Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-10-2024
Publish
yes
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
History
Advisor(s)
Margaret Mulrooney
Neel Amin
Kristie Kendall
Abstract
Shenandoah National Park (SNP), established in 1935, was the first major case of the United States seizing privately owned land for the creation of a national park. As a result, approximately 500 families that resided in the area of the Blue Ridge Mountains that was to become SNP were removed from their homes on the mountain throughout the 1930s. This experience of removal greatly impacted not only the displaced themselves, but it has had a lasting impact on their 21st-century descendants. The collective memory of the displaced and their descendants is made up of varying themes that can be used to understand the personal and community impacts of the removals. Modern community efforts to understand and remember the history of SNP and the displacements have caused a generational shift within the collective memory of the displaced, with many of the 21st-century descendants of the displaced sharing an eagerness to discuss their ties to the park and their family’s past. The impact of these efforts to understand and remember, as they are described in this thesis, can be used as a framework for addressing other cases of mass removal.
Recommended Citation
Wenger, Kaylee, "Comparing Remembrances: The Collective Memory of the Displaced People of Shenandoah National Park and Their Descendants" (2024). Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current. 167.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors202029/167
