Seventy-five years ago this week, about 100 unemployed men from Alleghany County showed up at Pack Murphy's farm just south of the Virginia border and turned the first dirt on a project that would produce one of the most beautiful roads in the world.
In the years since, millions of visitors in Studebakers, Corvairs, Hummers and Gold Wings have driven past that first work site along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Although some parkway drivers are merely commuting, most cruise the road to unwind and take in the postcard-perfect scenery, from verdant pastures framed by chestnut post-and-rail fences to sweeping views of the Southern Appalachians.
The 469-mile road, which goes through North Carolina and Virginia, links Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The parkway is the country's most visited unit in the National Park System and draws 17 million visitors a year, more than the Great Smokies and the Grand Canyon National Park combined.
Robert Schwartz of Winston-Salem is among them. He and his wife, Rebecca, have been going to the parkway at least once a year since the late 1970s. They have camped with their children along the parkway, savored the cobbler at Bluffs Restaurant, listened to bluegrass at the Blue Ridge Music Center and shown their grandchildren such gems as Doughton Park at milepost 240.
"It's the beauty, the quietness," Schwartz said. "It's a chance to get away and leave the stresses of work and everyday life. It's such a treasure, just driving the parkway."
Where it all began
Although the parkway's 75th anniversary has been recognized at various festivals throughout the year, the park service's official celebration is Friday through Sunday in and around Cumberland Knob at milepost 217, where construction began on Sept. 11, 1935.
There, revelers will honor a road that gave work to hundreds of jobless men during the height of the Great Depression and provided an economic boost to hard-hit mountain tourist communities.
But there's another side to the parkway's history that is often ignored, said Anne Mitchell Whisnant, whose book, Super-Scenic Motorway, A Blue Ridge Parkway History, explores myths that surround the parkway.
One of the most enduring myths is that the parkway was a creation of the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt's program to jump-start the economy during the Great Depression.
As early as 1909, North Carolina leaders recognized that building scenic roads through the mountains for "pleasure drives" could result in tourist dollars, Whisnant said.
Short parkways in Western national parks had proven popular among Americans, whose love affair with their automobiles was beginning to flower.
"The idea that roads could enhance tourism -- that idea was well established before the parkway came along," Whisnant said. "But the thing you get in the ‘30s is the New Deal and suddenly, you have big-time federal money. Now, the term is ‘shovel-ready.' Whether this was shovel-ready in 1933, I'd say ‘no.' But the government was looking for projects to spend federal money on and to hire labor."
The project's approval set off a bitter battle between North Carolina and Tennessee for the southern leg of the parkway. Among the most passionate of the pro-North Carolina crowd was Robert Doughton, a farmer from Alleghany County and longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Standing before a federal committee, Doughton declared that the "Omnipotent Architect of the World has carved and chiseled the most outstanding display of nature known to all creation."
Harold Ickes, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, eventually sided with North Carolina, citing its higher elevations, cooler temperatures and more dramatic scenery.
Mapping it out
With approval in hand, landscape architects and engineers traversed the mountains by foot, determining the best route for what would be the country's longest parkway.
"What that original team was concerned with was variety," said Ian Firth, an emeritus faculty member at the University of Georgia's College of Landscape and Design. "If you're going to drive 470 miles, variety was going to be very important. The whole location was determined by the need to change the scenery at very regular intervals."
Led by Stanley Abbott, parkway designers laid out a route that meandered past vistas and rolling farmland. The road was designed in a way that allowed people to safely drive and view the scenery without constantly braking.
Farmers whose land stood in the path of the parkway were forced to sell a portion to the government, often below market value, then denied direct access to the new road and the right to open a store or restaurant alongside it.
Some resentment lingers among the offspring of those landowners, Whisnant said. At talks around the area, she will sometimes hear their stories.
"The parkway has over 4,000 adjoining owners and they (parkway officials) are constantly having to work with these landowners about trespassing issues or not knowing where the boundaries are or understanding restrictions on something that was in the deed two generations back," Whisnant said.
An economic engine
As an economic boon, the parkway has fulfilled its promise. According to a report submitted to the Winston-Salem-based Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, visitors to the parkway pump $2.3 billion annually into North Carolina and Virginia.
But the parkway is facing a number of challenges that could result in fewer visitors and their accompanying dollars. Among them are encroaching development that threatens views; the hemlock woolly adelgid, an aphid-like insect that has infested the prized hemlocks along the parkway; and a budget that has not been able to keep pace with rising costs.
As a result of that shortfall, the park service has fewer people to maintain its 600 buildings, 800 vistas and 77 cemeteries, said Phil Francis, the parkway's superintendent.
Despite these pressures, the parkway remains a window to a soul-stirring landscape.
Not long ago, Neva Specht, an associate professor of history at Appalachian State University, attended a meeting whose participants argued the merits of adding signs on the parkway that would promote businesses in the area.
It's a battle that has been waged since the parkway began.
"There's a lot of pressure on both sides," Specht said. "And the side that wants to keep it as the one place that is sort of pure has won."
lo'donnell@wsjournal.com | 727-7420
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