person who aspires to be a park ranger.  This lack of understanding of motive is compounded exponentially when that littering occurs within a National Park.

A moment that makes any park ranger’s day is when they actually catch a litterer red handed in the act.  A park ranger hears some outrageous reactions from these violators.

One night while working at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park I backed my patrol car into the entrance of a picnic area on Lee Drive.  I was sitting there with my dome light on filling out some paperwork on a violation notice I had issued earlier when I saw a vehicle coming down Lee Drive at a high rate of speed.  The vehicle started to slow as it approached and I assumed that they saw my car.  As the vehicle passed the driver tossed a half gallon wine bottle out the window striking the front bumper on my car.  I immediately pulled out with my emergency lights on and stopped the vehicle.  I approached the driver and asked him if he knew why I had stopped him.  He said he had no idea why. 

I then asked him if he threw a wine bottle from his car.

His answer shocked me, “Yea I did.  So what’s the big deal? Someone will pick it up.”

No matter how I tried, I could not convince him that he had done something wrong and that it was a violation of the law to litter.  He left with several violation notices, angry for being hassled.  I cannot remember if he ever paid his fines.

Through my career I was surprised to find the response I heard that night to be a common theme among litterers.  Numerous times I was told by people I witnessed throwing out trash in parks that it was not important because, “Someone will pick it up.”  They resented being charged with what they considered no violation of the law.

Just another example of the interesting types of people a park ranger gets to meet during their career.

Even though the fiscal year officially starts in October, it is this time of year that field offices get a better picture of what their operating budgets will be for the season.  In some years we were not informed of our bottom line for funds until June.  Supervisors should have received their registers of job applicants from those who applied back in January to work this coming summer.  So the laborious assignment of completing the hiring of seasonal staffs is in full swing.  This process keeps supervisors in offices glued to the phones making contacts, checking availability, and eventually making offers.  So if you applied for a National Park Service seasonal position, stay by the phone or in reach of one.

As the weather starts to break Park Rangers and maintenance staff are able to get out to facilities and roads to assess what damage there may be to park infrastructure.  The most common damage found is from fallen trees and limbs.  Many times roads may be blocked or structures will have roof damage.  This can result in planning for minor cleanups to major repair projects.  Under the ground and harder to locate there may be water lines and sewage systems cracked due to age by the shifting of earth and rock from the freezing and thawing of ice.  Leaks in water systems may not be found until they are activated just days before facilities are opened for the visitor season.

Another important work force will be out this month.  Volunteers who maintain trail systems through the region will be scouting and monitoring for damage on the Appalachian and Mountains to Sea Trails among many others.  These volunteers spend thousands of hours each year clearing, marking, maintaining, and building trails for the public to enjoy.

A lot of work begins now so you can enjoy our National Parks later this spring.

We wrote this book to share some of the joy we have had traveling and learning about the Parkway with our two young sons while Anne was researching and writing (and later speaking about) her book, Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History (University of North Carolina Press, 2006). We were surprised to find that there had never been a book on the Parkway written for children and young people. We wanted to find a way to engage, delight and help a new generation of travelers understand the Parkway’s history and commit to preserving the road.

As a starting point for the book, we took a letter that an Ashe County, North Carolina farmer wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression years of the 1930s, which Anne found preserved in the National Archives. The letter described how the farmer’s land lay in the path of the Parkway, then under construction. Spinning a fictional story from that letter, we wrote “When the Parkway Came“. In the book, the farmer’s son — now a grandfather himself — shows his granddaughter Ginny where the Parkway passes through what used to be his family’s land. He remembers how losing part of their farm made the whole family sad, but he tells her how proud he is of the beautiful Parkway that now belongs to everyone.

In writing the book we had to figure out how to tell a story about one family that would personalize and illustrate larger issues faced by many: the hardships of the Depression, the visions and hopes of Parkway designers and proponents, the benefits brought to the mountains by Parkway jobs, and the wrenching challenges of balancing private property rights and a larger public good. To make those issues accessible and compelling for young readers and to introduce the primary sources from which we learn about history, we illustrated the book with historical photographs, documents and advertisements as well as contemporary color photographs. We hope that this approach will make it a book that will appeal to young readers and also to their parents and grandparents. We would love to see it help families talk about their own memories of “when the Parkway came” and their own hopes for its future.

The book is called When the Parkway Came, and its main story is based on a 1937 letter in the National Archives that I discovered while doing research for Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History (UNC Press 2006). In the letter, an Ashe County, NC farmer writes to President Roosevelt to ask for help when he learns that the Parkway is going to come through the middle of his farm. When the Parkway Came features a fictionalized account of this family’s experience as told by the farmer’s son to his granddaughter many years later as they travel the Parkway and see where the family farm used to be. To convey the feel of the mountains in the 1930s, the coming of the Parkway, and its stunning beauty, we illustrated the story with contemporary photographs as well as historic photographs and documents. The book is appropriate for approximately ages 7 or so and up. We think it will be something that parents, grandparents, and children will enjoy reading together.

When the Parkway Came was beautifully designed by longtime UNC Press lead book designer Rich Hendel (who also did the design for Super-Scenic Motorway and David’s previous UNC Press books), and we have published it ourselves. We chose to go this route in order both to maintain editorial control (especially over the imagery in the book) and to assure that it would be available in time for the Parkway 75th next year.

The book is being distributed to retail sellers by John F. Blair Publisher in Winston-Salem (visit http://www.blairpub.com/alltitles/whenparkwaycame.htm), but individual orders may be placed directly with us. We have just received the first shipment of books, and have them available for mailing in time for Christmas. More information and a downloadable order form are available at our book website: http://www.whentheparkwaycame.com/.

Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial, courtesy National Park Service.

This post isn’t specific to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I thought readers might be interested in a project that I’m involved in that is taking a comprehensive look at the state of history in the National Parks. Here’s our official blurb about what we’re up to:

(By the way, the photo at left is of Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial, courtesy National Park Service.)

The largest learned society devoted to the study of American history, the Organization of American Historians (OAH), has embarked upon a two-year project to evaluate the state of history in the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). The study project began in 2008, under the cooperative agreement between NPS and OAH, under the supervision of the Chief Historian of the National Park Service, Dr. Robert K. Sutton. The project was envisioned by the former Chief Historian, Dr. Dwight T. Pitcaithley, who is now retired from NPS. The final report will be issued in August 2010.

Since the 1930s, when it was given official responsibility for a growing collection of American historical sites, the NPS has been one of the key preservers and presenters of history to the American public. Yet understandings of history, like our knowledge of the natural world, constantly evolve. In order to be effective in its historical mission, the parks need a robust and ongoing research program to undergird sound historic and cultural resources preservation policy and history-based educational and interpretive initiatives. This study will provide unprecedented attention to whether the current practice of history in America’s National Parks is adequate to meet the parks’ – and the public’s – needs.

In the spring of 2008, the OAH appointed a team of four eminent American history scholars, Anne Mitchell Whisnant (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chair), Marla R. Miller (University of Massachusetts at Amherst), Gary B. Nash (UCLA), and David P. Thelen (Indiana University) to conduct the study. Through surveys, interviews with NPS historians and other professionals, and park visits, the team is taking a comprehensive look at historical research and interpretation in parks. The study will focus on questions of how historical research is conducted, supported, fostered, and used in park resource management, planning, interpretation, and education.

The aim of the project is to provide critical feedback on the current practice of history in the NPS and to propose changes that would support improvement in the quality of historical research and interpretation in the parks. The final report will propose best practices for further development of effective park history programs and research projects that will allow NPS staff to employ the most up-to-date tools, insights, and scholarship of the history profession in order to better serve the interests of the American public.

This project has been undertaken under the cooperative agreement originally entered into in 1995 between the NPS and the OAH. To date, the cooperative agreement has sponsored dozens of jointly designed projects. These include critical site reviews, original research, historiographical essays, and suggestions for new interpretive directions. The partnership’s goals are to strengthen NPS history programs and forge working relationships between the NPS and the historical profession to maximize the presentation of the parks’ vast cultural resources for park visitors and the American public.

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Dear Heritage Partners,

We have just become aware that the North Carolina state budget passed by the North Carolina House Tuesday night would eliminate all but one of the Heritage Development Officer (otherwise known as Tourism Development Officer) positions in Western North Carolina (“Western North Carolina” being defined as everything west of Interstate 77).

We currently have five Heritage Development Officers in the 25-county Blue Ridge National Heritage Area region: Helen Ruth Almond, Leesa Brandon, Frankie McWhorter, Kaye Meyers, and Tom Holder. Another position, which was originally filled by Ron Ruehl and later by Jerry Tate, has been vacant for all of 2009.

These people are absolutely essential to the operations of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. The BRNHA has only four full-time staff members, and the Heritage Development Officers are our representatives “on the ground” in our 25 counties. They are the ones who have their fingers on the pulse of all the heritage and tourism initiatives that have made such a difference in the Heritage Area in the last 5 years.

Without them we could not operate our grants program or provide assistance to the 26 heritage councils that we serve. Their loss would be a crippling blow to the BRNHA, our partners, and would undo much of the progress that has been made in heritage preservation, interpretation and development as a result of BRNHA programs and grants.

Click here to read a summary of the proposed cuts. (This is a large file and will take some time to open.)

Go to page 14, item 64. If you share our concern, we urge you to contact your state House and Senate members IMMEDIATELY and let them know how important these Heritage Development Officers are to you, and how adversely their loss would affect heritage preservation AND economic development efforts in our region. Ask them to restore funding for these positions.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for your help.

Best Wishes,

Penn Dameron

Executive Director

Blue Ridge National Heritage Area

About the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area

The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, designated by Congress and the President in November 2003, works to protect, preserve, interpret, and develop the unique natural, historical, and cultural resources of Western North Carolina for the benefit of present and future generations, and in so doing to stimulate improved economic opportunity in the region. National Heritage Areas are locally-governed institutions that encourage residents, non-profit groups, government agencies, and private partners to work together in planning and implementing programs that preserve and celebrate America’s defining landscapes.

Last year the Parkway Foundation had its own learning camp with it’s Lodging and Learning Program at the Mt. Pisgah Inn. Our first year success gained us a reputation and soon we were receiving a call from Phil Blumenthal (Blumenthal Foundation) and Mike House, general manager of Wildacres. Would you like to join in a partnership with Discovery Place to make this something bigger?

Saying “yes” was easy and we learned early in our covenversations with the Discovery Place staff – John Mackay, Robert Corbin, Mary Bures, Karen McCall, Lisa Hoffman – that there ideals were as lofty as ours.

What has been assembled is an experience where every moment will be connected to the next and an agenda that is facilitated by an overly competent staff.

I am so proud of what this weekend will be that I am making sure that my elderly parents will be there, too, to be kids again.

Today I’d like to offer a few quick thoughts on a wonderful book I’ve just read about the history of three National Parks in the state of Washington: Mt. Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades. David Louter’s 2007 Windshield Wilderness: Cars, Roads, and Nautre in Washington’s National Parks (Univ. of Washington Press, which I’ve recently reviewed the NPS publication CRM: Cultural Resources Management) sheds some new and interesting light on the Blue Ridge Parkway’s history and future.

Louter, a historian with the National Park Service’s Pacific West Region, looks at the evolution of each of these three parks, formed at different moments in the twentieth century, with an eye to how the parks accommodated roads and automobiles.

Mt. Ranier, established in 1899, admitted cars in 1908 and developed during a period of enthusiastic park road building championed by first NPS director Stephen Mather. In the 1920s and early 30s, Mather and his successor Horace Albright “transformed parks into landscapes for the highway in nature” (p 36) partly by relying upon landscape architects to fit park highways carefully to the land as part of “master plans” for each park. Nature and wilderness were scenic or visual (rather than ecological) qualities; preservation occurred if the roadside picture appeared natural and roads blended into the landscape.

Mt. Ranier, a product of this period, featured a number of scenic drives, including the Mather Memorial Parkway (completed 1932), by which citizens experienced the park.

Olympic, developed after the late 1930s, reflected a newer notion of wilderness areas as roadless and thus did not feature roads in the park. However, visitors viewed the park mainly via the Hurricane Ridge Road, a scenic route developed with NPS support just outside the park boundaries.

North Cascades, meanwhile, was established in the late 1960s, in the context of the modern environmental movement. The park itself was roadless “wilderness” (by then an official category under the Wilderness Act of 1964), but the adjacent “national recreation areas” contained the familiar scenic roads by which visitors enjoyed the park.

Surveying this history, Louter argues that Americans’ ideas about what National Parks are have been formed by seeing parks through the windshield of a car. The national park system and our automobile-driven highway landscapes grew up together. And although the growth of the environmental movement through the mid-twentieth century brought the notion of roadless “wildnerness” more strongly into the American consciousness and into park management policy, it cannot be denied that most Americans have come to know their parks by driving to, through, or around them.

Thus, although there were always some who considered it an intrusion, for most Americans, the automobile has been an enabling technology, and it has seemed possible that, in parks, automobiles and nature could coexist in harmony. “Cars,” Louter writes, “have been in national parks for more than a century, and it would be hard to imagine parks . . . without cars” (page 164).

All of this is especially interesting as we think about the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

First, it casts doubt on the perennial assertion in many a popular publication that the Parkway somehow represented a bold and untested new idea. It’s simply not so. As much as we love it, our beautiful park is product of the great era of scenic road building (1920s/30s) that had already produced many other spectacular park roads like Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, the Wawona Road in Yosemite, the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway in Zion, the Rim Drive in Crater Lake, and Skyline Drive in Shenandoah.

The Parkway’s first landscape architect, Stanley Abbott, came from a long line of landscape architects and engineers who followed Major Hiram M. Chittenden (engineer who supervised road construction in Yellowstone from the 1880s to 1900s) in believing that park roads should be carefully fit to the land to present a carefully-orchestrated series of panoramas.

But the Parkway was in one respect different from these other park roads: while they wound through parks, the Blue Ridge Parkway is the park. The road is the destination.

This presents an interesting conundrum as we consider the crushing environmental impact of cars and begin to see the dawning of a post-automobile age (or at least a post-gasoline-powered automobile age). We can’t make the Blue Ridge Parkway roadless; if the road disappears, the park as we know it disappears. But can we consider whether our Parkway experience must always be mediated through a windshield to retain its value? Are we tethered forever to the idea of “windshield wilderness”?

I don’t know the answers, but the questions are worth thinking about as we try to imagine the Parkway for the next 75 years.

Answer:
One of the many beneficial programs of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the Parks as Classrooms program is aimed at providing resources and funding for educational outreach to children in all 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties. Over the years, hundreds of rangers have enriched the lives of tens of thousands of school children.

The parks become “learning laboratories” to help children develop greater understanding, awareness, appreciation and commitment to the preservation and/or restoration of the National Park System.

By utilizing the resources available through the Parks as Classrooms program, teachers will be able to broaden children’s horizons that is not only beneficial to them, but to the Blue Ridge Parkway as well. These kids are poised to become future stewards of one of our country’s greatest national treasures.

Every year, for four months, National Park Service rangers visit elementary age schoolchildren to teach them about:

• the history of the National Parks,
• the cultural history of the Appalachian Mountains,
• the importance of active lifestyles and outdoor recreation,
• the science of ecosystems, habitats and the environment, and
• introduce them to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Parks As Classrooms is based on the schools’ standard curriculum, which means that every time a ranger goes into a classroom, their presentation relates to other topics the students are learning that year.  Often, rangers return to schools each year, and the students know them by name.  When they reach the fifth grade, children who benefit from a Parks As Classrooms ranger visiting their school every year may understand:

• why the National Parks were established in 1916
• how the Blue Ridge Parkway was built
• the types of music, instruments, dancing and folk art that is part of the heritage of the Appalachian region
• what makes the mountains distinct from other regions of Virginia and North Carolina
• the similarities and differences in animals whose habitat is located along the Blue Ridge Parkway
• the coScrumptious Apple Butter from the Orchard at Altapass!mposition and uses of rocks and minerals, like those at the North Carolina Museum of Minerals
• the interdependence of plants and animals in food chains and ecosystems, and how conservation protects those systems.

As their sense of wonder is provoked and nurtured, these children develop a meaningful sense of place that helps them better understand and appreciate the heritage of the spectacular Blue Ridge Mountains.

While the popularity and success of Parks as Classrooms has been exceptional, limitations of staff, weather and operating budget exclude many thousands of children from ever having the opportunity to participate. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation fully funds Parks as Classrooms and the program is directed by National Park rangers. The Foundation believes that continuous outreach to all the children in the communities bordering the Parkway creates an ideal synergy of public education and self-preservation.

For more information, please call the appropriate number below based on where your school is located:

Virginia Schools

• Albemarle, Amherst, Augusta, Bedford, Botetourt, Nelson, and Rockbridge counties: call (540) 377-2377
• Roanoke County, Roanoke City, Salem, and Franklin counties: call (540) 767-2490 ext. 37
• Floyd and Patrick counties: call (540) 745 9680
• Grayson and Carroll counties: call (276) 236-5309 ext 113

North Carolina Schools

• Ashe, Alleghany, Surry, and Wilkes counties: call (276) 236-5309 ext 113
• Yancey, Mitchell, Avery, and Watauga counties: call (828) 765-1228
• Asheville city, Buncombe, Haywood, Swain, Jackson, Macon, Clay, and Graham counties: call (828) 350-3822

North Carolina residents can display their pride of the Blue Ridge Parkway and provide financial support by purchasing a Blue Ridge Parkway License Tag.

Titled “Not Just a Scenic Road: The Blue Ridge Parkway and Its History,” the workshop features scholarly speakers, Parkway area tours, hands-on experiences with historical documents, and practical sessions on lesson plan development led by master teachers. It focuses on history, politics, culture, race relations, construction, recreation, and the environment. You can read the full schedule here.

This week’s participants (almost evenly divided among elementary, middle school, and high school teachers) arrived from 17 states on Sunday afternoon and soon boarded a bus for a short Parkway drive to the Cascasdes overlook at milepost 272 in Jeffress Park. There, in a gentle rain, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation Development Director Willa Coffey Mays welcomed the group with watermelon, cookies, and drinks and talked about the importance of public-private partnerships for the National Parks today. Then it was back to Boone for a barbecue picnic and rest in the dorm until the seminar got underway in earnest the next morning.

Project Director Professor Neva Specht, an ASU historian and the official ASU “Blue Ridge Parkway Liaison,” had invited me to deliver an hour-and-a-half opening address on Monday morning and to engage with the teachers in two smaller-group Q&A sessions.

This turned out to be a challenging assignment. On the one hand, I knew that, unlike most of the presentations I do, I would be talking to people who had probably already read my book (they all received a copy as part of their packet of reading materials six weeks ago). I also knew that, with a quarter of the participants being from North Carolina (none this week from Virginia), some would have long histories with the Parkway, while others would be completely new to the region. And I knew that in the afternoon after my talk, the group would be touring Grandfather Mountain, a place where having an informed, critical, historical perspective is crucial to understanding the significance of what is being seen.

After many false starts, I finally built a presentation with four major aims: (1) to probe what had drawn the teachers to this seminar and what they hoped to gain from it; (2) to launch them on what I like to call a “different journey” on the Parkway – one that gets beyond aesthetics, beauty, and design, and develops a critical perspective and an awareness of how conflict over important issues shaped the way the Parkway lies on the land; (3) to prepare them for the outing to Grandfather Mountain (Google Earth was very helpful in this regard!); and (4) to suggest some big ideas that would be transferable from the Parkway context to teaching about many topics. I may post some of this material in future blog entries.

Judging from the comments and discussion that followed the presentation, I think it was successful. At lunchtime, one teacher showed me a Grandfather Mountain ad in a local publication that she saw in a completely new way after knowing more about the history of that site. There is no better reward for teaching than feeling that you have empowered someone else to see something new for themselves.

Probably the most gratifying part of the whole experience for me, though, was that it was happening at all. After I began my Parkway research at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1991 as part of a graduate school seminar paper on the Cherokee opposition to the Parkway, I sought advice from some senior scholars on whether to proceed with a dissertation on the Parkway or on the Eastern Cherokees. One eminent scholar, whose work I respect greatly, advised that I work on the Cherokees, as she thought that there might not be that much else that was interesting to say about a road. I proceeded to ignore this advice, of course, and found that there was a lot to say. And even with my book published, there is still so much more to study, analyze, learn, and know about this road and this park.

“Not Just a Scenic Road,” and the enthusiasm and interest of the 80 teachers and 16 leaders and faculty members who have shaped this program is dramatic evidence of that vague sense of possibility that I had 17 years ago, and, I hope, the beginning of many more serious efforts to understand what this Parkway teaches us about our region and our nation. Thanks to Neva and her colleagues who worked so hard to organize this wonderful and worthwhile experience.