I took great interest in your treatment of the Shenandoah National Park segment.  I find the overall information on that particular matter, though truncated, to be a semi-summary treatment of the subject.  It seems to me that such a brief overview may paint a very inaccurate picture of the human deprivation and suffering that went into the parks' formation.

My own family, and many related families, were forcibly removed from land which they owned for 4 or more generations to make a playground for Harry Byrd, et al.  There is no mention of those who were displaced so the policticians of that era could bask in the accolades heaped upon them for "creating" Shenandoah.  In truth, what the politicians "created" was a generation of people who were lost, forsaken, and transplanted into a part of society with which they shared no commonality.  

My ggrandfather, grandfather, and (to some extent) my father never fully integrated into the society they were placed into when their land was condemed and they were forced to relocate.  They were foresaken by Byrd and his cronies much as they were foresaken by their own government.  Those who were evicted had lived their lives (for generations) in a society that placed great emphasis upon hard work, honesty, integrity and family.  With Shenadoah's creation they were forced to set many of those values aside in an effort to "fit in."  Adding insult to injury, they were forced to hear how their evictions were predicated upon the erroneous conclusion that the were idle, backward, and less intelligent than their counterparts in the city.  Nothing was farther from the truth.


I hope your treatment of Virginia History would be more thorough in other areas.

R. Burnett Jenkins

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matthew Gibson<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  Sent: March 04, 2009 9:43 AM
  Subject: [VA-HIST] Encyclopedia Virginia



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