The People and the Place

Most people who lived in the area of the Shenandoah National Park had prosperous, happy lives. When the Shenandoah National Park was started people (or most of them) were forced to move by a type of Eminent Domain (where the Government has the right to take anyone’s PRIVATE property for use by the public)called the Blanket Condemnation Act. Most people say it was used only once but we listened to the Perdues (a husband and wife who have studied the Shenandoah National Park, Eminent Domain, and Blanket Condemnation for years) and found out that the actual first time of Blanket Condemnation took place in the Philippines by the orders of Judge A. C. Carson. But the use of the act in Shenandoah was ordered by William E. Carson, brother of A. C. Carson. About that same time the same thing was happening in Texas. So, actually Blanket Condemnation was used three times in a five to seven year time period.

Most sold their houses to the government without a fight, but some had to be evicted - taken unwillingly out of their houses by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). These were people whose families had lived on the land for generations, and wished to live out their days amongst familiar scenes. Mind you, the ones too old to travel were allowed to stay, and some of the poorest families got a better life outside the park area. But many people were unhappy with what had happened.

By moving, it was much easier for them to get a good schooling, and they had more contact with the outside world. But by not moving, they would have carried on their lives as they had always been. Which side is right?

A few of the displacements, and many of the evictions were carried out with disrespect. On one of these occasions, the CCC boys waited until the inhabitants of the condemned house went to the store, entered the house, and dressed themselves in the house’s inhabitant’s clothes. Then they began to dance about wildly dressed in the people’s clothes.

But then again, what about the people who visit the Shenandoah National Park almost every day? Very few know anything about the displacement, and almost all come away happy with what they have experienced. Is the good of many worth the misfortune of few? Would you rather have a beautiful national park, or happy, prosperous people living where it would be?

Return to the Grandpa's Mountain web page