Primary Source Set

North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway

Spanning 469 miles between Virginia and North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway has long been a favorite destination of tourists. While the Parkway is loved by many today, its history is marked by a series of disputes and controversies over route planning, eminent domain, and other land issues. This primary source set uses photographs, newspaper articles, and a map to explain the conflicts and agreements leading to the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and to demonstrate the effects of the Parkway on western North Carolina.

Time Period

1933-1962

Grade Level

Undergraduate

Transcript

Morton Defends Mountain In Replying To Arguments Of Director Of Park Service Wirth Seeks To Condemn Right-of-Way Raleigh.—Putting a highway across Grandfather Mountain “would be like taking a switchblade to the Mona Lisa,” mountain owner Hugh Morton said last week. Morton was defending his mountain against the arguments of Conrad Wirth, director of the National Park Service, in a State Highway Commission hearing. Wirth, who requested the hearing, said a “high route” across Grandfather “would be the only acceptable one” for completing a link on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The park service has had another strip of land–lower on the mountain–since 1939. But Wirth said this route would be inferior to a higher one. He wants the State Highway Commission to condemn the land wanted for the higher route so parkway construction can begin. Morton, in a sharply worded defense, said the park service is trying a “land grab” at the mountain and that the lower route would be entirely adequate. Land now available for the route is just above the old Yonahlossee Trail, which is now U.S. 221, a rugged, twisting highway. It was acquired from Morton’s family 23 years ago. The higher strip, which the park service has wanted since 1955, is considerably higher and would run near Morton’s tourist facilities and “Mile High Swinging Bridge” atop the mountain. The highway commission took no action. Morton said the high route would “scar” the mountain and ruin its appeal as a rugged, untouched wilderness area. Wirth, in a long presentation of his case, indicated that the park service would not build the link at all if it couldn’t use the high route. In that case, U.S. 221 would continue to connect the two ends of the parkway for six miles. The park service chief brought maps and a scale model to support his contention that the high route would be superior in every respect. He also read excerpts from 35 letters, dating from 1917, in which state and park service officials corresponded on con- (Continued on page three) (Continued from page one) struction of the scenic highway. Morton, employing showmanship in his presentation, showed color slides depicting the beauty of Avery and Caldwell counties. Referring to U.S. 221, he said, “Mr. Wirth says this is inferior scenery, but actually it’s the best we have in North Carolina.” Wirth said in accepting the lower route or using 221 would be “lowering the standards” of the parkway, a scenic highway begun in 1933. The parkway now runs from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia 477 miles to the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Several links remain to be built, but it is expected to be completed by 1966 or 1967, Mr. Wirth told the commissioners. Bringing a new element into the high road-low road controversy, Wirth claimed the Park service didn’t intend to use the land acquired in 1939 as a parkway route. It was taken under the federal wing at the request of North Carolina, he said, who wanted the parkway route protected from the cutting of spruce and balsam and deforestation. Morton denied this emphatically. He said the park service had always intended to use the land for the road until recent years. The original agreement, he said, proves this. Wirth said the cost of the high and low routes would be almost equal and that both would be feasible. But the upper route would be vastly superior in scenic beauty, he said. The park service “would not leave any scars” in its construction and would build a road that would blend well with the mountain’s natural beauty, Wirth contended. Morton said that Wirth has “gone way out on a limb” and is “counting on you to be the first one to offer a compromise. He appears to want you to save his face. “If he learns once and for all that the state is tired of foolishness, and I think there is a good prospect that he will, then maybe he will get down to business completing the parkway.” Wirth, unmoved by Morton’s argument, said he would rather not build the parkway link “than do an inferior job.” He said he did not mean this as a threat. Highway Commission chairman Merrill Evans said after the hearing he plans to ask Attorney Gen. Wade Bruton for a ruling on whether the state would have the right to acquire the higher route (if the commission should decide it wants to.

"Morton Defends Mountain In Replying To Arguments Of Director Of Park Service"

Although tourists had regularly visited the Blue Ridge Parkway since the 1930s, it was not until 1987 that the Parkway was finished. Problems with completion had begun in the 1950s, when conflict arose between the National Park Service, North Carolina’s State Highway Commission, and Hugh Morton, the private owner and developer of Grandfather Mountain. The Park Service was responsible for planning the Parkway route on Grandfather Mountain. This route, or “missing link,” would finally complete the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Morton, who owned tourist attractions on the mountain, protested the Park Service’s proposed route. By citing environmental and conservation concerns, he garnered enough support from government officials to prevent the construction of the planned route. This article from The Watauga Democrat reports that Morton said putting the Parkway on Grandfather Mountain “would be like taking a switchblade to the Mona Lisa.” Eventually, the Park Service reached a compromise with Morton on a different route for Grandfather Mountain in 1968. The final 7 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway were built there between 1968 and 1987.

Contributed to DigitalNC by Watauga County Public Library

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Boone, N.C. (Watauga County)

North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway

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Background

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a road that spans 469 miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. The Parkway has been one of the most-visited sites in the National Park Service system since the 1940s, drawing crowds of visitors who wish to view the mountain scenery and enjoy nearby towns and tourist attractions. Although the Blue Ridge Parkway was formed to provide employment for job-seekers, improve local economies through increased tourist traffic, and connect two national parks, the road’s history shows that conflict played a key role in preventing these goals. Disagreements over route planning, eminent domain, and other land issues were a significant hurdle in building the Parkway.

The project to build the Blue Ridge Parkway was first put into action in 1933 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), a New Deal agency established to create jobs for the unemployed by funding large public works projects. After funds were received and planning of the Parkway began, arguments arose over how the road would be routed. The Parkway was meant to connect two national parks together: the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. Two conflicting proposals for the route were submitted by North Carolina and Tennessee officials, leading to a long battle over which state’s preferred route would receive approval from the federal government. The federal government held hearings on the issue until the North Carolina route won approval in 1934. North Carolina lobbyists–many of them businessmen in the tourist industry–helped support their state’s proposal. As sections of the Parkway were completed, already-established tourist areas of western North Carolina, like Asheville, Blowing Rock, and Little Switzerland, saw significant economic benefits from increased tourism.

Routing proposals were not the only source of conflict for the Parkway. After the North Carolina route plan had been approved, the state government had to take ownership of the lands that the route would pass through. As Parkway planners wished to retain the beauty of the surrounding scenery, the government also had to establish ownership over the land beside where the road would be built. This meant that Parkway planners would be in control of areas of land, sometimes up to a thousand feet, adjacent to the Parkway itself. 

North Carolina used the power of eminent domain to take control over lands for the Blue Ridge Parkway. With this power, North Carolina forcibly bought land from thousands of landowners living along the future Parkway route. Although Parkway advocates often claimed the road would bring economic gain to the region through tourist visits, many of these rural landowners received no great profit from Parkway tourism. Eminent domain caused them to lose their lands and homes, and they often had little choice in refusing to sell their property for the Parkway. Other land and routing issues arose with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. While Cherokee land was not threatened by eminent domain, it was a subject of intense disagreement between the Cherokee tribal council, the National Park Service, and the North Carolina State Highway Commission for years. Parkway planners initially offered the Cherokee council a route that would cut through valuable farmland in Soco Valley and encroach on many people’s lands and homes. By 1940, however, the Cherokee accepted a new route proposal that bypassed Soco Valley. 

Even after past issues had been resolved, more problems emerged and prevented the completion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. World War II put a temporary stop to construction work on the Parkway from 1943 to the end of the war. In the 1950s and 1960s, the owner of popular tourist attractions on Grandfather Mountain blocked Parkway planners from building the final “missing link” of the Parkway. Construction did not begin on the last seven miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway until 1968, when a compromise had finally been reached between the National Park Service and the Grandfather Mountain owner. It was not until 1987, when work on those seven miles had finished, that the Blue Ridge Parkway was completed.

Discussion Questions

  1. Consider this article on Secretary Ickes from The Alleghany Times and this C.C.C. camp article from The Journal-Patriot. What were some of the reasons that the Blue Ridge Parkway was created? How does the Parkway connect to New Deal programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt?

  2. Take a look at this article from The Henderson Daily Dispatch, making sure to focus on how the article depicts the “parkway tangle.” How does the article describe the eminent domain issue? Whose perspective in the conflict does it consider and uplift? Whose perspective does it neglect?

  3. This Waynesville Mountaineer article reports on a hearing about Blue Ridge Parkway route proposals submitted by Tennessee and North Carolina. According to the article, six speakers argued that the North Carolina route—not the Tennessee route—was the better option for the Parkway.

    • Consider the six people who spoke for the North Carolina route at the hearing, making sure to notice their careers. What perspectives are most prominent here?
    • What arguments did the speakers make to convince attendees at the hearing that the North Carolina route was the better option? What aspects of North Carolina did they highlight?

  4. Conflict, controversy, and disagreement played a significant part in the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

    • What kinds of conflicts are a part of the Parkway’s history? What themes or topics do you notice in disagreements about the Parkway?
    • How did conflict prevent and/or change the planning and construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway?

  5. In what ways did the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway change western North Carolina? Consider geography and nature, the economy, and local communities.

This primary source set was compiled by Isabella Walker.

Updated January 2025