Driving Through Time - The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway
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About this Item
| Title | The Vanishing Wilderness Exhibit |
| Date | August 28, 1958 |
| Description | Image shows a sign that is part of exhibit #5 at the Peaks of Otter visitor center. The sign is titled "The Vanishing Wilderness - Since the coming of white men, many wilderness animals have disappeared." The image was taken near milepost 85.9 and Section 1K of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Taken by Earl W. Estes, Jr. on August 28, 1958. There are various images on the sign, and the captions with those images read as follows: Extinct. Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions. Cutting of beech forests in which they lived, plus uncontrolled shooting, wiped them out by 1914. Elk - Twenty five elk from Yellowstone National Park were successfully reintroduced near the Peaks of Otter by the Va. Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries in 1917. Today the herd numbers about thirty-six. Gone from Virginia. These were common in the 1700s. - Bison. Disappeared by 1880. - Mountain Lion. Last known in 1880. - Wolf. None seen after 1910. - Fisher. Once ranged into North Carolina. Gone from the Peaks of Otter. These now live at lower elevations. Beaver - Otter. Once hunted too intensively, the wild turkey today thrives under protection. It may be seen occasionally along the Parkway. |
| Location |
Location Name: Peaks of Otter Visitor Center Parkway Milepost: 85.9
Latitude: 37.445786
Longitude: -79.608097 |
| Creator Individual | Earl W. Estes, Jr. |
| Tags |
Bedford County (Va.)
Exhibitions Interpretive development Peaks of Otter (Va.) Photographs Visitors' centers |
| Credit | Courtesy National Park Service, Blue Ridge Parkway |
