VA Delegate to Feds: Turn Shenandoah Into State Park

This land is your land, this land is my land—but it shouldn't be the federal government's, Del. Bob Marshall says of Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. 

The Republican delegate for the 13th district sent a letter to Virginia's congressional delegation earlier this week, arguing that because of the federal government shutdown, Congress should return Shenandoah's lands to the Commonwealth of Virginia—to be run as a state park. 

"Virginia would not damage businesses and families dependent on the parks by shutting the Shenandoah National Park to keep citizens and visitors out," Marshall wrote in the letter. "Therefore, I would like to request that the Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive be turned back over to Virginia to be run by Virginia as a state park so that the Virginians who rely on their jobs within the park and those whose livelihoods depend on tourism traffic from the park will never be put through this again."

While thousands of tourists haven't been able to access the park during its peak season, Marshall's (really, really) long-shot idea didn't exactly win him accolades from all his Facebook followers. 

"Or, you know, you could ask your fellow Republicans to stop acting like a bunch of terrorists and release the hostage," one wrote.