Sounds like the first American pub crawl - LOL. Would make a good novel. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 9:07 PM Subject: Knights of the Golden Horseshoe >I finally made it to the history center at Germanna today. I went in > and told the person there [not a lot of tourist traffic on a January > day...] what I was looking for and he said oh, that should be no > problem. Till he started looking. And later 4 people he knew stopped > by, had the same response, oh, that should be easy to find-- everyone > was as surprised as I was, to find that it's not readily available. > So what I did find out: > > He suggested looking through John Fontaine's account of the journey. > You can buy it for $25, or get a copy through an inter-library loan. > It should be interesting reading anyway, for anyone wanting to learn > more about the expedition. > > The Germanna group has a website at germanna.org that has information > [after leaving my name at the place, the president later called me > and suggested looking there]; there are also germanna.com and > germanna.net The germanna.com might be worth contacting, I was told > the guy who runs it knows pretty much everything there is to know > about the era, and is happy to help researchers. > > I also came across a site on their computer, West Virginia Archives > and History [look up "Alexander Spotswood's Transmontane Expedition", > extracted from a book written in 1860 which uses a book from 1722], > it names a few more of the members of the expedition- Spotswood, > Fontaine, Beverly [it was at Beverly's house at Middlesex, where > after being "hospitably entertained" by Beverly, the governor the > next day "left his chaise and mounted a horse for the rest of the > expedition"], Colonel Robertson, Austin Smith ["who returned home > owing to a fever"], Todd, Dr. Robertson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and > Captains Clouder and Smith. "The whole number in the party, including > gentlemen, rangers, pioneers, Indians and servants, was probably > about fifty. They had with them a large number of riding and pack > horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary > variety of liquors." The first leg of the trip was three miles, and > when they camped they named each camp after a member of the > expedition; the first camp was Camp Beverly. The fellow at Germanna > said they used every stop at every camp, church, house or inn as an > excuse for another round of drinks. This was not a "Lewis and Clark" > type expedition, more an adventure for gentlemen. The exact route is > still not known, many think it was over the mountains at what is now > Rt. 33, where a commemorative stone pyramid now stands. But others > think it was a road back through the towns of Syria and Graves > Mountain, which once crossed the mountains and was called something > like "Mountain Crossing Road", but it was closed in the 1930s when > the federal government bought and built Skyline Drive. The road now > ends in a fire road with a gate across it. When they crested the > mountains and saw a river below them, Spotswood named it Euphrates. > Luckily saner heads later prevailed and it now bears the beautiful > Indian name of Shenandoah. > > There are also the Spotswood family papers, in possession of the > Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. If you can track them down, they > might have something. So this is as much as I could gather about the > Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. > > Nancy > > ------- > I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. > > --Daniel Boone > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html