Piney River: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park

Killion, Jeff

Piney River is a National Park Service (NPS) maintenance and trail crew facility in Shenandoah National Park (NP), located at milepost 22.1 on Skyline Drive in Rappahannock County. Piney River can also be reached by foot via the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Piney Branch Trail. The site sits on the northeast side of the peak of Piney Ridge and is part of the chain of mountains that form the Blue Ridge Mountains. Piney River is the location of a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp that was important to the development of Shenandoah NP and Skyline Drive. As one of the last CCC camps built in Shenandoah, Piney River was unique in that it did not have the typical U‑shaped configuration of other camps in the park, rather, its development was shaped by the topography of the mountain. The historic road into the camp from Skyline Drive, the Access Road, is still used. It historically terminated as an oval drive that surrounded a flagpole and from which other roads radiated. Today, this area – or Hub – continues to function as the central core of the facility. Other contributing circulation features are the Piney Branch Trail and the Fire Road that leads to the Range View Cabin, operated by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. On the northwest side of the Hub is the historic Maintenance Office/CCC Technical Office. It and another CCC building to the north, the Naturalist’s Office, have survived the seventy plus years since they were first built and are still at their original locations. Most of the other CCC buildings occupied the gently sloped areas south of the Hub, where today a maintenance building, support structures, and large asphalt paved areas for storage and parking are located. The spaces surrounding the buildings are mostly open except for a few mature oaks and pines around the Maintenance Office/CCC Technical Office. These areas are bounded by a secondary growth forest of oak, cherry, hickory, locust, and pine that also edges Skyline Drive, much of the former oval drive and CCC barracks areas, and the NPS residence. Large boulders as well as several sinkholes, believed to be the location of the CCC camp latrine, can be found in these woods. To the south there are several apple trees that likely date to the CCC or early park period. At the top of the Piney Ridge, a canopy story of large oak and cherry trees is scattered across a rocky ground.

Piney River: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park

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