Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection
Scope and Content
The Mountain Lake: David Sherman collection contains papers collected by David Sherman while he working to establish a federal wilderness area around Mountain Lake in Giles County, Virginia during the 1980s. Old hotel brochures and articles printed in local magazines and guidebooks dating from 1870 to 2002 provide historical background on the area. Maps and photographs provide geographic information about the land. There is also a copy of a doctoral dissertation on the history of Mountain Lake written by Frederick C. Marland, a Virginia Tech graduate. Other material in the collection documents Sherman's effort to preserve the Mountain Lake area. These items include federal studies and reports about the environmental conditions generated by federal agencies, copies of legislation, and research and correspondence about local land ownership.
Dates
- Creation: 1870 - 2002
Creator
- Sherman, David (Person)
Access Restrictions
Collection is open to research.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish material from the Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Biographical/Historical Information
Mountain Lake is a 6,000 year old freshwater lake in Giles County, Virginia that is fed by cold underground springs. It was formerly known as Salt Pond, and the area sits atop Salt Pond Mountain along the eastern continental divide. A hotel or resort has operated at the privately owned site since 1857.
Around 1980, David Sherman of the U.S. Forest Service and the Appalachian Trail Conference became involved in the effort to designate the area around Mountain Lake as a federal wilderness area. Although unable to secure property including Mountain Lake itself, over eight thousand acres of Mountain Lake Wilderness area to the lake's north, including a portion of the Appalachian Trail, are now administered by the Jefferson National Forest.
Full Extent
0.5 Cubic Feet (1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection consists of papers collected by David Sherman of the U.S. Forest Service and Appalachian Trail Conference while working to establish a federal wilderness area around Mountain Lake in Giles County, Virginia during the 1980s. Materials include hotel brochures, magazine and guidebook articles, a dissertation about the lake, maps, federal reports about the environmental conditions, and research and correspondence about local land ownership.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged by subject groupings. As the collection contains only twenty folders, no subdivisions into series were necessary.
Some collection material was originally stored in a three-ring binder marked "Mountain Lake, Virginia. Miscellaneous Documentation." The papers in the binder were removed, placed in folders corresponding to their tab-divided groupings and labeled (binder), then the folders were interfiled with other material according to subject.
Acquisition Information
The Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection was donated to the Special Collections by its collector in 2003.
General Physical Description note
0.5 cu. ft.; 1 manuscript box
Processing Information
The processing, arrangement and description of the Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection took place in December 2004.
- Title
- A Guide to the Mountain Lake: David Sherman Collection 1870-2002
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Amy Shaffer
- Date
- © 2004 By Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. All rights reserved.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Description is in English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections, Virginia Tech Repository
Special Collections, University Libraries (0434)
560 Drillfield Drive
Newman Library, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg Virginia 24061 US
540-231-6308
specref@vt.edu