Evening star., 1935-11-03
M0UNTA|NEERS CO
TO O25FARMSTEADS
Rural ReSettIernent to Take
$50 Shenandoah Park Fam.
lilies to New Sites.

lilies to New Sites.
Preparatory to transplanting s5o
mountaineer families from the Shen.
andoah National Park area to nearby
valleys, the Rural Resettlement Ad-
ministratIon announced yesterday
work would begin within two weeks on
the first homesteads unit.
The initial tract Is located near
Luray. Va, and is called the Ida VAL
ley site. An allotment of $46,678 has
been made for the construction of IS
farmsteads to house the first group Of
families ousted from their mountain
homes by the national park devel-
opment.
The project Is the second Rural
Resettlement venture to be instituted
in the Washington vicinity. the other
being Tugwelltown, a suburban low
rental housing development started at
Berwyn Heights, Nd, two weeks ago.
There Is no similarity between the
two, however, as the Tugwelltown
dwellings will be rented, while those in
Ida Valley and approximately eight
other sites to be started later will be
sold outright on a long-term basis.
The Berwyn Heights community is
primarily for low-income groups Of
city dwellers, while the Virginia
project is for dispossessed noun
taineers.
343 Acres Set Aside.
About 343 acres, costing $1,000,
have been set aside for the first unit
near Luray. The defunct Subsistence
Homesteads Corp, whose activities
were absorbed by R. R. A., started
this project and seven house founda-
tions were laid before a technical
obstruction of funds halted work. The
original allotment to transplant occu-
pants of the Shenandoah Park area
totaled 100000. This has been trans
ferred to Rural Resettlement.
Eighteen of the first 25 families to
be moved out of the park area will
be given tracts of from 7l2 to IL acres
and the rest IL to 21z acres. This
latter group IS composed Of families
too old to manage larger farms.
Requisitions for materials and
equipment for the project have been
submitted to the Procurement Divi-
sion and a superintendent of build
ing construction has been appointed.
A project Office has been established
at Luray. Officials said relief labor
would be used Ito the fullest possible
extent" Whichever of the future
dwellers are skilled or semi skilled
laborers will assist in construction
work.
Each of the farmsteads, the Reset
tlement Administration announced,
will include a two, three, four or five
room house. combined poultry house
and barn, hog pen, and vegetable
storage house. Houses will be wired
for electricity. Also available will be
a 40-acre community pasture, a COM
munity house and a work shop.
Incomes Guaranteed.
Oficials said plans had been worked
out to enable the transplanted families
to obtain incomes from farming op-
erations and outside labor which would
be more than sufficient to pay for
their homes. Cost Of the farmsteads,
including interest, will approximate
$4,000. The land will be taxable, it
Is understood.
The total area Of all sites, includ.
ing the first unit to be started soon,
will amount to about Ais acres.
Although all private property in
the park area was condemned to make
way for conversion Of the land into
public domain, most of the dispossessed
families readily accepted the re-
muneration offered by the Govern
ment, officials declared. An excep-
ton was Melancthon Cliser, rugged
individualist," who ran a filling sta
ton on the park territory and had
to be evicted by force about a month
ago. The State of Virginia, not the
Federal Government, was responsible
for the condemnation proceedings.
All lands now under option in an.
ticipation of the transportation proc
os are within reasonable distance"
of the homes of the affected families,
officials said Because IS of the $50
families to be moved are considered
/. BILE to help themselves. the Fed
eral Relief Administration has granted
Virginia Sl50000 to dole out to this
group. In effect, the money is a di-
rect gift to these poorest of families.
for they will pay it back to the Fed
eral Government as part of the pur-
chase price Of their valley farms.
Elizabethan Dialect.
The people to be transplanted, an
investigation has shown, are the prod
uc' If an early American civilization,
some of whom speak a decided Eliza.
bethan dialect. Among some of the
inhabitants the territory is still known
as "the Virginia Free State" A study
conducted a few years ago revealed
that some folk had never heard Of
President Hoover, who had a vacation
camp nearby. much less of Abraham
Lincoln and the Civil War. Many
had not heard of the World War,
At one time these families received
a substantial income from the thou
sands Of chestnut trees In the yicini-
ty. The recen' chestnut blight, which
destroyed virtually all of the coun-
try's chestnut trees, dissipated this
81 rec Of revenue and now the maxi
mum cash income in the mountain
hollows does not exceed $3.50 an
nually. investigators have reported.
Cash income now is secured largely
through picking apples in the valley,
selling wood to the resort at Skyland.
drying apples for Baltimore and Rich
r-ond markets and growing broom
corn for sale as brooms. Basket
weaving is another occupation Of the
near ar-p-imitive Virginia mountain
communities
M'NAIR I'M | 0IIISIANA