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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995                   TAG: 9506280013
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

`HILLBILLY' TAG PULLED FROM PARK

Shenandoah National Park officials say they have removed signs and exhibits that portrayed the families evicted from the mountains when the park was formed as ignorant hillbillies.

The park hopes eventually to have new exhibits that better represent the lives and culture of the 500 to 800 families that the government removed from the hills.

``We're planning to do the right thing,'' said Karen Michaud, interpretation and education unit leader at the park. ``Some of the stuff we had focused on the poor Appalachian culture of the people who once lived here - you know, the mountaineer on his porch with the rifle and the moonshine. What's that comic-strip character's name? Snuffy Smith? We kind of reinforced that idea.''

Many area residents still remember the eviction of their ancestors from the park in the 1920s. Though many left voluntarily, many others watched as government officials burned down their homes to drive them from the land.

Last year, residents formed the group Children of the Shenandoah to lobby park officials to tell the public of their ancestors' lives.

Lisa Correne Custalow, the group's leader, said park photos, exhibits, roadside signs and even park rangers give the 2 million yearly visitors the impression that the people who once lived on the land all lived in poverty, destroyed the land through bad farming practices and happily donated their property to the federal government.

``They make it look like the park saved the land from the people. It's not true,'' she said.

Michaud said Children of the Shenandoah members have every right to complain about the park's treatment of their ancestors.

It will take at least two years and $500,000 to create new exhibits. That could be delayed because of federal budget cuts.

Another group, Friends of the Shenandoah National Park, hopes to speed the process by raising private funds for the project.

Steve Coleman, the group's director, said a fund-raising drive is planned to start in September. It will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the original fund-raising drive in which Virginians collected $1.2 million to pay for the park.

Michaud said the park owns 100 hours of taped conversations with former inhabitants, as well as reams of documents compiled by the social workers who helped the people relocate. The park has never been able to afford to have someone go through the historical material.

``To tell the right story, you have to do research,'' Michaud said. ``All the facts, all the dimensions, all the information has to be looked at. We want to show, `What did folks give up for us to have this wonderful resource we have?' ''

by CNB