Free previewStop 6 of Skyline Drive Through Shenandoah
The Picnic Ground With a Separate Sign
You've pulled in at Lewis Mountain, a little south of Big Meadows on Skyline Drive. Before you get out, look around at the picnic ground: tables set under the trees, and the forest closing in behind them. It looks like every other picnic area you've passed today. That ordinary look is the point of this last stop.
Shenandoah National Park was established in 1935. The next summer, President Franklin Roosevelt came up to dedicate it. The Civilian Conservation Corps, his New Deal work program for young men, built the stone walls, overlooks and picnic grounds you've been driving past all afternoon.
But the park sat in Virginia, a Jim Crow state. The National Park Service went along with that.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 6 of Skyline Drive Through Shenandoah (2 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
