SHENANDOAH VALLEY, in Virginia, U.S.A., begins at the Potomac river and extends south-westward between the Blue Ridge mountains on the east and the Alleghenies on the west, to the eminence of land between Staunton and Lexington. The valley is more than 1 oo m. long and varies in width from 20 to 30 M.; included within its area are Berkeley and Jefferson counties, W. Va., and Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rock ingham and Augusta counties, Va. Located within this region are a score of thriving towns and cities, the most populous of which are Staunton, Winchester, Waynesboro, Woodstock, Ft. Royal, Luray and Berryville. The chief stream of the valley is the Shen andoah river which unites with the Potomac in the picturesque water gap at Harper's Ferry.
Agriculture, stock-raising and flour-milling have long been im portant industries of the region ; in the lower valley are numerous orchards of apples and peaches. In recent years dairy farming,
the breeding of fine live stock and poultry farming have assumed large proportions. The rugged water gap at Harper's Ferry, the wooded hills and numerous grottoes and limestone caverns make the Shenandoah valley attractive for tourists.
The first white man to visit the valley was Louis Michelle, a Frenchman, in 1707; he was followed in 1716 by Governor Spotswood and his Knights of the Horseshoe. The first settlers to enter the region were Germans and Scottish-Irish who came in from Pennsylvania in the early 17305. During the Civil War the valley was the scene of many bloody battles, especially those in which "Stonewall" Jackson participated.
See History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley (189o), ed., J. E. Norris; and J. W. Wayland, A Bird's-Eye View of the Shenandoah Valley (1924). (X.)