Locals

PREVIOUS: Conservationists and Naturalists

While the Blue Ridge Parkway undoubtedly had an impact on WNC and its people, it was not always clear whether this impact was good or bad. This section of Mecca for Motorists: A History of Migration on the Blue Ridge Parkway will tell the tale of how locals were effected. This section is divided into two separate parts: “Land” and “Economy and Culture.” “Land” explores some of the issues that locals went through with land disputes, ways in which locals may have benefited from selling their land to the state for the Parkway, and how the subject of land still shapes locals’ interaction with the BRP and the National Parks Service (NPS). Some WNC residents sold their land while some were left with no option and were forced to sell. Still others ended up paying the BRP to use land around the Parkway for livestock.

“Economy and Culture” discusses the various ways that the BRP has helped shape local economy. You will also be exposed to the ways in which North Carolina leaders used the issue of economy and economic crisis in their fight with Tennessee to bring the Parkway to WNC. Economy was one of the main arguments in the “Battle for the Parkway” and so it stands to reason that this topic should be discussed to provide a thorough understanding of North Carolina economics and the Parkway. The actual economic influence the has had on WNC is another vital component in the “Locals” chapter of Mecca for Motorists. This section will also explore the impact of the BRP on local culture. While one may think the drastic rise in tourist migration would have changed the local culture (and it can be argued that the culture of the Asheville area is more diverse because of tourist migration), sources indicate the culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains remained very much stagnant. This is perhaps part of an effort to appeal to outsiders with the image of the stereotypical “mountain folk.” Whether it changed or remained the same, the music, agriculture, labor relations, and arts and crafts of the Blue Ridge Mountains were affected by the BRP. In the end, did the Parkway have the influence that NC leaders imagined it would? That is what this website explores.

Complete with maps, NPS reports, stereotypes about poor, ignorant mountain folk, and recollections from individuals who were involved, “Locals”  provides a comprehensive picture—from both the side of the locals as well as the side of the government—about these key issues that would shape locals’ perception and feelings about the new national park that would run through their mountains, the park that was built in the name increasing tourist migration in WNC. True to the purpose of this website, the story that “Locals” tells is seen primarily through the lens of migration, both of locals as well as tourists.

 

UP NEXT: Land

Footnotes

[1] Untitled Image of “Local” Family in House, Unlabeled Box, No Provenance, Blue Ridge Parkway Archives, Asheville, North Carolina.