Tracy Thetford, Lead Forestry Technician, Shenandoah NP
Interviewed by Mark Schoepfle, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist
April 4, 2002 at Shenandoah National Park

TRACY THETFORD: [Assistant Superintendent ] Connie Rudd received a phone call [from] the acting regional director on that day, and she received word that parks in the Northeast Region were to shut down. So what she did, I remember, is she pulled management staff, law enforcement, employees, and supervisors, Robbie Brockwehl, our concessions manager or liaison, because you know, if the decision was to shut down the park did that mean we'd have to evacuate people who were staying in our lodges. And we needed to make a decision if we needed to evacuate visitors who were camping in our campgrounds so she pulled me in because I supervise the operations of the entrances and campgrounds.

And I can't remember exactly when Connie Rudd got the call from the acting regional director to shut down parks. But to get back to the administrative part of that, Connie had called all the management staff that was available and on duty at the time to see how Shenandoah was going to react to not only, you know, Washington, DC and New York City, but to, you know, the regional director saying we should shut down the parks.

Mostly, if I remember correctly and I may not, I think it was mostly for safety and security of government offices. Since the plane had gone into the Pentagon, my interpretation of why we were closing is it was…nobody knew what was going on next or…what planes were going where, what other possible terrorist attacks might happen where.

So we went over and met here at the ranger activities office…and sat down and decided to make an action plan. I wasn't involved in the very beginnings of that conversation. I was calling my staff out in the field, our employees that work in the entrance stations and campgrounds.

I think what had happened was we as a park had decided to follow the spirit of that directive - but not to follow to actually close down and evacuate our lodges and our campgrounds - a response…to leave Shenandoah open as a sanctuary for a place for people to go to. So I called all my folks out in the field and all of them decided to stay and work at the stations, greet the visitors that were coming in, and just be out there, because they felt that if they went home they would just be sitting in front of a TV as opposed to being out and at work and being productive and somewhat distracted from the events that were going on.

But, yeah we just decided to stay open as a sanctuary and a place of refuge. And actually later on in the day I called down to our employees that are working in the entrance station to find out if there's been an influx of people into the park who were saying that, you know, it was overwhelming and they needed to get away or away from the TV. And there were groups of people who actually were leaving Washington, DC and coming - and just drove out of the city. And they came to Shenandoah and decided to come into the park and just either drive or walk. But they were telling our folks at the entrance stations that, yeah, they just needed to get away.

MARK SCHOEPFLE: This was happening already the first, the very first day?

TRACY THETFORD: The very first day.

MARK SCHOEPFLE: The day that this had happened.

TRACY THETFORD: There wasn't - it wasn't a huge influx, but there were people coming in. And then that weekend we had a lot of people coming in just to, you know, they wanted to get away from the TV mostly is what we heard. Just because they were seeing the events over and over and over and over again. But yeah, our campgrounds were pretty busy that weekend. So that was neat to see actually. And I liked - I was very happy about the fact that we did not shut down and we did not evacuate our campgrounds and our lodges. And I know that decision was a very tough decision, and they had to get more information I'm sure as far as you know the safety and security of our visitors and our employees. But I'm glad we didn't immediately knee-jerk and close down everything because I like the fact that we were open and available for folks and ourselves. And I didn't want to go home.

And one of the interesting things I want to - I got out in the field on the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday immediately following and I went to Big Meadows Campground which is our largest campground in the park. And talked to the employees there to find out, you know, what were people saying to them. And they said it was busy, that a lot of people were coming in, and it was the same reaction as we got on the afternoon of September 11.

People just wanted to get out of the city, get to nature, get away from the TV. And that's mostly what we heard is, just get away from the TV. I think that's the largest reaction I've heard.

September 11, 2001 Oral History Documentation Project
Northeast Region, National Park Service

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