"Answer at Once": Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, 1934-1938
Unlike most U.S. national parks, which were carved out of public lands, Shenandoah National Park was in part created through the condemnation of private lands held by more than 500 families, many of which had been on their land for generations. As condemnations and evictions rolled on and the park grew around them, many of these people wrote government officials--usually in pencil, on ruled paper from school tablets--to negotiate, ask for services, or for other reasons. Frequently poignant, sometimes funny, and with a spirit that belies depictions of the evictees as ignorant, lawless hillbillies, the selection from these letters contained in this volume show a little known aspect of the creation of what is now viewed as a national treasure.(Book News, Inc.)