At this URL you'll find the debate: http://www.germanna.org/history.html#marker Quoted from the above URL... The Knights of the Horseshoe In August 1716, Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood led a group of men on a trip that has become known as the exploration to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This group of men later became known in fiction as "The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" and Reverend Jones in his history of Virginia says they were given a gold horseshoe in commemoration of their famous journey. No proof of this gold horseshoe has ever been found so the story was probably a creation of Jones and later perpetuated by Caruthers in his 1834 fantasy "The Knights of the Horseshoe". Fontaine's Journal makes no mention of any gift given by Spotswood at the end of the expedition. From Fontaine's Journal: "...and at four we came to Germanna. The Governor thanked the Gentlemen for their assistance in the expedition. Mr. Mason left us at five. I went and swam in the Rappahannoc (sic) river and returned to the town." The men in the party were Spotswood; John Fontaine, who wrote a journal of his observations of the journey that has been an invaluable resource for research by historians through the years; Beverley, the noted historian of Virginia in 1703; Colonel Robertson; Austin Smith; Todd; Dr. Robinson; Taylor; Brooke; Mason; and Captains Clouder and Smith. The entire party also included rangers, Indians, and numerous servants who made the total number of the party approximately fifty persons. In Hugh Jones' fanciful "History of Virginia", published in 1724, the following is stated: "Governor Spotswood, when he undertook the great discovery of the Passage over the Mountains, attended with a sufficient guard, and pioneers and gentlemen, with a sufficient stock of provisions, with abundant fatigue passed these Mountains, and cut His Majesty's name in a rock upon the highest of them, naming it Mount George; and in complaisance the gentlemen, from the governor's name, called the mountain next in height Mount Alexander. For this expedition they were obliged to provide a great quantity of horse shoes [things seldom used in the lower parts of the country, where there are few stones]; upon which account the Governor, upon their return, presented each of his companions with a golden horse shoe [some of which I have seen studded with valuable stones, resembling the heads of nails] with this inscription on the one side: SIC JUVAT TRANSCENDERE MONTES; and on the other is written the tramontane order." Part of Jones' account is again contradicted by Fontaine when he states: "The Governor had graving irons but could not grave any thing, the stones were so hard. I graved my name on a tree by the river side and the governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed in which he writ that he took possession of this place in the name and for King George 1st of England." End Quote To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html