Thursday July 22, 2010

While most of us living in the High Country appreciate being so close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, we probably don’t think too much about how it came into being. Now that it’s here, it’s easy to assume that everyone was in agreement when the historic motorway was first proposed.
“The Blue Ridge Parkway was built with funds from President Roosevelt’s New Deal, and it had its opponents,” said Anne Whisnant, author of Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History.
Whisnant and her husband, author and Appalachia history expert David Whisnant, spoke to a group of about 50 people on the subject of the Parkway last Sunday as part of a series presented by the Blowing Rock Historical Society.
“Some of the programs that we take for granted were very controversial at the time,” said Anne Whisnant. “People loved the C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corps), but the T.V.A. (Tennessee Valley Authority) was dragged into court by private power companies. And many industrialists didn’t like what F.D.R. was doing with its labor force in the South through the New Deal.”
The Whisnants explained how the taking over of private tracts of land to create the Parkway in the mid-1930s was also a great source of friction. Powerful landowners such as Hugh Morton on Grandfather Mountain and the Cherokee Nation west of Asheville fought with the federal government to keep the motorway and its corridors away from their property.
Landowners with less clout were powerless to stop land acquisition through the federal government’s rule of “imminent domain” and many complained to President Roosevelt about having their farms cut in half by the new road.
“Another opponent to the Blue Ridge Parkway was the Wilderness Society,” said Anne Whisnant. “They were opposed to building roads in the parks and felt like people were getting cheated by staying in their automobiles. They met in Knoxville to oppose the Parkway and came up with an alternative, which is now the Appalachian Trail.”
Whisnant explained that part of the success of the Blue Ridge Parkway is that it was proposed right at a time when Americans were going through a love affair with the automobile.
“Originally, FDR had the notion that the Blue Ridge Parkway would eventually run from Nova Scotia to Florida,” said Anne Whisnant. “In the late 60s there was a plan to extend the Blue Ridge Parkway into the mountains of northern Georgia. It didn’t happen. Part of that was because of a ‘N.I.M.B.Y.,’ or ‘not in my backyard’ mentality that had sprung up in America. And part of it was because of the environmental movement that had emerged.”
According to the Whisnants, the Blue Ridge Parkway has been the most-visited National Park Service “unit” every year since 1947. A “unit” includes all NPS parks, memorials, battlefields, roadways, etc.
“Today the Parkway is funded through the Interior Department,” said David Whisnant. “It receives $13 to $14 million per year from the government. It also receives funds from private contributions, and services from groups such as the Friends of the Parkway. The Conservation Trust of North Carolina and other conservation groups try to acquire land and easements surrounding
the Parkway to add to its protected viewshed.”
Whisnant added that the new Blue Ridge Parkway license tags in North Carolina are now bringing in an estimated $500,000 per year.
While many National Park Service units have only two or three entrances, the Blue Ridge Parkway has over 600 entrances, making it impossible to fund through entrance fees.
“Parks that charge fees help parks like the Blue Ridge Parkway that can’t,” said Anne Whisnant.
The Whisnants stated that one of the primary concerns of Parkway officials is the effort to get younger people interested in the roadway.
“Parkway users tend to be a whiter, older demographic,” said Anne Whisnant.
Added David Whisnant, “On a recent visit to Chimney Rock, I noticed that about 75 percent of the visitors were Hispanic. I thought that was interesting and I tried to find out why they decided that Chimney Rock is a good place to go.
“People on the Parkway are aging. It’s a limited demographic. So it’s important that new kids get interested in the Parkway.”
The Blowing Rock Historical Society will conclude its two-week Parkway Chats program on Sunday, July 25 at the American Legion Hall in Blowing Rock. Phillip T. Noblitt, author of A Mansion in the Mountains: The Story of Moses and Bertha Cone and Their Blowing Rock Manor, will talk about “The Cones Touch the Blue Ridge Parkway.” The event is free and open to the public.