See this URL: http://www.patc.net/history/archive/spotswood.html for more info on Spotwood's Golden Horseshoe's. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 11:03 AM Subject: Re: Knights of the Golden Horseshoe > Yes, wouldn't it? Upon reaching the Shenandoah River, they of course > feasted and drank more toasts to the King and to his family [one > wonders to what degree- 5th cousins? Great-great aunts? Another > round, boys!]; the account lists Virginia red wine and white wine, > Irish whiskey, brandy, shrub, two kinds of rum, champagne, canary, > cherry punch, cider, "etc." Maybe that's why there is no list of the > gentlemen along. Everyone forgot who was there, once they got home > and their wives made them sober up. > > That could bring up another topic for this group- the amazing > alcoholic drinks that were common in the south. "Chatham Artillery > Punch" from SC, and I need to look up a similar concoction mixed for > the barbeques of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues. Apparently all > these local militias had their own recipes. Incredible stuff, they > would probably double as paint-stripper. > > After doing more reading I am thinking Rt 33 was not where they > crossed, the now-closed road would be more likely. Accounts tell of > Spotswood taking tools to engrave the King's name on the highest > peak, which they named after him, but the stone was so hard it > wouldn't work. Now I used to practically live along the drive, hiked > many trails, and have some geology books about Skyline Drive. The > stone around Rt 33 is softer, quartzite, shale, sandstones, basalts. > Stone engraving tools should have worked on those. But farther north > is the Pedlar/ Old Rag granite, some of the oldest rock on earth [1.1 > billion years] and it is extremely hard. After all, it has withstood > weathering for 1.1 billion years! That road would have gone right > through an area full of it, right by Old Rag Mountain itself, to the > north, and to the south of the road would have been Upper Hawksbill, > the highest point; could that have been the "highest mountain" they > named for the king? They also reached the Shenandoah River 7 miles > after getting down into the valley. A quick look at maps seems to > show that the Rt. 33 road was too close to the river; the now-closed > road would have been about right. It makes a lot more sense overall > than the Rt. 33 road. > > Nancy > > ------- > I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. > > --Daniel Boone > > > > On Jan 28, 2007, at 10:33 AM, Lonny J. Watro wrote: > >> 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 > > 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