Much can be read from the facts of parkland acquisition. There had never been a shortage of mountain land here, so the price per acre had never been high since private ownership was inaugurated by immigrants from Europe.

          Almost anyone willing to work a few acres and establish a home could acquire the land -- by easy arrangements with the owner or even by simply occupying the place, developing and using it, regardless of the owner. There were homesteaders, sometimes called squatters, thus acquiring land ownership in these mountains even in the present century. Perhaps as many as two dozen persons had their ownership officially recognized for the first time even as it was being taken from them, with compensation, of course, to become the national park.

          The park-land was bought during the Great Depression, when the dollar value of just about anything was incredibly low. A loaf of bread could be bought for a nickel; a habitable house could be bought for a few hundred dollars. In the mountains and in some rural lowlands a house could be built for almost nothing from trees existing on the land. Sawmills would saw lumber on shares. Neighbors might assemble to help put up logs and roofs.

          Three hundred acres or more and a price of $8,000 or more nearly always means, bluegrass sod with cattle in summer, an owner with a German or Swiss or, rarely, Scotch-Irish name who also has a large farm on nearby lowland, one or more year-round tenants on the mountain. place, quite possibly a summer home for the owning family, also extensive forest on the tract in addition to pasture.

          An acreage between 5 and 150, with a price of several hundred dollars to a bit over a thousand, almost certainly means an owner-resident's homeplace, whether or not the owner's family was living there when the park was established. Any size acreage with a total price equalling $1 an acre or no more than $5 an acre is likely to mean a tract held for growth of timber or with a far-out hope of mineral production at some future time: It usually means also an owner in the lowland or, rarely, in a faraway city who seldom visits the land and quite possibly has never become familiar with it.

          Perhaps it also means squatters, some of whom may have used small tracts long enough to get ownership rights. Most of the mountain residents -- owners, tenants, and squatters -- have English names. A fair number have German names. A very few are of Scotch-Irish descent.

          The information has been compiled from parkland tract maps on Me at park headquarters and in the court houses of eight park counties and from deeply stored, cobwebby card files and accounts that came to park headquarters about 1936 from Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development.

[Note: the following list includes ONLY Greene County residents. Also, the acreage guidelines (above) are just that--guidelines. jc]

S.E.B. Adams, 1,817a $11,749 John A. Alexander, 807a $2,264 C.E. Armentrout, 182a $2,859 J.C. Armstrong, 135a $3,890 C.C. Baugher, 261a $2.281 J.M. Beasley, 68a $1,735 Annie R. Begoon, 29a . $2,045 Ella Breeden, 44a $4711 John W. Breeden, 42a $385 Nancy Breeden, 42a $300 Reuben Breeden, 296a $2,648 W.M. and Marcellus Breeden, 53a $1,021 C.J. and R.M. Burke, 56a $1,344 S.V. and B.B. Burke, 37a $465 Elijah Catterton, 80a $3.595 Clarence Collier, 34a $1,000 Martha Collier estate, 64a $1,531 Millie C. Collier estate, 31a $752 S.B. Collier, 167a $1,525 S.B. and C.F. Collier, 159a $3,441 Annie May Comer, 91a $621 G.W. Conley, 172a $2,236 Jack Crawford estate, 84a $599 Moses Crawford, 92a $1,282 Davis and Miller, 118a $1,495 Minnie Davis, .5a $50 A. and H. Deane, 6a $265 C.P. Deane and E. Marshall, 15a $203 D.C. Deane, 26a $525 G.R. Deane, 166a $3,846 J. Frank Deane, 202a $3,770 L.N. Deane, 160a $1,985 Mathew Deane, 36a $575 The Deford Co., 799a $6,363 A.T. Dulaney, 13a $82 H.R. and F.E. Efler, 47a $1,439 Howard Eiler, 110a $4,317 Episcopal Church (Simmons Gap), 10a $8,525 Episcopal Church (Pocosin), 2a $4,455 Jackson Frazier estate, 46a $920 J.M. and Effie Funkhauser, 84a $1,154 John P. Guilford, 54a $135 Basil Haney, 147a $891 J.A. Haney, 213a $7,060 JX Haney, 41a $1,760 P.H. Haney, 184a $2,728 J. P. Hamer, 215a $2,600 Malcolm Hamer, 124a $2,033 J.T. Heard, 319a $1,650 C.L. and J.C. Hedrick, 45a $3,000 J.T. Helbert, 159a $3,441 G.R. Herring, 26a $1,800 Hightop Christ Church, 5a $13 J.W. Hinkle, 65a $480 James and Davis, 3a $135 H. C. Jarrell and D.A. Jenkins, 198a $1,188 Harry Jarrell, 20a $322 G. Luther Kite, 24a $102 Sally and Luther Kite, 448a $3,678 Elmer Lam, 78a $1,670 Mathew Lam, 88a $970 A.T. Lamb, 50a $1.340

C.H. Lamb, 64a $1,734 Charles Lamb, 11a $605 J.W. Lamb, 68a $1,664 James Lamb, 28a $490 Silas Lamb, 44a $561 W. and E. Lamb, 114a $1,683 W.J. Lamb estate, 124a $2,980 Willie Lamb, 129a $1,191 G.S. Lough, 82a $2,509 R.A. Malone, 4a $440 Harvey McDaniel, 64a $626 John W. McDaniel, 8a $430 J.W. Meadows, 93a $2,080 John P. Meadows, 105a $744 L.G. Meadows, 453a $3,500 Eleanora Morris, 40a . $675 Elizabeth Morris estate, .25a $10 Emanuel Morris, 3a $352 Houston Morris, 40a $914 J. T. Morris estate, 1a $125 Mitchell and Ben Morris, 20a $224 Raleigh Morris, 24a $645 S. G. Morris, 17a $51 Smith Morris, 39a $550 W.L. Morris, 152a $2,075 Myrtle Reynolds, 7a $137 Andrew Roach, 78a $1,536 Cora V. Roach, 244a $3,008 Michael Roach, 50a $635 John E. Roller estate, 434a $3,777 Cicero Samuels, .25a . $10 Win. and Ed. Sellers, 15a $600 H.K.andT.M. Shelton, 231a $990 Bessie and Earman Shifflett, 31a $504 Earman Shifflett, 7a $570 G.W. Shifflett estate, 424a $248 Hosea Shifflett, 41a $923 J.D. Shifflett, 52a $5.075 J.J. Shifflett, 18a $682 L.H. Shifflett, 62a $2,040 Russell Shifflett, 62a $900 Shiloh Church of the Brethren, 1a $260 Mittie Lee Shoals, 27a $195 Columbia Smith, 63a $936 J. Al Snow, 3a $15 Wm. Sullivan, 33a $624 Swift Run Gap School, 1a $400 Chas J. Taylor, 25a $404 Claude Taylor, 42a $3,085 Mrs. Columbia Taylor, 95a $722 Gibbon Taylor, 104a $1,535 Hiram Taylor, 94a $1,404 Minnie Taylor, 234a $1,358 Robert L. Taylor, 190a $2,442 Thomas Taylor, 242a $1,754 Zachariah Taylor estate, 50a $580 Vacant, 15a $59 M.W. Walker, 72a $1,000 James Weaver, 25a $862 W.P.R. Weaver estate 430a $5,700 E.W. Webster and W.S. Shaver, 245a $2,231 Lutie B. White, 48a $192 H.W. Zetty, 259a $1.800