Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway - Softcover

Victoria Logue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897321413 ISBN 13: 9780897321419

Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press, 1998

Synopsis

A national treasure that was designed to be enjoyed from the seat of a car, the Blue Ridge Parkway provides visitors awesome vistas and much more. With the milepost Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will find mile-by-mile explanations of all there is to see and explore on the scenic parkway, including flora and fauna, geography, history and culture and attractions.

Whether you tour just a few miles, or take the 469-mile trek from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Shenandoah National Park, this book will prove indispensable. Both as an essential reference tool, and a priceless enrichment of your parkway tour. This guide provides in-depth, critical, and easy-to-use information with color photographs and easy-to-scan text.

About this title

About the Author

Frank and Victoria Logue hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 1988. They have returned again and again to hike its many sections on day and overnight hikes. Frank served on the Appalachian Trail Conference Board of Managers. The Logues live in Georgia where Frank works as an Episcopal priest while Victoria writes. They both enjoy sharing their love of nature with their daughter, Griffin.

Born in Florida, Nicole Blouin graduated from Appalachian State Univeristy in North Carolina, where she fell in love with the mountains. Presently, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and keeps busy with freelance writing, editing work, and managing a rock climbing gym.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The romantic notion of a road through the scenic southern Appalachian Mountains existed long before the Parkway's inception in the 1930s. Col. J. H. Pratt, who worked for the North Carolina Geologic and Economic Survey, charted such a route prior to World War I. His proposed mountain road extended from Roanoke, Virginia, through North Carolina and on to Greenville, South Carolina. He was actually able to build a short section of his road in North Carolina before the war began. The current Parkway follows sections of the colonel's old road near Altapass, North Carolina (mileposts 323 to 326).
The idea that finally reached fruition occurred to several men nearly simultaneously. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt toured the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps of Shenandoah National Park on August 11, 1933, he responded with enthusiasm to Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd's recommendation that Skyline Drive be connected with a second scenic drive that would extend to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In September, Byrd met with Virginia governor G. J. Pollard and Theodore E. Straus of the Public Works Administration to discuss the possibility of a parkway. The governor approved the idea of the project and appointed Byrd chairman of a Virginia committee that would expedite the project.

About this edition

• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0897321413
• ISBN 13: 9780897321419
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160