Managing Change: The Blue Ridge Parkway as a Museum of Managed American Countryside
Robinson NK. 1993. Managing Change: The Blue Ridge Parkway as a Museum of Managed American Countryside. Pages 11-21. In Marrying Beauty with Utility: Proceedings of the 5th Biennial International Linear Parks Conference. Boone, North Carolina. September 8-11, 1993. Appalachian Consortium Press
ABSTRACT: The Blue Ridge Parkway was designed specifically by the concept of a "museum of the managed American countryside." Stanley Abbott designed the Parkway to offer visitors a glimpse of the then remote Appalachian subsistence agricultural practices: haystacks, horse-drawn plows, log cabins, outbuildings, vegetable gardens, etc. Over the years changes have come to the mountains that have altered farm scenes. Gone are the days when farmer and ox walk the plow, while women and children follow behind planting seed. Many who used to seek out a living through subsistence agriculture have kept their land but have taken jobs in related occupations in nearby towns and are weekend farmers only. Second homes and resort communities are encroaching on the Parkway's boundaries, changing viewsheds in agricultural areas. This paper will examine the original design, explore these changes, offer management options and present a concept for the design of an interpretive tool, an audio tape, as a means of perpetuating the museum concept today and in the future.
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Robinson, Nancy
- Units
- BLRI
- Keywords
- APHN, Appalachian Highlands Network, BLRI, Blue Ridge Parkway, encroachment, interpretation, management, SER, Southeast Region