virginia's democratic gubernatorial candidate (and the late congressman flood's nephew), harry f. byrd supported creation of shenandoah national park, as did his friend william e. carson, a businessman who had become virginia's first chairman of the commission on conservation and development. development of the western national parks had assisted tourism, which produced jobs, which byrd and local politicians supported. the land that became shenandoah park was scenic, mountainous, and had also lost about half of its trees to the chestnut blight (which was incurable and affected trees as they reached maturity). however, it had been held as private property for over a century, so many farms and orchards existed. after byrd became governor and convinced the legislature to appropriate $1 million for land acquisition and other work, carson and his teams (including surveyors and his brother kit who was byrd's law partner) tried to figure out who owned the land. they found that it consisted of more than 5,000 parcels, some of them inhabited by tenant farmers or squatters (who were ineligible to receive compensation). some landowners, including wealthy resort owner george freeman pollock and luray realtor and developer l. ferdinand zerkel, had long wanted the park created and had formed the northern virginia park association to win over the national park selection committee. however, many local families who had lived in the area for generations (especially people over 60 years old) did not want to sell their land, and some refused to sell at any price. carson promised that if they sold to the state, they could still live on their homesteads for the rest of their lives. carson also lobbied the new president, herbert hoover, who bought land to establish a vacation fishing camp near the headwaters of the rapidan river (and would ultimately donate it to the park as he left office; it remains as rapidan camp).