Hungry Mother State Park

In 1933, local residents helped create a state park in Smyth County along Hungry Mother Creek by donating 2,000 acres of land to Virginia. Its unusual name comes from the legend of a nearby conflict involving Indian settlers in which Molly Marley and her child were captured, later escaped, and Marley died; a search party found the toddler able to utter only the words “Hungry Mother.” Developed as a New Deal project by the National Park Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps in conjunction with the Virginia Conservation Commission, the park opened on 15 June 1936 as one of Virginia’s first six state parks.

Virginia · United States