Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley | |
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The Shenandoah Valley (
Geography
Named for the river that stretches much of its length, the Shenandoah Valley encompasses eight counties in Virginia and two counties in West Virginia:
- Augusta County, Virginia
- Clarke County, Virginia
- Frederick County, Virginia
- Page County, Virginia
- Rockbridge County, Virginia
- Rockingham County, Virginia
- Shenandoah County, Virginia
- Warren County, Virginia
- Berkeley County, West Virginia
- Jefferson County, West Virginia
The antebellum composition included four additional counties that are now in West Virginia as well as four additional Virginia counties:[1]
- Morgan County, West Virginia
- Hampshire County, West Virginia
- Hardy County, West Virginia
- Pendleton County, West Virginia
- Botetourt County, Virginia
- Alleghany County, Virginia
- Bath County, Virginia
- Highland County, Virginia
The cultural region includes five more counties in Virginia:[citation needed]
Between the Roanoke Valley in the south and Harpers Ferry in the north, where the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac, the Valley cultural region contains 10 independent cities:
- Winchester
- Harrisonburg
- Waynesboro
- Staunton
- Lexington
- Buena Vista
- Covington[citation needed]
- Roanoke[citation needed]
- Salem[citation needed]
The central section of the Shenandoah Valley is split in half by the Massanutten Mountain range, with the smaller associated Page Valley lying to its east and Fort Valley within the mountain range.
Notable caves
The Shenandoah Valley contains a number of geologically and historically significant limestone caves:
- Skyline Caverns
- Luray Caverns, designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974
- Shenandoah Caverns
- Endless Caverns
- Grand Caverns, designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973
- Dixie Caverns
Etymology
The word Shenandoah is of unknown Native American origin. It has been described as being derived from the Anglicization of Native American terms, resulting in words such as Gerando, Gerundo, Genantua, Shendo and Sherando. The meaning of these words is of some question. Schin-han-dowi, the "River Through the Spruces"; On-an-da-goa, the "River of High Mountains" or "Silver-Water"; and an Iroquois word for "Big Meadow", have all been proposed by Native American etymologists. The most popular, romanticized belief is that the name comes from a Native American expression for "Beautiful Daughter of the Stars".[2]
Another legend relates that the name is derived from the name of the
Another story dates to the
History
First European explorers
Despite the valley's potential for productive farmland, colonial settlement from the east was long delayed by the barrier of the
18th century
Governor Alexander Spotswood's legendary Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition of 1716 crossed the Blue Ridge at Swift Run Gap and reached the river at Elkton, Virginia. Settlers did not immediately follow, but someone who heard the reports and later became the first permanent settler in the Valley was Adam Miller (Mueller), who in 1727 staked out claims on the south fork of the Shenandoah River, near the line that now divides Rockingham County from Page County.[7]
The
Later colonists called this route the
Along with the first German settlers, known as "
Along with the Ulster Scots many Irishmen arrived in the Shenandoah valley, usually after their indentured service was up. These Irishmen usually had converted to Protestantism or kept their faith secret. In the 18th-century Thirteen Colonies and the independent United States, while interethnic marriage among Catholics remained a dominant pattern, Catholic-Protestant intermarriage became more common (notably in the Shenandoah Valley where intermarriage among Ulster Protestants and the significant minority of Irish Catholics in particular was not uncommon or stigmatized),[10] and while fewer Catholic parents required that their children be disinherited in their wills if they renounced Catholicism, it remained more common among Catholic parents to do so if their children renounced their parents' faith than it was in the rest of the U.S. population.[11]
Governor Spotswood had arranged the Treaty of Albany with the Iroquois (Six Nations) in 1721, whereby they had agreed not to come east of the Blue Ridge in their raiding parties on tribes farther to the South. In 1736, the Iroquois began to object, claiming that they still legally owned the land to the west of the Blue Ridge; this led to a skirmish with Valley settlers in 1743. The Iroquois were on the verge of declaring war on the Virginia Colony as a result, when Governor Gooch paid them the sum of 100 pounds sterling for any settled land in the Valley that was claimed by them. The following year at the
The few Shawnees who still resided in the Valley abruptly headed westward in 1754, having been approached the year before by emissaries from their kindred beyond the Alleghenies.[13]
19th century
The Shenandoah Valley was known as the
20th century
A series of newspaper mergers, ending in 1914, established the Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg as the daily newspaper of the Shenandoah Valley.
In the late 20th century, the Valley's vineyards began to reach maturity. They constituted the new industry of the Shenandoah Valley American Viticultural Area.
21st century
In 2018, a series of strikes and protests were held in Dayton's Cargill plant.[14][15]
Transportation
Transportation in the Shenandoah Valley consists mainly of road and rail and contains several metropolitan area transit authorities. The main north-south road transportation is
.Several localities in the valley operate public transportation systems, including Front Royal Area Transit (FRAT), which provides weekday transit for the town of Front Royal; Page County Transit, providing weekday transit for the town of Luray and weekday service between Luray and Front Royal; and Winchester Transit, which provides weekday transit for the city of Winchester. In addition, Shenandoah Valley Commuter Bus Service Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine offers weekday commuter bus service from the northern Shenandoah Valley, including Shenandoah County and Warren County, to Northern Virginia (Arlington County and Fairfax County) and Washington. Origination points in Shenandoah County include Woodstock. Origination points in Warren County include Front Royal and Linden.
In popular culture
The Shenandoah Valley serves as the setting for the
See also
- Blue Ridge Community and Technical College
- Bridgewater College
- Christendom College
- Eastern Mennonite University
- Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia
- George Washington National Forest
- Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
- James Madison University
- Luray Caverns
- Mary Baldwin University
- Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
- Natural Bridge (Virginia)
- Polyface Farm
- Shenandoah National Park
- Shenandoah University
- Shenandoah Valley Academy
- Shepherd University
- Southern Virginia University
- Valley Baseball League
- Virginia Military Institute
- Washington and Lee University
References
- ^ Sheehan-Dean, Aaron, Why Confederates Fought, Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2007, pg. 26
- ^ Julia Davis, "The Shenandoah", Rivers of America, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1945, pp. 20–21
- ^ Carrie Hunter Willis and Etta Belle Walker, 1937, Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Doddridge, p. 31.
- ^ "Cultural Heritage: American Revolution Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine", July 5, 2010, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin
- ^ "The Revolutionary War Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine", July 5, 2010, Oneida Indian Nation
- ^ John W. Wayland, Ph.D., 1912, A History of Rockingham County, Virginia p. 33–37
- ^ Joseph Doddridge, 1850, A History of the Valley of Virginia p. 1–46
- Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp.605–608
- ISBN 978-0809323449.
- ISBN 978-0385152068.
- ^ Joseph Solomon Walton, 1900, Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania p. 76-121.
- ^ Doddridge, p.44–45
- ^ Barnett, Marina (November 21, 2017). "Community Solidarity with Poultry Workers call for changes at Cargill". WHSV-TV. Gray Television. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
- ^ Wood, Victoria (April 5, 2018). "Nine protesters arrested outside Cargill in Dayton". WHSV-TV. Gray Television. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
External links
- Shenandoah Valley - Official state tourism website
- Visit Shenandoah website
- Shenandoah Valley Technology Council
- Shenandoah at War, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
- CivilWarTraveler.com - Virginia's Valley and Mountains
- Valley Conservation Council
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Shenandoah Valley
- "The Shenandoah Valley", Southern Spaces, April 20, 2004
- Virginia Historical Society article "Featuring 52 masterful landscape paintings by Washington, D.C. based artist Andrei Kushnir, Oh, Shenandoah: Landscapes of Diversity explores the extraordinary beauty of the Shenandoah Valley region and the diverse history of its settlement." Archived January 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine The article and exhibition were based on the artist's published book, Oh, Shenandoah, Paintings of the Historic Valley and River by Andrei Kushnir