{"id":1827,"date":"2026-09-15T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:40:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:40:53","slug":"mennonite-minister-takes-on-the-army-corps-of-engineers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"Mennonite Minister takes on the Army Corps of Engineers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ernest Gehman probably never voted and stayed out of politics, but in the 1960s, he threw himself into opposing a proposed Brocks Gap Dam. His many speeches, letters in the newspaper, his 18-page publication, and his trip to Washington to speak against the dam in front of the Army\u2019s Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors all seemed political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gehman (1901-1988) led the charge to stop a dam that would have flooded about 4000 acres and reconfigured the geography of northwestern Rockingham County, Va. Seven church buildings would have been submerged, along with a well-liked Turner Ham store, the Fulks Run Elementary School, dozens of farms, and an entire community of around 300 families. Gehman, an English and German professor at nearby Eastern Mennonite University, launched into a full-scale attempt to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sort of like David against Goliath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia, Aug. 24, 2026. This farm would have been submerged by the waters of the dam. (Photo by Elwood Yoder)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gehman knew the best way to block the \u201cflooding\u201d plan was to suggest an alternative; his counterproposal involved building smaller dams along the entire length of the Shenandoah River. Gehman proposed \u201cchannel dams\u201d every five to 10 miles along the Shenandoah River, keeping the water no higher than flood stage and essentially turning the Shenandoah into a series of long, narrow lakes. Gehman had learned this river technology while studying in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ernest Gehman, 1901-1988 (EMU photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The college professor and Mennonite minister communicated with legislators in his area but also in Washington, D.C. Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s wife, read his publication and wrote Gehman a letter expressing her support. By the mid-1960s, because of strong resistance in the Fulks Run community and Gehman\u2019s relentless opposition, the Army Corps of Engineers dropped the project. Gehman returned to teaching, preaching, and working again in the Fulks Run community. Gehman had slain Goliath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenner, Andrew. \u201c”Gehman vs. Goliath: \u2018No\u2019 to Flooding Part of the Valley for a Dam – Crossroads Magazine<\/em> – Eastern Mennonite University.\u201d https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2014\/05\/02\/gehman-vs-goliath-no-to-flooding-part-of-the-valley-for-a-dam\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenner, Andrew. \u201cGehman vs. Goliath: \u2018No\u2019 to Flooding Part of the Valley for a Dam.\u201d Shenandoah Mennonite Historian<\/em> 34, no. 4 (September 21, 2026): 2\u20136.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ernest Gehman probably never voted and stayed out of politics, but in the 1960s, he threw himself into opposing a proposed Brocks Gap Dam. His many speeches, letters in the newspaper, his 18-page publication, and his trip to Washington to speak against the dam in front of the Army\u2019s Board of Engineers for Rivers and … Continue reading Mennonite Minister takes on the Army Corps of Engineers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[264,61,15,91,33,12],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-better-angels-of-our-nature","tag-brocks-gap-dam","tag-eastern-mennonite-school","tag-harrisonburg","tag-mennonite","tag-shenandoah-valley","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}