Massanutten Lodge … Skyland home of early 20th century renaissance woman Addie Hunter Pollock

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Within Shenandoah National Park is a hidden gem enjoyed by many but what many don’t realize is that Skyland Resort existed before the park (see history of Skyland). Established in the late 1880s, its location on Stony Man Mountain is at the highest point of the Skyline Drive at Milepost 42.

Within Skyland Resort is this mountain summer home called “Massanutten Lodge” (see Skyland Resort … Shenandoah National Park) that was owned by Addie Hunter, a Washington, DC, divorcee who later married Skyland developer George Pollock “when she was almost 40 years old,” the lady ranger-interpreter told us. When they married, she said, he had financial issues and she was wealthy but, well, almost 40. Theirs was an interesting relationship that eventually floundered but is part of the overall history of Skyland.

Skyland Resort … Shenandoah National Park

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Skyland Resort located at Milepost 42 on the Skyline Drive is an 1890s mountain resort that was incorporated into the National Park system in the 1930s providing a rustic getaway to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park. Located at the highest point of the park on Stony Man Mountain, it was developed by George Freeman Pollock as a summer retreat for city dwellers who wanted to enjoy the coolness of the mountains.

Lunch with Polly Campbell … surprise presentation of RPV resolution

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Polly Campbell stood Friday on the front porch of the historic and stately Mimslyn Inn overlooking Luray and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She and I had made plans for lunch but she didn’t know a couple of friends would be joining us and that she was to receive a commemorative resolution from the Republican Party of Virginia honoring and thanking her for more than 50 years of service to the party. She was also actively involved in the Page County Republican Committee during those years. (See Polly Yager Campbell … growing up in the shadow of Shenandoah National Park.)

A Commending Resolution in Appreciation and Gratitude to PAULINA “POLLY” YAGER CAMPBELL
For 50 Years of Service to the Republican Party of Virginia

This photo is of Governor John Dalton and Polly circa somewhere around 1979. These two were Young Republicans and lifelong friends. When they began working within the party in the early 1960s, the Democratic Byrd Machine was in control of Virginia but the generation that included Polly and Governor Dalton saw that change as they worked to bring the Republican Party into relevance.

From Encyclopedia Virginia: “Although the Daltons hailed from the western ‘Mountain and Valley’ region, where Republicans tended to be centrist in their political outlook, John Dalton became a leading advocate in the 1970s for a party-building strategy that stressed recruiting conservative converts from the ranks of former Democrats. In this, he was allied closely with Richard D. Obenshain, the Republican state chairman, and with Byrd-Organization Democrats such as former governor Mills Godwin. Godwin exited the Democratic Party as its more liberal faction gained control early in the 1970s, and ran for governor again as a Republican in 1973. Dalton joined the Godwin ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor, and the pairing helped to cement an alliance between the Republican moderates from the west and the conservative former Democrats in the eastern two-thirds of the state. Dalton simultaneously cultivated ties to the state’s moderate-conservative business establishment and projected a youthful, energetic appeal to the state’s fast-growing suburban areas.”