There is no record—except for isolated artifacts—of Indian inhabitants
in Shenandoah National Park. The Shawnee and the Moneton, Saponi, and
Manahoac were reported in the valleys during the 17th century, but they
wandered into the mountains only occasionally to hunt.
It is not surprising, then, that John Lederer found only deer, bears,
and wolves when he arrived in the present area of Big Meadows with his
Indian guides. Virginia’s Governor, Sir William Berkeley, had sent him,
in 1669, to explore the unknown mountains. Lederer is the first known
white man to venture into the uncharted Blue Ridge.
In 1716, Gov. Alexander Spotswood, also seeking westward expansion for
Virginia, led 50 men on horseback through Swift Run Gap and down the
western slope to see the Shenandoah Valley, where they camped by the
river they called “Euphrates.” After their return home Spotswood
proclaimed them “Knights of the Golden Horseshoe,” and presented each a
tiny gold horseshoe.
Shortly afterward, English, German, and Scotch-Irish pioneers began to
settle in the valleys. They gradually moved up into the coves and
hollows of the Blue Ridge. By 1760, roads were being built, and grist
mills, sawmills, cider presses, and tanneries were common sights. The
first toll turnpike, in 1785, crossed the mountains at Thornton Gap
(Panorama). It was named for Francis Thornton, who settled there in
1733. Other important roads crossed at Swift Run and Browns Gap, in the
southern section of the park.
In the early years, the settlers of the Blue Ridge coves and hollows
wrested a comfortable living from their farms and domestic industries.
They sold lumber products and tanbark to the lowland settlers for cash
and thus could buy things they could not produce.
For some 20 years before the Civil War, there was iron and copper mining
in the Blue Ridge. The mountain people were not much affected by this
short-lived industry and by the time the war came, the ores had been
worked out. You can see remnants of the old copper mines on the Stony
Man Nature Trail.
During the Civil War, both the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley became
battlegrounds; Browns Gap was used by Jackson as an important
thoroughfare in the Campaign of 1862, and Signal Knob became a major
communications point. You can see Signal Knob from the Shenandoah Valley
Overlook.
When the railroad came to the Shenandoah Valley, heavy machinery and
larger, more efficient industry came with it. Many mills and tanyards
that served small communities through the skill and energy of one man or
family became quiet, then decayed into the landscape. Demand for the
mountaineers’ crafts decreased. They had little cash income left except
from moonshining and chestnuts. By 1915, the fungus chestnut blight had
destroyed most of the chestnut trees.
Isolated from the rapidly changing lowlands, and with their forest and
soil resources depleted, the mountain people were reduced to subsistence
farming.
As the years passed, the population of the mountains east of the
Shenandoah dwindled. However, there were still over 2,000 people living
on the lands which were acquired by the State of Virginia for Shenandoah
National Park. Before the land was deeded to the Federal Government,
these people, more than 400 families, moved to new homes. The
self-sufficient families moved without assistance. The very old and the
disabled were helped by the State Welfare Department. About 300 families
were moved into homesteads by the U. S. Resettlement Administration.
Here each family had the use of a house and small farm with the
privilege of long-term purchase.