Backcountry Notes

Blue Ridge Mountain couple, 1930s. National Park Service photo.The establishment of the Shenandoah National Park displaced the traditional communities of Backcountry folk who had lived for generations in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Front Royal and Rockfish Gap.  By and large, the houses, barns, and stores which were within the Park boundaries were not spared -- they were razed.  Many of these structures had fallen into disrepair because their owners knew the Park was taking the land or had fallen on hard times.

Note: Click on any image below for a larger view.

Cabin in Corbin Hollow. Library of Congress.Construction detail of Corbin Hollow cabin. Library of Congress.The Blue Ridge folk were in poor shape economically, even compared to the subsistence-farming standards by which most of them had lived.  Partly this may have been due to the Great Depression, but the major cause was the chestnut blight, which had raged through Southern Appalachia beginning in the mid-1920s. A good argument can be made that, without the chestnut blight, the Great Depression would have had little effect on the mountain folk.

Barn in Corbin Hollow. Library of Congress.For generations, the settlers of the Southern mountains had benefited from the chestnut forests.  Not only did the American Chestnut provide lumber for houses, barns, and fences, and chestnuts for roasting and for making flour, the forests provided a simple means of raising pigs.  When the chestnuts began to fall, pigs were earmarked and let out to roam the forests, where they foraged and fattened on chestnuts.  Fall was hog-killing time and smokehouses were filled with hams and slabs of bacon, crocks were filled with salt pork and pickled pigs' feet, and there was fresh sausage, scrapple, and souse. The hog harvest provided a major source of protein through the winter and when the chestnuts died there was no replacement. See The American Chestnut -- "National Tree" of the Backcountry.

Corbin Hollow cabin (2). Library of Congress.

Corbin Hollow farm. Library of Congress.Blue Ridge Mountain home. Library of Congress.

Corbin Hollow and Nicholson Hollow were located up-mountain of the communities of Nethers and Old Rag. This was one of the more populated areas to be included within the boundaries of the Shenandoah National Park.

Nicholson Hollow cabin. Library of Congress.Old Rag cabin. Library of Congress.

One of the old cabins, the George Corbin Cabin, was restored and is maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. It is one of only four original structures remaining within the Park.