A National Park is Born
1889: The Blue Ridge Stonyman Park Preserve (later Skyland) was incorporated by Stephen M. Allen and George H. Pollock on October 1, 1889 and went bankrupt soon thereafter.
1906: George Freeman Pollock (George H. Pollock’s son) gains legal title to Skyland. From 1895-96 guests paid $9.50/week and slept in tents furnished with cots, chairs, washstands and pitchers. Pollock was not a businessman but he was a promoter. Most of his planning was around elaborate balls and costume parties, musicals, pageants and bonfires.
1926: Shenandoah National park was authorized in 1926 and established in 1935 to provide a peaceful refuge for nearby urban populations.
1930s: Shenandoah was home to approximately 460 families when the park was established in 1926. Shenandoah National Park was pieced together from over 3,000 individual tracts of land, purchased or condemned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and presented to the Federal Government.
1933: Between May 15, 1933 and July 15, 1942, ten Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps were established within, or on leased land adjacent to Shenandoah. During that time, more than 10,000 boys and young men lived in camps supervised by the Army
and worked on projects directed by the Service and the Bureau of Public Roads.
1936: Shenandoah was dedicated on July 3, 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Big Meadows area to a crowd of thousands.
1937: The Virginia Sky-Line Company, a privately owned Richmond-based company, assumed operations of Skyland Resort. Skyland became the core of the new Shenandoah National Park. The concessioner immediately began to build new facilities and to rehabilitate the earlier ones. Twelve historic Skyland structures remain and allow modern visitors to experience life at the turn of the 20th century.
1939: Big Meadows Lodge, built by the CCC and mountain laborers with stones cut from the Massanutten Mountain, opened in 1939. The interior structure, including the paneling, is made from native chestnut trees, which are now virtually extinct due chestnut blight that began decimating the population in 1905. The massive beams in the Great Room and dining room are made from native oak. The roof is made from heavy tinted cement shingles which are necessary to survive the harsh winters of the mountain.
1939-1940: Pressure from Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, forced the National Park Service and concessioner Virginia Skyline Company to open the first campgrounds and cabins at Lewis Mountain for African Americans.
1950: All facilities within Shenandoah were fully desegregated.
1997: Skyland Resort and Big Meadows Lodge are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
2011: Shenandoah National park will celebrate its 75th Anniversary!
Approximately 1.2 million visitors come to Shenandoah each year to enjoy this natural wonder. It is our hope that this park – created as a peaceful refuge for nearby urban populations – will continue to offer relaxation, recreation and inspiration for many generations to come.