Conservative activists protested Saturday outside a private hotel and restaurant forced to close during the partial federal government shutdown because it leases a federal government building on federally owned land.
Protesters gathered on the shoulder of the Blue Ridge Parkway to protest Friday’s forced closure of the Pisgah Inn, owner Bruce O’Connell said in an interview. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported (http://avlne.ws/15SS44e ) the crowd numbered fewer than three dozen. One of the demonstrators handed him a card claiming membership in a tea party group based in Asheville, about 30 miles east, O’Connell said.
“They’re up there making a statement I guess — that they’re not happy with the state of things and wanted to make a point,” O’Connell said.
Park rangers began blocking the inn’s three entrances off the parkway at lunchtime Friday, stayed through the night and remained there Saturday to make sure the inn didn’t reopen, O’Connell said.
Parkway Chief Ranger Steve Stinnett said park service managers in Washington directed him to block access to the inn.
The 470-mile federal road that winds through the North Carolina and Virginia mountains remains open to traffic but National Park Service visitor centers, campgrounds, picnic areas and restrooms are shuttered because of the budget dispute on
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