West Virginia Geography

West Virginia Geography
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Institutional Affiliation

West Virginia Geography
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is a significant historical and geographical landmark in West Virginia. The valley is located between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains which is then divided by the Massanutten Mountain. The valley is twenty miles wide with a length of an estimated 140 miles. Thus the valley covers a total area of 2600 square miles that has considerable variations in elevation. The northwestern border of Shenandoah Valley is North Mountain which the main scope of the Allegheny Mountains while Blue Ridge on the southeast. It isolates the Valley from the Piedmont locale and the eastern Virginia beachfront plain. The separation from Washington to the Blue Ridge at Snickers Gap is an approximated fifty-five miles while from Richmond to the Blue Ridge is an estimated hundred miles. At its amplest, the Valley is over twenty-five miles. From the Northern part of the Potomac River, the Valley proceeds into Pennsylvania and Maryland with a parallel design, where it is known as the “Cumberland Valley,” and the Blue Ridge is named “South Mountain” (Suter, 2012).
The Shenandoah Valley includes two significant regions in West Virginia, Jefferson, and Berkeley. These areas constitute the seven districts in Virginia which include Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah, Rockingham, page, and Warren. Good country County, on the other hand, has been related to this area due to its significantly close relationship with Jackson’s 1862 Campaign, despite the fact that it is past North Mountain.

Jefferson, Clarke, Warren, Frederick, and Berkeley areas are alluded to as the “Lower Valley;” while the provinces south of Strasburg are known as the “Upper Valley” (Suter, 2012).
The Shenandoah Valley’s novel component is Massanutten Mountain, an unpredictable edge that reaches out for about fifty miles through its center, from Strasburg southwest to Harrisonburg. All through its length, the Massanutten partitions the Valley into two smaller valleys that include the Strasburg Valley, which is overwhelmed by the North Fork Shenandoah River, and the lower Page or Luray Valley, drained by the South Fork Shenandoah River. Only south of Strasburg, the principle Valley has an estimated length of over five miles, while on the most distant side of the Massanutten, the Luray Valley pipes down to a width of not as much as a mile and a half at the town of Overall. These rivers were vital elements of transportation in the European settlement in the 17th centuries.
The valley which is rich in limestone created conducive lands that formed the attraction for European settlement in 1717. Tidewater Anglicans settled in the northern region while the Protestant Germans claimed the central region. On the other hand, the Presbyterian Scots-Irish settled in the southern part. Suter (2012) shows that due to the American Revolution, horticulture prospered in the area amid the Civil War, causing the valley to be known as the “Granary of the Confederacy.” the two sides, however, challenged the district and in 1864, General Philip Sheridan led the destruction of the booming region. Toward the start of the twenty-first century, the valley is a lovely country scene with prosperous ranches and alluring towns. The modern valley is a metropolitan that forms a hub for road and rail transport. The trails provide access to the Alleghany and Piedmont mountains. Additionally, the surrounding mountains form ideal water collections points for rivers flowing down the valley. Furthermore, due to its rich history, it constitutes a culturally diverse location for the local communities and also as a good tourist attraction.

References
Suter, S. (2012). Shenandoah Valley Folklife. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.