The first official act in forming the park was the appointment of the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee. The Secretary of the Interior appointed the committee to survey the Blue Ridge and other eastern regions as sites for future National Parks. After hearing the report, local groups were formed to promote the project.

The Shenandoah National Park Association, formed in 1925, became an instrument of this movement. In 9 months its members raised $1,249,000. Twenty-four thousand Virginians pledged this amount to buy up the necessary property at $6 an acre. The Virginia Assembly voted an additional million dollars to help buy up the 3,870 private tracts, and in 1926 Congress formally authorized establishment of the park.

Eight years went by before the land was totally acquired. In the interim the Skyline Drive, which early had been visualized as one of the major attractions of the park, was begun in 1931. In 1934 the first section was opened to the public.

At Big Meadows, on July 3, 1936, Shenandoah National Park was dedicated “to present and succeeding generations of Americans for the recreation and the re-creation” they were to find there.