Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge rises along the eastern side of the Shenandoah Valley, its wooded crests appearing blue through the haze when seen from afar. Indigenous peoples hunted and fished around its slopes, and the traveller John Lederer recorded a Virginia Siouan name for the mountains, Ahkonshuck. In 1716 Governor Alexander Spotswood crossed the ridge at Swift Run Gap. Settlers later followed into the valley, prompting disputes with the Haudenosaunee over lands west of the mountains.