THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110431
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Descendants of people removed from their mountain homes to make way for the Shenandoah National Park are complaining that visitors are getting misled about the park's creation.
``They purposefully leave people with the false impression that all the land was donated, which is a slap in the face to the people who had to watch as their homes were burned down,'' said Lisa Berry, president of Children of Shenandoah.
Park spokesman Sandy Rives said members of the group have a legitimate complaint and some of the information given to tourists may be changed. ``People were moved out of the park and we recognize that,'' Rives said.
Park officials have been correcting visitor presentations that negatively portray the former inhabitants of the hills and hollows that now form the park, he said.
``In the past five years we've made tremendous changes in our interpretative programs,'' Rives said. ``We've stopped all presentations that called them hillbillies, uneducated or backwoods people.''
Between 1924 and 1936, the state and federal governments worked together to create Shenandoah National Park along the Blue Ridge Mountains. According to scholars, between 500 and 800 families had to leave their farms and homes in eight counties to accommodate the park.
The state condemned large chunks of land and turned them over to the federal government. Some of the previous owners had to be forcibly removed to the relocation sites.
``There are pictures of a pregnant woman being removed by two large men,'' Berry said Friday, ``and another one of an elderly man being handcuffed.''
KEYWORDS: SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
by CNB