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Transcription of the log book entry:
May 28, 1954 through May 30, 1954
We had a beautiful weekend for the continuance of work & the dedication. Jeannette Fitz Williams & Earl Haskell merit special mention for their vigorous labor in the annex. Besides that, all those whose name appear below the arrow on the previous page contributed largely toward weeding, clearing, mortaring, tarring, painting, & rattle-snake killing. On Sunday afternoon, George Corbin, Chief Ranger Jacobs & Park Naturalist Favour & those whose names appear above the arrow on the previous page began to wander in & all of us finally gathered about 3:30 daylight savings time for the dedication over which President Blackburn presided. He gave a short history of the cabin before PATC & since. He introduced the new overseer, Karl Thrif [sp?], & presented his wife, Ann, with keys, this book, & the cabin sign, while Karl & many others took pictures. Pr. Blackburn introduced next Mr. Corbin who expressed his gratitude for the Club’s interest in his home. The rangers each said a few words & then the piece de resistance [winged?] up by physicist Blackburn & consisting of a spark-plug igniting a few drops of gasoline & thus shooting a can against the door & smashing a bottle of “champagne” against the threshold — but it didn’t work, but after 2 manual efforts, Canada Dry’s best was in smithereens.
At the same decisive moment, several hydrogen filled balloons were released from the attic windows and floated out over the park. Afterwards, George Corbin’s best apple brandy was served to the guests who later staggered up the hill & left the rest of us to continue our work.
The families of Corbin Hollow--a community of perennial starvation and penniless squalor within a dozen miles of President Hoover's Rapidan camp--are about to come into something more than their own.
A plan to move the community, rooted in this one spot since the Revolutionary War, to a new section of the mountains adjoining a church mission has been virtually agreed upon between Federal and State officials.
Mixed up in the strange story are officials of the National Park Service, a Washington physician and a lone woman social worker, Miss Miriam Sizer.
Secretary Wilbur rode into the Hollow over the week end, accompanied by Horace M. Albright, director of the National Park Service; Dr. Lyman Sexton of Washington and Miss Sizer.
Corbin Hollow is within the limits of the new Shenandoah National Park. In order not only to aid the Corbins and the Nicholsons, but also to clear the park, the plan of providing a sizable plot for them near a mountain mission was advanced. Wilbur looked on it with favor.
"No matter what is done with these people," he said, "the will be better off. They have nothing to lose."