Fennel's Bed

Fennel sitting on his bed as photographed by Rothstein in 1935

Fennel's Bed in the Park in 2010

It was difficult to find the sites in the park where Rothstein had taken his pictures. There were many ruins, but after 75 years and a major fire much of the remains were gone. It wasn't until the end of my project that I was able to find the site of Fennel's home.  With an old USGS map of the park showing where the home sites had been and the current Potomac Appalachian Trail Club map, I was finally able to determine where Rothstein took his photographs. 

I was startled to find Fennel's bed still on site in the Park. After 75 years, his bed was still there and only about 10 yards from where Rothstein had photographed him sitting on it. There was a lot of stuff still at the site. Much more than at other sites I had visited. I saw remains of a cast iron cookstove, pieces of leather from an old shoe, and shards of pottery from coffee cups. There was even a second bed. I'm not sure who owned the second bed.  But it might of been Dicie's as it was close to Fennel's.  

Finding the beds troubled me, why would someone move and not take their bed? Whenever you see someone move, they always take their bed. Considering Fennel was poor, it didn't seem to me likely he would leave his cast iron bed behind if he could help it. Instead it confirmed what information I had already found. Namely that Fennel had no choice on where he went when he was moved out of the park. It seems pretty clear that he wasn't resettled like Rothstein's caption said. Documents I found indicated he had been institutionalized. 

Photographing Fennel's bed in the Park felt like photographing a crime scene.   Fennel did not benefit from the government program Rothstein's image of him was used to promote.  Though his image was used to promote Appalachian Culture, the Appalachian Culture of which he was a part was destroyed when they made the Park.   For all these years his fate has largely been kept secret.  Family members tell me they don't even know where he is buried.