The Jefferson National Forest: An Appalachian Environmental History

Source Materials

Source Materials A Note on Primary Sources: By the time I reached the National Archives in 1992, they had already destroyed the eighty-some boxes of Jefferson National Forest records. Only a few files remained. The correspondence, memorandums , and other documents would have made for a far different history, had they been available. Some primary documents have survived, and all are (or were) located at the supervisor’s office in Roanoke, Virginia, or at the individual ranger district offices throughout southwest Virginia. The nature of these documents range from well-kept, orderly materials still used in daily operations to haphazardly stored documents kept in boxes or file cabinets at the whim of a staff person out of historical curiosity or for personal reasons. Researchers should remember that the JNF is a land management institution, however, and not an archive. The land files, located at JNF headquarters, constitute many hundreds of cubic feet and represent all parcels acquired by the National Forest Reservation Commission beginning and following 1911. These documents remain viable and regularly consulted by JNF staff when dealing with acquisitions, land trades, boundary surveys, and such. They are not archived as historic documents would be but generally receive the same kind of care in terms of their retrieval, use, and refiling. They contain invaluable historic material and proved absolutely essential for ascertaining certain aspects of acquisition history (particularly surrounding the Mount Rogers NRA) related in these pages. Other primary documents located in the Roanoke supervisor’s office were in a much more precarious state when I last saw them. The Mount Rogers NRA documents were crucial to this study’s most complicated chapter and had survived far longer than typically so, mostly because of Charles Blankenship’s interest. After his retirement (which was before I began working for the JNF in 1991), they continued to reside in a file cabinet in the recreation staff officer’s quarters. Timber, mineral, wildlife, botanical, and air-quality documents were much more recent and existed more as working references than archived, historical documents. Finally, the oral history audio material remains the most fragile of resources, given the temporary nature of magnetic tape. The majority of these tapes were boxed in the archaeology 304 j Source Materials office. A few interviews are deposited in Missouri with the Western Historic Manuscript Collection at University of Missouri–Columbia. Archival Sources Appalachian Regional Study Center, Radford Univ., Radford, VA. Wagner, Melinda Bollar. “Appalachian Attitude toward Land.” Paper presented at Appalachian Studies Conference, 1996 (194.99.d). ———., ed. and comp. “It May Not Be Heaven, But It’s Close: Land and People in Craig County, Virginia.” Position paper, Mar. 1995 (195.8.a). Citizens Task Force for National Forest Management, Roanoke, VA. JNF budget documents. Deposited with Jim Loesel. Emory and Henry College, Emory, VA. Saltworks lawsuit, printed manuscripts. N. K. White and Others vs. Stuart, Buchanan and Co. Abingdon, VA: Standard Print, n.d. [after Feb. 17, 1879]. Stuart and Others vs. White and Others. South West Virginia Enterprise Office, Wytheville, 1872. Stuart, Buchanan and Co. vs. N.K. White et al. Virginia office, Abingdon, 1867. White, Robertson and Others vs. Stuart, Buchanan and Co. October 18, 1877. Forest History Society, Durham, NC. Mustian, Albert. Papers. “Holston Working Circle Development Plan, 1941–1950.” Jefferson National Forest, Roanoke, VA. Air Resource Management. Cultural Resource. Glenwood Ranger District History. Robens, Ward. “Historical Data, Glenwood Working Circle, Jefferson National Forest.” September 1949. Land Status Atlases and Individual Land. Mount Rogers National Recreation Area Headquarters Land (2100 File). Recreation and Planning. Timber Management. Watershed Protection and Management. Wildlife Management. National Archives, Washington, DC. U.S. Forest Service, Record Group 95. Univ. of Virginia, Alderman Library Archives, Charlottesville. Preston-Davis Papers. Source Materials J 305 Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. Campbell-Preston-Floyd Papers. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Special Collections, Blacksburg. Preston Family Papers. Norfolk & Western Archives. Sarvis, Will. “The Salt Industry of Nineteenth Century Saltville, Virginia.” MS. Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond. Board of Public Works—Turnpike Companies. Laws Cited Acquired Lands Act of 1947. Public Law 80-382. 80th Cong., 1st sess., Aug. 7, 1947. Annotated Code of Virginia, Title 10.1. Conservation, Chapter 11, Forest Resources and the Dept. of Forestry, sec. 10.1-1100 through sec. 10.1-1181.12. Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965. Public Law 89-4. 89th Cong., 3rd sess., Mar. 9, 1965. Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act of 1974...