Cultural Resources receives $10,000 Grant
Stephen Kidd discusses Parkway History with John Earl McGrady who worked with the CCC during Parkway construction
2011 promises to be an exciting year for Cultural Resources at the parkway. Steven Kidd, the parkway’s Cultural Resource Specialist, was the recipient of a $10,000 grant from the National Parks Foundation that will allow the collection of a number of important oral histories. During the parkway’s 75th anniversary celebration at the Music Center and Cumberland Knob, resource management staff met a number of people with recollections of constructing some of the first sections of the parkway. Their memories of life in the Civilian Conservation Corps from the 1930’s and 1940’s offer a rare opportunity to record their first-hand accounts of parkway construction.
Another component of the project is to conduct oral histories of culturally diverse people who helped create the parkway. Included in these are culturally diverse groups traditionally not associated with the parkway including African-American communities, some of whom worked in racially segregated CCC camps, Cherokees who formerly lived in areas where the southern terminus of the parkway lies, and the descendants of Italian-American and Spanish-American stone masons brought from Europe to construct the intricate stone-work associated with the parkway’s bridges, walls, and overlooks.
To complete the interviews and transcription the parkway has enlisted the services of Dr. Heidi Altman, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgia Southern University. Dr. Altman has considerable experience working with the Eastern Cherokee in such areas as language revitalization. Her experience in Appalachian culture with her emphasis on the Cherokee language made her a perfect match for this project. The parkway is excited to record these incredible stories. Oral histories along with historic photographs are the single most requested item by researchers studying the parkway. We hope to share some of our findings as soon as this project is complete.
