Shenandoah National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: December 26, 1935
• Location: Virginia
• Area: 197,411 acres

Overview

Shenandoah National Park is located 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Washington, DC, in the northwestern portion of Virginia. It is likely named for the Shenandoah River, which runs through a valley near the park. The river straddles the Blue Ridge Mountains that form part of the Appalachian Mountain range.

The park has an unusual shape and origin. It is long, narrow, and divided nearly in half by a highway. This highway, now known as Skyline Drive, began as trails used first by Native Americans and later by European settlers. The park spreads up into the surrounding countryside from this road into a mixture of valleys, forests, and mountains to cover more than 197,400 acres.

Shenandoah National Park was created from land that was once home to Native Americans and White settlers. The land was purchased by the state and given to the US government to become a national park. Much of the park’s infrastructure was constructed by government workers who were part of one of the largest economic recovery programs in America’s history.

History

The park is one of the few national parks whose grounds were heavily inhabited and used for industrial purposes before they became part of protected government land. Over the centuries, the area has been the hunting and gathering grounds of Native Americans, a source of income for early European trappers and hunters, and home to many early American pioneers who felled trees and built log cabins throughout the area. Much of the forested areas of the park were once cleared land used for raising livestock and crops and for lumbering operations. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), portions of what is now the park were part of historic battlefields. The restoration of peace following the war saw the land finally come to be used for recreational pursuits, while still serving as a home and source of livelihood to many.

On May 22, 1926, Congress authorized the establishment of Shenandoah National Park. Nearly two thousand individual plots of land were bought from homeowners and businesses in the area by the state of Virginia, who then gave the land to the US government to form the park. More than four hundred families were relocated from the land between when Congress authorized the park’s establishment in 1926 and when it was formally established on December 26, 1935. Over time, land that was once cleared for human use has been reclaimed by nature and become a new wilderness.

Shenandoah National Park is one of the projects built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of the federal government’s efforts to help the United States recover from the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time of extreme economic hardship that began with the crash of the stock market in October 1929 and continued throughout much of the 1930s. Many people were without work, and families struggled to have enough food, clothing, and shelter.

Skyline Drive, the main highway through Shenandoah National Park, was built by the CCC, as were outbuildings, trails, picnic and camping areas, overlooks, and other park facilities. An estimated one thousand men worked on the construction projects, as well as efforts to reforest the area by planting trees. This provided much-needed employment for the workers of the CCC, helping them and their families climb out of the financially hard times of the Depression.

Geology and Ecology

The land beneath Shenandoah National Park began forming more than one billion years ago. Two of the tectonic plates, or large slabs of rock that made up the earth’s surface, shifted and were forced up against each other. Their collision pushed jagged peaks of rock high into the air, forming an ancient mountain range scientists call Grenville. The rocks that made up these mountains had been altered by the heat and pressure to become metamorphic, or changed, rock. Over the many millions of years that followed, these high peaks were worn down by erosion until only gentle mounds of metamorphic rock remained.

Around 570 million years ago, the tectonic plates shifted again. This time, they moved apart and allowed the molten rock, or lava, beneath the earth’s surface to rise to the top. The rock left when the lava hardened added another type of rock to the geology of the area that would become Shenandoah National Park.

As the tectonic plates continued to slide apart, water rushed in, forming a type of ocean known as a lapetus. The ocean water flowing over the land brought sedimentary rock, or rock formed of layers upon layers of different materials, into the area. By 400 million years ago, these three types of rock—the remains of the Grenville range, the hardened lava, and the sedimentary rock from the lapetus—formed the basis of the geology of Shenandoah National Park.

These rocks and two main mountains in the park—Hawksbill and Stony Man—form the basis of a variety of different ecosystems that provide a home for many types of plants and animals. At certain times of the year, walking one of the trails that go as high as 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) up a mountainside will allow a hiker to see plants in various stages of growth as the elevation, geology, and level of precipitation changes.

The park is home to forests, wetlands, and barren rocky outcrops. These provide a home for everything from deciduous trees that lose their leaves every fall to some succulents (drought-resistant plants) to plants that grow in the wetlands' extremely wet marshes. Animal life includes deer, bears, bobcats, squirrels, bats, skunks, and many rodents, as well as nearly two hundred types of birds that live in or migrate through the park. A variety of reptiles, fish, and amphibians—including the Shenandoah salamander, which is found only in the park—live there as well.

The land of Shenandoah National Park has gone from being used heavily for farming and lumbering to being a protected wilderness in many areas. However, it has also fallen victim to a number of natural events, including fires, floods, ice and storm damage, and infestations of gypsy moths and other pests. At times, storms and flood damage have made Skyline Drive nearly impassable and created hazards in other areas of the park. In those instances, human intervention assists nature with restoring balance to the park.

Bibliography

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“Great Depression History.” History.com, 20 Oct. 2023, www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“History.” Shenandoah National Park, www.goshenandoah.com/explore/shenandoah-history. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

Paul, Catherine A. “Civilian Conservation Corps.” Virginia Commonwealth University, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/civilian-conservation-corps/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Shenandoah National Park.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/shenandoah-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Shenandoah National Park.” National Park Service, 25 Nov. 2024, www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Shenandoah National Park Still Cleaning Up after Florence.” WHVS TV, 19 Sept. 2018, www.whsv.com/content/news/Shenandoah-National-Park-still-cleaning-up-after-Florence-493770381.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Welcome to Shenandoah National Park.” National Park, www.national-park.com/welcome-to-shenandoah-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.