Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-25
Beauty OF Shenandoah Road
UnfoIded to First Group
of Visitors.
MAY NOT ENJOY
HIGHWAY BEFORE JULY
National Playground Especially
Appeals to City Dwellers, Al.
bright Tells Delegates.
BY Staff Correspondent of The Star.

Or 1LANO, va, september "a
Virginia turned over the heart of its
Blue Ridge Mountains. famed in song
and story, to the Nation today. not in
deed of trust but In confidence the Ma
ton would gladly receive as its first
Eastern national park the area that
surrounds the highest regions of the
Blue Ridge Mountains, from Waynes-
boro to Front Royal, and, as a starter
showed to the experts on park matters
from the entire country, just what could
be done about a road along mountain
tops.
Skyland Drive, which the public
probably will not see until next July.
or even later If the program for the
development of the Shenandoah Nation
al Park is not carried through &C
cording to schedule, was shown this
afternoon in its present 34-mile length
% the Bicentennial Conference on Plan
ming. Parks and Government, the first
group 10 see the modest venture that
was started back in the days when the
Valley of Virginia was suffering from
the ravages of a terrific drought, and
was looking for ways to alleviate the
suffering Of the mountain folk, who
felt the drought most desperately.
Beauty of Drive Extolled.
Out of tina. drought, the dry earth
which maze trees wither and fed forest
fires with brittle fuel, sent men en-
oloyed by the Bureau Of Public Roads Of
the Department of Agriculture to build
ing an adjunct to the Capitals park
system which bids fair to eclipse the
formal Mount Vernon Memorial High
way.
Carved off the shoulder of the highest
ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the
Skyland drive from picturesque PIANO.
rama down to Swift Run Gap. "a miles
away. winds in ever-revealing beauty of
the Virginia valley country. sometimes
amid clouds. other times dropping dawn
TO gaps that give glimpses of peaceful,
fertile valleys basking in their sunshine
on either side.
Horace NJ. Albright. director of the
National Park Service, addressing the
conference delegates, told them how the
Shenandoah country had lent itself
most readily t. deve opment into ma
tional park. He pointed out that the
Government will take over Shenandoah
Nat.oral Park by July
Recreation Value Stressed.
1t will bring a new field of recreation
to the country south of the Mason
D.X-n line, he said. 1t will take resi-
dents of the South out Of the movies,
night clubs, bridge parties and other
city life diversion and take them to
woodland mountain trails. to picturesque
streams with stocks of brock and rain
bow trout, to a clean, fine outlook on
life with which to 60 back to city bust
ness, he declared
Mr.. Albright pointed out that the aim
of the National Park Service in develop
ing the Shenandoah National Park is
to provide for such nearby cities as
Washington some place where people
tired of formal regularity of city streets
and schemed landScaping of city parks
can come into country which nature
is allowed to reclaim and repopulate,
and to gather some knowledge of the
beauty of the country which earliest
Virginia settlers never more than par
TALLY conquered.
opened by the Skyland drive brings to
Washingtonians particularly a country
that has. since settlement of America,
peen practically inaccessible and, until
lew years ago. practically unknown to
even those Virginians living in valleys
on either side of the ridge which forms
the backbone of Shenandoah Park. AS
humanitarian project, not only by-rea-
son OF its having been built as
drought-relief project, but as a means of
bringing twentieth century civilization
to an almost primitive mountain folk
living in the bollows and coves of the
mountains, Skyland drive will be a
means. he said, of bringing prosperity,
in the form IF thn,Ico,, dc of,
bearing their burden of tourists, into a
country that has known misery priva-
ton and hunger for more than a hun
dred years.
Hopes Park Is Enjoyed.
He said he wanted Washingtonians n
make the most Of the great park de-
velopment that is to be just three hours
motor drive from Washington. and
urged park executives to spread the
story OF the Shenandoah National Park
throughout the land.
Delegates to the conference went by
horseback and on foot from Skyland.
over the mountain trails to White Run
Canyon and Cedar Rock this morning.
partaking of chicken barbecue lunch
at the brink of the highest crest along
Skyland Drive. overlooking Shenandoah
valley and presenting a view of the
A~AoS AsAA6C anu the VdlleY
below for more than 80 miles.
Then they were taken by automobiles
along the entire length of Skyland
drive as it now stands. through the
3OO-foot tunnel carved in the side OF
Mary's Rock, quarter of a mile from
Panorama. the present beginning of the
road, on from mountain top to noun
tain top to Swift Run Gap, with each
gap between mountains offering newer
and more impressive views of the fiat
valleys on either side, with their little
groups Of homes nesting together here
and there. and the nodded ridges of
other mountains in the Blue Ridge
Chain showing blue in the haze that
always hangs over the Shenandoah
country and gives the Blue Ridge
Mountains their color.
Tonight the delegates gathered
around bonfire at Skyland, saw the
entertainment Of mountain folk, singing
and dancing. playing crude musical in
struments, which have been a part Of
the Blue Ridge hollows for more than
century, and sang with colored
choir imported to entertain the confer
ence. Tomorrow they will make a fur
ther inspection Of the park, walking and
riding up the Passamaquott trail. After
luncheon they will return to Washing
ton and 60 to their homes.