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By BARBARA STEWART
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
(Editor’s note: This article is the second of three about the history of the Shenendoah National Park.)
The earliest mention of creating a national park in the mountains of Virginia comes not from Federal documents. A Front Royal area businessman, Hugh Naylor, was trying to build interest in the idea as early as 1915. Mr. Naylor had an eye on the travel industry.
Shortly after the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee formed, they received pleas from dozens of communities. Each claimed to have just the spot for a national park. Shenandoah Valley, Inc., was a Harrisonburg-based group. Three thousand citizens from 13 counties in Virginia and West Virginia promoted tourism, and thought the Massanutten Mountain, to our west, a prime park contender.
The Blue Ridge area found its voice in George Freeman Pollock. He operated a resort called Skyland, on the shoulder of Stony Man Mountain above the towm of Luray. He got pleasure from entertaining his guests in a beautiful place, rarely making a profit. When one of his cabin owners talked about the committee, he realized the best way to provide for the mountains he loved was to make them a park.
Mr. Pollock went to work on the committee members, he sent them letters, visited them in person, and invited them to come to his resort and tour the area. He and Mr. Mather had common ground. For an early committee visit, he produced the following evening, described in a later newspaper article in the Richmond Times Dispatch: “In the big social hall he built a roaring fire with ponderous logs, set out a dinner that will always remain a highlight in the gastronomic experience of everybody present, and then turned loose the advocates of the park on the commissioners themselves in a flood of oratory that stirred even icyhearted old Stony Man to do his best.”
Mr. Pollock needed help. He formed a group, the Northern Virginia Park Association. Of the five other officers of the Association, two were influential men
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