
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994                   TAG: 9405310068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

DISPLACED FAMILIES ORGANIZE

When federal government workers drew the boundary of what was to become Shenandoah National Park, the line ran right down the middle of Lisa Berry's grandmother's house.

The family had to leave, to give way to the park and build a new life elsewhere. The house was torn down.

Berry, 27, of Charlottesville, has organized a group, The Children of Shenandoah, to rekindle, cherish and preserve the memories and heritage of the people forced from their homes between 1924 and 1936 by the state and federal governments to create the park.

Randolph Shifflett of Madison County vividly recalls federal workers burning down his family's mountain home to clear people from the new park.

"I was 8 years old, and I remember it just as good as yesterday," Shifflett said. "In a sense, they wanted families to watch. They wanted to make a point. If people left and their homes were still standing, they might slip back in."

Between 500 and 800 families left the hollows and hillsides of eight Virginia counties to accommodate the park, said Charles Perdue, professor of folklore and English at the University of Virginia, who is writing a book on the park's creation.

Perdue, Berry and Shifflett said most of the millions of people who drive along Skyline Drive or hike the trails in the park probably know little, if anything, of the people forced to abandon the land.

The Children of Shenandoah could change that, Berry said.

But the group's primary purpose is to help descendants of the relocated families - people such as Berry who have never heard the complete story of their family's exodus from the park, and people like Shifflett who are still bitter over what they witnessed.

"I think this is a real good idea," said Betty Brubach, Greene County's representative on the Blue Ridge Committee for Shenandoah National Park Relations. "Some might say this inflames the hard feelings that exist. But I think those hard feelings won't change. It won't be worse, and maybe they can get a dialogue started with the park. Maybe a museum."

by CNB