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

Sec. Ickes Approves Proposed Highway Expect New Road To Pass Trough [sic] Alleghany —- The proposed scenic, mountain-crest highway between the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountain national parks was approved by Secretary Ickes, the public works administrator, last week. Approximately 100 miles of this 400-mile parkway has been surveyed in Virginia and work there will begin soon, in all probability. Nothing definite is known as to what sections the remainder of the highway will traverse. Some think it will come down by Wytheville, Independence, and Twin Oaks, and thence south the Smoky Mountains. Others think that it will not follow any roads already built, but will be a new road entirely. If it follows the crest of the Blue Ridge closely, it will probably come down by Low Gap, Roaring Gap, and thence southwest by Laurel Springs to the Smokies. However, all ideas as to the location of the right-of-way are pure conjectures as yet. Nothing definite will be known till surveys have been made. Tennessee will probably put up a great fight for the road to come within her borders part of the way. Delegations from Virginia, North arolina [sic], and Tennessee discussed the matter with Secretary Ickes in Washington the latter part of last week. After a conference with the delegations, Ickes smilingly said an immediate survey had been ordered but that the public works board had not acted on the proposal. However, Senator Byrd and others were emphatic that Ickes assured them “whatever it takes” of public works funds would be supplied for the project. Ickes has [indecipherable] the matter up with President Roosevelt and hisapproval [sic] was considered in informed quarters to be tantamount to approval by the board he heads. Prior to Byrd’s announcement, a conference was held in Secretary Ickes’ office at which Governors Pollard of Virginia and McAlister, of Tennessee, and Senators bailey and Reynolds, of North Carolina, on behalf of Governor Ehringhaus, pledged the three states to furnish the necessary rights of way and surveys. Also attending the conference were Representatives Doughton and Weaver, of North Carolina. Name Committee. At a later conference in Senator Bailey’s office, North Carolinians interested in the proposed park-to-park scenic highway named a committee to represent their state in negotiations with the federal government and Virginia and Tennessee authorities on the route the road shall follow and matters pertaining to its construction. Members of this committee are Senators Bailey and Reynolds and Representative Doughton, Governor Ehringhaus appointed them some time ago to represent the State and they agreed to continue. Under consideration is a plan to secure a 200-foot right-of-way, to be put under the federal park service, and to build a road 32 feet wide. Follow Mountain Crest. Although the route is undecided Doughton said it would follow as near as practicable the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains. He expressed belief there would be little trouble obtaining the right of way and displayed a letter from J. K. McKnight and I.M. Woodruff, of Galax, Va., saying they would be glad to donate the right-of-way through a 559-acre tract they own along the Blue Ridge crest west of Fisher’s Peak near the North Carolina-Virginia line. Those at the conference in Senator Bailey’s office included R.L. Gwyn, of Lenoir, secretary of the committee named by Governor Ehringhaus to represent the State in the negotiations; J.Q. Gilkey, of Marion, chairman of the committee, and Charles Ross, general counsel to the North Carolina highway commission. Byrd said work might begin on the project in Virginia immediately since 100 miles of the route already has been surveyed. State Will Cooperate, Jeffress Announces. North Carolina, through the State Highway and Public Works Commission, will fully cooperate fully in the parkway project, E.B. Jeffress, Chairman of the Commission, said yesterday. Scout trips over the proposed route of the parkway and detailed study of maps of that section of the country will be started at once. As soon as the definite route is announced, the commission will begin work on securing the right of way and on surveying the route. Mr. Jeffress said he understood the parkway would follow the ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains from Virginia down into North Carolina and then over into Tennessee. Charles Ross, General Counsel to the Commission, and State Senator Charles Whedbee, a member of the Commission, attended the conference in Washington Thursday. The route which apparently had the most support among the North Carolina delegation is as follows: Cross the North Carolina line near Sparta, passing Roaring Gap, Boone, Blowing Rock, Linville Falls, Alta Pass, Little Switzerland, Buck Creed Gap, Mt. Mitchell, the Craggies, Ashville and then to the park. Variations Proposed. A number of variations of the route are proposed. As an example Representative Frank Hancock has been asked to urge that the route follow the Blue Ridge crest skirting Mt. Airy. Members of the Tennessee delegation are understood to favor a route following closely the Tennessee and North Carolina line. Such a route would miss a large section of Western North Carolina which is considered essential to a scenic drive through the state. In selecting a route the National Park Service will be interested only in scenery and with this the dominating factor there is little doubt but that the park-to-park highway will take in most if not all the points listed above. To Spend $16,000,000 The public works administration will grant a fund with which to make a preliminary survey of the road. After this is done the PWA is expected to formally approve an allocation of $16,000,000 with which to construct the highway. A.E. DeMaray, assistant director of the National Park Serive [sic], said this afternoon that his office is ready to begin preliminary work on surveying a route and will proceed just as soon as written instructions are received from Secretary Ickes. He said the park service will cooperate with the bureau of public works and the highway departments of the three interested states and no time will be lost in getting the work under way.

"Sec. Ickes Approves Proposed Highway"

As part of his New Deal programs meant to strengthen the country’s economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933 to fund projects like the Blue Ridge Parkway. PWA projects were intended to combat the Great Depression by creating jobs and constructing valuable public works for the country. This article from The Alleghany Times discusses the initial approval and funding of the Parkway project by Secretary Harold Ickes, head of the PWA.

Contributed to DigitalNC by Alleghany County Public Library, State Archives of North Carolina

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Sparta, N.C. (Alleghany 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