Shenandoah National Park

Skyline Drive, the main road in the park, winds through hardwood forests along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was authorized for addition to the National Park System on May 26, 1926, and was fully established on December 26, 1935.

Prehistoric and Historic Indians

The first people arrived in the Blue Ridge Mountains some 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. The first Indians here came from someplace in the West. These people were wanderers who lived by hunting. Over a period of perhaps fifteen hundred years, say 9500 to 8000 BC, mammals of the ice age became extinct, and the Indians, for the most part moved north, and the few Indians who remained in the mountains remained nomadic hunters. Between 8000 and 1000 BC the Indians became foragers for wild food as well as hunters, collecting nuts, fruits, berries, and edible bulbs and roots. Between 1000 BC and the appearance of European settlers in Virginia, change accelerated. Agriculture began; the Indians raised corn, and probably squash. and possibly beans. And because farmers can't be nomads, a more or less settled village life developed. Pottery, which was unknown to the more primitive Indians, came into use. Hunting and warfare was more easy with the invention of the bow and arrow. The Indians, in spite of what we may have read or imagined, were not conservationists. Hunting parties sometimes burned hundreds of acres of forest, to drive game animals to a point where they could easily be killed. Indians also sometimes drove herds of bison over a cliff, but used relatively few of the dead animals. It was only because of their primitive technology, and because by various means they contrived to limit their population, that they did relatively little damage to the environment.

In 1607, when Jamestown was settled, The Powhatans occupied most of tidewater Virginia, and their villages surrounded Jamestown. Farther west, in the Piedmonts were tribes of the Manahoac and Monacan confederacies. The Shenandoah Valley was sparsely populated. There were a few Shawnee villages (one report says Moneton and Saponi also.) The Valley was unpopulated because it was a dangerous place to live. Raiding parties of Catawbas from the south and Delawares from the north swept through the Valley from time to time, killing, looting, and burning. The Powhatans were friendly and hospitable toward the white settlers, until they found out that the white men were not just visiting, but intended to stay forever. The Powhatans might then have wiped out the colony, except for their perennial enemies, the Monacans. Because the Powhatans feared a two-front war they dallied too long. They yielded at last to the white man's pressure and moved westward, forcing the Monacans northward and westward before them. Pressure and movement continued for a century and a half, until the Indians were gone from Virginia.

Historical Background

The Colony of Virginia, by virtue of its Royal Charter, claimed lands that extended to the Mississippi River and Great Lakes. In the mid-1600s settlement was almost confined to tidewater; the western lands were wilderness over which the colony had neither economic nor political control. Virginia therefore encouraged exploration. In 1669 Sir William Berkeley, Governor of the Colony, sent John Lederer, a "German scholar", to explore the Blue Ridge. Lederer's trip did nothing to promote settlement of the western lands. Virginians began to worry that the French, moving down from Canada, might get there first. To publicize the

Driving Tour

Skyline Drive begins in the north at its junction with US 340 south in Front Royal, Virginia. I-66 meets US 340 four miles north of the city.

Parking Area (west side .8 mile beyond entrance station) Cross the drive and walk south (uphill) about a hundred feet, then look to your left. There, directly in front of you, is the only waterfall visible from Skyline Drive. This one is at its best in spring or

after heavy rains. It may be completely dry in summer. The rocks across the road from the Drive from the parking area are basalt of the Catoctin formation; they were molten lava about 800 years ago.

Shenandoah Valley Overlook (elev 1,390) provides a sweeping view across the valley to Signal Knob, a Civil War communications post to the right on Massanutten Mountain. The mountain divides the valley and the Shenandoah River, with the south fork on this side and the north fork on the far side. The two forks meet north of Front Royal.

Dickey Ridge Visitors Center is one of the park's two major information facilities with exhibits on services and activities. The Visitors Center was built in 1938 as a dining hall, but was closed during World War II, and did not reopen when the war ended. It was converted to a Visitors Center in 1958.

Signal Knob Overlook (elev 2,090 ft) To the far left you can look up at the Browntown Valley to the two peaks of Mt. Marshall and, farther right, the four humps of Hogback. The first two ridges on the far side of the Valley are the Massanutten, with the Fort Valley between them. The Massanutten divides the Shenandoah Valley for a distance of nearly 50 miles. Massanutten is an Indian word Meaning "three-topped", "Indian basket", "old Field" or "potato field" (although the Indians who lived in this area did not grow potatoes). In 1726 a group of Germans moved into the Valley from Pennsylvania, and established a settlement, which they called Massanutten, to the west of the present town of Luray. The called the ridge to the west of the settlement not Massanutten, but Peaked (PEAK-id) Mountain. The Massanutten colony survived in peace until about 1754; then followed a dozen years of Indian attacks. Homes in the area, some of them still standing, were built like forts. Signal Knob is the high point at the right-hand end of the Massanutten. Although there was no Civil War action on the mountain itself, there were battles on both sides of it. Signal Knob was a Confederate Army signal station. (It may or may not have been used briefly by Union troops). Signals were relayed to another knob farther south on the Massanutten, and from there to Stony Man, on their way to Richmond.

Gooney Run Overlook (elev 2,085 ft) gives a view across the valley and towards Dickey Ridge on the right. Gooney Run was originally called Sugar Tree Creek. When Lord Fairfax went hunting there his favorite hound, Gooney, was accidentally drowned. His lordship changed the name of the creek to Gooney's Run in honor of the dog.

Jenkins Gap Overlook (elev 2,355 ft) The gap is named for one of the early settlers. When the park was created, sixteen families named Jenkins, owning a total of 850 acres, were displaced from this area. Most of them were descended from Timothy Jenkins, who was born about 1735.

Range View Overlook offers a spectacular view of a large section of the Blue Ridge.

Hogback Overlook (elev 3,385 ft) offers, on clear days, a look at many of the bends of the meandering Shenandoah River. It's the longest overlook in the park.

Thorton Gap is one of the major entrances to the park. A trail leads to 360 degree views from Marys Rocks, which rises 1,200 feet above the gap on the south side.

Marys Rock Tunnel was blasted through the ridge about 1932. It intercepted a number of water channels, so that water fell constantly from the rocks. In winter huge icicles formed and ice was piled on the road. To solve this problem, the tunnel was lined with concrete in 1959.

Pinnacles is a good stop - even in rainy weather. There are picnic tables under shelter.

Stony Man Peak is straight ahead as you enter the overlook from the north. Across the valley is Massanutten Mountain.

Little Stony Man Cliffs can be reached by a round trip hike of .9 miles from the parking area.

Skyland, at 3,680 ft, is the highest point on the drive and one of the primary tourist facility stops. Naturalist George Freeman Pollock, who built Skyland resort in the 1890s, was a major proponent for establishing the park.

Crescent Rock, 25 yards from the Drive, provides the best view of Hawksbill Mountain. Crescent Rock was formerly called Sow Rock. Two mountaineers, chasing a sow, inadvertently chased her off this cliff.

Hawksbill Gap Parking Area Trail leads to Hawksbill Mountain (2 miles round trip), at 4,051 ft, the highest point in the park.

Dark Hollow Falls, the waterfall closest to the Drive, cascades 70 ft over greenstone. Round trip from the parking area is 1.5 miles.

Big Meadows offers a multitude of activities and services at all three sites. Byrd Visitors Center is one of the park's two major information facilities. A picnic area is located about 1.5 miles from the Visitors Center, near the campground.

Bearfence Mountain summit provides a 360-degree view. The round trip from the parking lot is only .8 mile but part of it is a rock scramble and can be difficult, especially if wet. Bearfence Mountain (elev 3,620) reportedly got its name from the palisade-like rocks, resembling a fence, that surrounds the summit.