The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe

by Grace

In March of 1669, John Lederer began his journey west of North Carolina into Virginia by way of the New York River.  By the fourteenth of March, he could see the Appalachian Mountains.  Awed, he took in the beauty of it all.  The Frontier took the illusion of being a place unclaimed by people.  A land of “savages” and a land of riches.  But persons insist on breaking boundaries and discovering undiscovered stuff.  In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood pushed the boundaries of the frontier with an expedition to the Shenandoah Valley . 

Loads of people said that they made it beyond the difficult mountains.  When he and his party came back, Spotswood advertised what lay beyond.  The making of golden horseshoes.  That’s why they were then known as “The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.”  The land initiated by Spotswood encouraged further settlement in Shenandoah Valley , which by 1745 had a population of about 10,000 persons.  Within ten years after the party ventured beyond the Appalachians , settlers moved past the Blue Ridge Mountains to the valley.