The Shenandoah Valley stretches from the Potomac River in the north to the James River in the south. It sits between the Blue Ridge Mountains on its eastern side and the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians on the west.
Scholars have proposed translations including River Through the Spruces or Silver-Water while legends involve Sherando an Iroquoian chief who fought against Algonquian Chief Opechancanough during the early 1600s. Descendants of Sheewanee's party became known as the Shawnee people and a branch called Senedo lived in present-day Shenandoah County before being exterminated by Southern Indians like Catawba or Cherokee.
European explorers crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains barrier starting in 1671 when John Lederer reached Manassas Gap. Adam Miller became the first permanent settler in 1727 staking claims on the south fork of the Shenandoah River near what now divides Rockingham County from Page County.
The Shenandoah Valley served as breadbasket of Confederacy during Civil War years between 1861 and 1865. Union forces burned crops and livestock to deny resources to Confederate armies leaving much of the landscape devastated by autumn 1864.
Interstate 81 serves as main north-south road transportation parallel to old Valley Turnpike U.S. Route 11 while Lower northern valley features U.S. Route 340 running from Waynesboro south to Harpers Ferry West Virginia. CSX Transportation operates several rail lines including old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Virginia Central Railroad alongside Norfolk Southern runs old Manassas Gap Railroad plus Norfolk and Western and Chesapeake Western lines.