[the OlLine Rebel]

That may be true largely (especially out West), but it wasn’t true in the Shenandoah.

VA kicked out poor people and took their land by eminent domain. The view was they were too stupid too care for themselves, so should be shifted somewhere where they could get “help”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenandoah_National_Park

[GonzoGOP]

I was thinking more of Roosevelt parks like Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. Glacier was owned by the railroad, but they transferred it to the National Parks in order to avoid having to pay the upkeep on the hotels. I wasn’t familiar with the history of Shenandoah, but since it was inhabited before the turn of the century it doesn't surprise me that they would need to move people out. And unfortunately it doesn't surprise me that they government was heavy handed in the matter. The feds can screw up even the best ideas.

[VanShuyten]

Shenandoah isn't all that hot. It's a nice drive, but nothing special except to the bikers and roadster crowd. I think it was mostly a make-work project near enough to the media in Washington to show that Roosevelt's WPA/CCC was working in creating jobs.

The Washington-Jefferson National Forest already existed and could have been turned into a park, but Virginia/FDR decided to expropriate land and build a road to nowhere. You've got to actually get into the mountains for the WAsh/Jeff Forest, so maybe FDR's advisors told him he needed something closer to DC.