June 5th, 2016 brings us 81-days away from the National Park Service Centennial. In this edition of the #CentennialCountdown we go back 81-years to 1935 and the establishment of Shenandoah National Park.
You will notice in the legislation below that Shenandoah was authorized by Congress in 1926.
"Shenandoah would become a reality when Virginia donated a minimum of 327,000 acres in fee simple to the federal government. Governor Harry F. Byrd established the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission in April, 1926 to take over the management of funds collected for the park. The new Commission was headed by William Carson, Byrd's former campaign manager, and had a mandate to survey, appraise, and purchase the estimated 4,000 properties within the authorized boundary. As time passed, landowner resistance mounted, and actual property values became more evident or inflated due to government purchase, Carson convinced the Commonwealth legislature to enact a blanket condemnation law. The legislation was passed in Virginia in December, 1927, survived Commonwealth Supreme Court challenges in October, 1929, but was not finally resolved until the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case in December, 1935. On December 26, Ickes officially accepted the legally cleared deeds."
It was nearly 10-years after Congressional authorization that Shenandoah was officially established as a National Park, but on December 26th, 1935 it finally happened.
