Blue Ridge Parkway marks 75th anniversary

FLOYD — The construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway began as a project to put people back to work during the Depression.

But 75 years later, the winding roadway has evolved into one of the United States’ most-visited national park sites, drawing about 17 million people annually and bringing about $2 billion to surrounding areas.

This year, the National Park Service is marking the parkway’s 75th anniversary with a variety of events, including a Sunday, Sept. 13, celebration at Skylark Farm on the parkway in Nelson County.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Nelson’s Oakland Museum and the Rockfish Valley Association, the Skylark Farm event is also part of the opening of the Nelson Scenic Loop, part of which runs along the parkway.

The 75th anniversary makes this summer and fall a good time to enjoy hiking and camping, local arts, and small-town life along “America’s Favorite Drive.”

Since its groundbreaking on Sept. 11, 1935, at Cumber-land Knob, N.C., on the Vir-ginia border, the parkway has become an integral part of the mountains and the Appala-chian communities that lie along its 469-mile route, as well as a gateway to the region’s culture and history.

It’s a treasure that many Central Virginians have enjoyed, since it runs along the western borders of Nelson, Amherst, and Bedford counties.

With a top speed of 45 mph along its curving roads, the parkway offers a chance for visitors to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The overlooks — there are 264 of them — offer breathtaking views of the mountains and valleys, sunrises and sunsets, and on clear nights, the stars.

The main 75th anniversary festival is set for Sept. 10-12 at venues around Cumberland Knob, N.C., featuring music, food, crafts and a vintage camper display, and at the Blue Ridge Parkway Music Center, where bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys will play Sept. 11.

The parkway connects Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smoky Moun-tains National Park. It starts at Rockfish Gap at the southern end of the Skyline Drive, and winds southwest through Virginia into mountainous western North Carolina.

A team led by landscape architect Stanley Abbott, a devotee of pioneering American parks designer Frederick Law Olmsted, conceived the parkway as a chain of recreational areas and scenic views that would integrate naturally with the mountainscape.

Abbott’s son, Carlton Abbott, a renowned architect himself who designed the parkway’s Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, will speak at the Nelson event June 13.

For the parkway itself, road builders used stonework for tunnel portals, bridges and guard walls to retain a rustic architectural style. Planners laid out the parkway’s curves to match the mountainsides’ contours, rather than remove parts of the mountain to make way for the road.

Planners also created roadside vistas that motorists could experience while driving, along with places to get out of their cars to take in the views, said Gary Johnson, the parkway’s chief landscape architect.

Floyd, where Virginia 8 and U.S. 221 intersect a few miles off parkway milepost 165, has become an outpost for artists and musicians, with an active barter economy and a bit of alternative culture, including a natural-foods store, Harvest Moon, and a shop called Republic of Floyd. It also lies along the Crooked Road Music Trail, and each Friday night musicians gather for impromptu sessions at the Floyd Country Store. Each July, thousands gather in a big field outside of town for FloydFest. (This year it’s July 22-25.)

Other Virginia highlights include Humpback Rocks, which features hiking trails and a working farm south of Rockfish Gap; the Peaks of Otter in Bedford County, which were regarded in President Thomas Jefferson’s time as the western frontier’s highest mountains with elevations nearing 4,000 feet; and the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, which showcases the region’s traditional musical heritage with displays and performances.

In its 75th year, the parkway also faces challenges, including federal budget cuts that affect staffing, landscaping and maintenance, and air pollution from Midwestern coal-fired plants that can cloud mountain views.

Park officials and preservation groups also are concerned about encroaching development.

on “America’s Favorite Drive” as much of the land along the parkway is privately owned.

Skylark Farm, the site of the June 13 event, is at Milepost 25 between Reid’s Gap and Tye River Gap. The farm is Washington and Lee University’s retreat and conference center.North Carolina sites include the 5,900-foot-high Grandfather Mountain and its Mile High Swinging Bridge; Linville Falls and Linville Gorge, dubbed the state’s “Grand Canyon;” Little Switzerland, named for the mountain panoramas reminiscent of those in the Swiss Alps; the popular resort city of Asheville, which features the Biltmore Estate, the North Carolina Arboretum, the Folk Art Center and several galleries and shops.

In its 75th year, the parkway also faces challenges, including federal budget cuts that affect staffing, landscaping and maintenance, and air pollution from Midwestern coal-fired plants that can cloud mountain views.

Park officials and preservation groups also are concerned about encroaching development on “America’s Favorite Drive” as much of the land along the parkway is privately owned.