Shenandoah National Park (SNP) differs from many of the wild "National Parks" in its wonderful undocumented history of the folks who settled and lived on the land before it became a park in the mid-1930s.  About 40 percent of SNP is designated wilderness.  However, evidence in the wilderness and in areas not so defined hold traces of the people who once lived there.

One such trace that I like to visit now and then in SNP inspired this article.  It looks like a pickup truck (perhaps 1930's era) long abandoned and in fact mostly disassembled, perhaps as spare parts.  I have not found the engine, but the fenders, truck bed, and other wonderful parts still sit amid the growing forest.  The truck is hard to get too or even locate in the summer because of all the lush vegetation, including thorny briars, which hide the trace of a trail leading there.  Therefore, I visit in the winter.

The old truck is on the edge of a drop-off.  That is a place where 1930's folks would dump their trash.  Yet, it was not down the bank.  It is at the top of the bank.  Perhaps the owner could not take that last step of abandonment by pushing it over the edge.  People tend to love their horses, cars, and trucks.  They are reluctant to say good-bye without a better, newer, brighter, faster, stronger replacement.  Was there a replacement? Did they simply abandon it when they left for good, having no need for a farm truck anymore?

Please remember that if you find this or other cultural resources in a National Park, they are a valuable part of the park.  Please leave the resources undisturbed.  Take pictures, admire, wonder, but do not move it.  Authorized archeological efforts may focus on that resource, and the context of where it sits is vital to the researchers to help understand what history lies behind it.