History of the Lexington Area
Indian legend has it that the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley so awed the heavens that each star cast the brightest jewel from its own crown into the valley's limpid waters, there to sparkle and shine ever after in a gesture of celestial benediction.
Thus the valley's name: Shenandoah - Clear-Eyed Daughter of the Stars.
The Shenandoah Valley was first viewed by English settlers in 1716 by then Virginia Governor Spottswood and a company of explorers, the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, when they viewed it from the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Scots-Irish and German immigrants coming from Pennsylvania began to settle the valley in the 1730s. They established themselves along a well-worn Indian path, known as the Great Wagon Road, that traversed the center of the valley. This road is still traveled today and called Lee Highway, or U.S. Rt. 11.
