Home Finding Aids Shenandoah National ParkSNP Collection Inventory

SNP Collection Inventory

The first series of the SNP Records collection consists of 4,756 documents related to The State Commission on Conservation and Development of the State of Virginia v. Cassandra Lawson Atkins and others, and Fifty-Two Thousand Five Hundred and Sixty-One (52,561) Acres of Land, more or less in Rockingham County, Virginia, court case initiated by the state of Virginia in order to acquire 52,561 acres of privately held land located within the northern Blue Ridge Mountains. The Virginia government in collaboration with the federal government, used condemnation, a process that involves the seizure of an individual's private property for public use, without the owner’s consent, but with payment of compensation, and more formally known as “eminent domain,” to create the Shenandoah National Park. The documents in this particular series are the legal proceedings for each individual tract of land that made up the one court case.

Series II: Miscellaneous Records

This series consists of 1,198 "miscellaneous records" related to the condemnation of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the court case. The types of records one will find hear vast, but you can expect to encounter correspondences, newspaper articles, official court Petitions, official court Orders, and affidavits.

Series III: Skyline Drive Deed Books

The third series of the SNP Records collection consists of two deed books, which detail the tract numbers and claimants, as well as individual plot owners.

Series IV: Oversized Records*

*Not digitized