My interest in history has largely been influenced by my travels over the years. When I was growing up in New Jersey, my aunt moved to Montague, New Jersey. On one of our weekend trips there, she took us on a drive along River Road; which parallels the Delaware River. As we drove along enjoying the fall scenery, I noticed a few Victorian style homes which seemed to be abandoned. I asked about them and that was my introduction to the Tocks Island Dam project. At this time (early ’80s) the dam was a non issue, but the uninhabited homes remained. I filed my curious thoughts away for a later date.
Next, when I moved to Virginia in 1998, one of our weekend excursions was to Shenandoah National Park. I had visited SNP as a teenager on a family camping trip, but now I could go there almost any time. We had lots of visitors from out of town our first few years in Fairfax, and Shenandoah was one of the favorite places to take them. On one of my trips, I picked up a book from the park bookstore about old homesteads still visible along hiking trails. The book explained how mountain families had been forced off their land to create the national park in the ’30s. I felt sad for the families…and filed more curious thoughts away for another day.
This year, as part of my summer vacation, my husband and I decided to take the path less traveled home from our summer home in Maine. We had left our teenage children in the care of their grandparents and had time to ourselves. We left time so we would not have to hurry back to Fairfax. We took a detour through southern Vermont (husband loves the mountains there) and then headed south to New York State. I have a ancestors from the Catskill area and wanted to take my part of the detour through there. Night fell as we were driving along the shores of the Ashokan Reservoir. We had stopped for dinner in a small town, but as we continued we noticed that there were almost no roads or houses near the reservoir. Every so often there would be a signpost for the “former site of…” I decided to look into what this was all about when I got home.
These three examples of places where people have been removed from an area highlight the consequences of eminent domain. I find that the project assigned for this class may be the one time I can combine these three snapshots in history together.
My plan is to examine the effects of eminent domain on the populations which are removed from an area. As a teaching exercise, I’d like students to consider the decisions which have to be made when weighing the advantages for the many (clean drinking water or recreational areas) versus the consequences to the few (those who have to leave the area).
No comments:
Post a Comment