Backcountry Historyhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/en-US2010-03-14T11:00:27ZSquarespace Site Server v5.9.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)The Blue Ridge Railroadhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2010/2/20/the-blue-ridge-railroad.htmlJay Henderson2010-02-20T14:02:58ZBack Country Backcountry transportation Blue Ridge Blue_Ridge_Railroad Shenandoah Valley railroads tunnel

Northeast portal of the Blue Ridge Tunnel under Rockfish Gap. Library of Congress.The Blue Ridge Railroad was chartered and funded by the Virginia General Assembly in 1849 in order to build a rail link between the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. After surveying a route across Swift Run Gap, where U.S. 33 the Blue Ridge Mountains today, the engineers determined that construction costs were prohibitive. The state turned to French-born engineer Claudius Crozet, one of the founders and the first Commandant of the Virginia Military Institute. Crozet looked around and determined that a series of four tunnels could be built at reasonable expense at Rockfish Gap.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view.

Detail of construction, northeast portal of Blue Ridge Tunnel. Library of COngress.Construction was finished in 1858 and the line put into service. Crozet's engineering skills were formidable; when the two teams driving the 4,263-foot Blue Ridge Tunnel segment under Rockfish Gap met, they were within six inches of dead center. When the railway was realigned and a new tunnel dug with modern equipment in 1944, the crews met 4 feet off center. The town of Crozet, where another tunnel was constructed, was named in the engineer's honor.

During the Civil War, one of Crozet's protégées, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, used the tunnels to move troops rapidly by foot and horse from the Shenandoah Valley to the Piedmont.

Looking through the Blue Ridge Tunnel. Library of Congress.

A rails-to-trails project has put several miles of the above-ground route of the Blue Ridge Railroad into hiking and biking service in Nelson County, Virginia, and the project has ambitions of eventually extending the trail through the Blue Ridge Tunnel under Rockfish Gap -- which reportedly remains in excellent condition.

Crozet Tunnel entry, Albemarle County. Library of Congress.

Looking through the Crozet Tunnel. Library of CongressOne of the entries to the Greenwood Tunnel in Albemarle County; both ends have been sealed. Library of Congress.

A culvert under the Blue Ridge Railroad bed near Waynesboro. Library of Congress.

Many of Claudius Crozet's plans and drawings remain lodged with the Library of Virginia. A few are available on-line, including A Plan of James Riv[er] from the North Branch to the balcony falls Exhibiting a comparison between the Pr. Engrs location & that substituted by the Commissioner, 1824 and A Map of the Internal Improvements of Virginia, Claudius Crozet, 1848.

]]>The Late, Great State of Franklinhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2010/2/6/the-late-great-state-of-franklin.htmlJay Henderson2010-02-06T17:38:34ZBack Country Franklin Great Wagon Road Sevier State of Franklin Tennessee Tennessee early settlers America

Replica of log cabin which served as the capitol of the State of Franklin. Click on image for larger view. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/491853081/In many ways the Backcountry settlers in what is now eastern Tennessee had always been a breed apart from the North Carolinians who, technically, controlled that land in colonial and early American times. Northeast Tennessee was settled primarily by Scotch-Irish and other like-minded migrants coming through the Valley of Virginia by way of the Great Wagon Road. North Carolina awarded bounty lands to its Revolutionary War veterans in the area of Middle Tennessee, encouraging migration by way of the Wilderness Road through Kentucky. For many years, the settlements of East and Middle Tennessee were separate ventures.

Click on image for larger view. For image source and licensing information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:8FranklinCounties.pngRelations with Raleigh became increasingly strained after the Revolutionary War ended and North Carolina legislators adopted what was widely perceived as a self-serving "land grab" law. See North Carolina History Project, State of Franklin. In 1784 the folk of northeast Tennessee decided to go their own way and form the State of Franklin. See Learn NC, The State of Franklin.

The Franklinites adopted a constitution and established a capitol at Greeneville, Tennessee. John Sevier, one of the leaders of the Overmountain Men militia which won the Battle of King's Mountain, was elected governor. Matters quickly spun out of control, a few shots were fired, and Sevier was arrested and forced to post bond. By 1789, the State of Franklin had passed into history. See The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, State of Franklin. John Sevier survived the fray and in 1796 was elected the first governor of the State of Tennessee.

For a much more detailed history of the Franklin secession, see Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee (1853), Chapter IV -- The State of Franklin. See also Ramsey's Map of Cumberland and Franklin.

For many Northeast Tennesseans, the State of Franklin affair represented (and still symbolizes in some opinions) the apparently inevitable conflict between liberty and corrupt government. The State of Franklin certainly was in keeping with the character of the Backcountry settlers who had come to this rugged area to secure land and liberty and were determined to preserve their rights to both.

The Great Wagon Road -- America's Original Interstate Highway

The Other South

Backcountry Settlers and the Winning of the American Revolution, Part 2

]]>The Daniel Coxe Map of 1727http://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2010/1/3/the-daniel-coxe-map-of-1727.htmlJay Henderson2010-01-04T02:43:02Z1727 Back Country Backcountry colonial Colonial America Colonial Back Country Coxe Great Wagon Road maps

click on this image for a full-size view of the Daniel Coxe 1727 MapThe interesting personalities which pertain to the Colonial period of America include a royal physician, Dr. Daniel Coxe, and his son, Daniel Coxe, Jr., who were the original claimants to "Carolana" -- the Carolinas, and beyond. In 1722, a book titled "A description of the English province of Carolana, by the Spaniards call'd Florida, and by the French La Louisiane", was published under the name of Dr. Daniel Coxe along with a folding insert map. The author of the book -- which detailed travels throughout "Carolana" and Florida and other sections of North America -- was probably Daniel Coxe, Jr., as his father never traveled to the New World.

Copies of the 1722 book and map are very rare, but there are several copies of the 1727 republications of both. A copy of the book is owned by the University of Miami Libraries, which provides brief bios of the Coxes, father and son. The map is available in digital form from several sources, including the UVA Alderman Library. Of interest to students of the Colonial Backcountry, the Daniel Coxe 1727 Map contains a clear depiction of the track of the Great Trading Path. This can be seen on the inset (click on the thumbnail to the right), although it is not named as such. The track begins below Lake Champlaign, courses through Pennsylvania to the Cumberland Valley, and then goes through the "Apalachean" Mountains before turning south through the Carolinas, eventually reaching the Atlantic coast at Charles Town.

What is lacking on the map is a depiction of the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road which, during this period, was pushing west from Philadelphia into the Cumberland Valley, where it linked up with the Great Trading Path. Eventually the Path was transformed into the Great Wagon Road. See The Great Wagon Road -- America's Original Interstate Highway.

]]>Tracing The Name of the "Appalachian" Mountainshttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/30/tracing-the-name-of-the-appalachian-mountains.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-30T18:07:43ZAppalachia Appalachia Back Country Colonial America maps maps names

Europeans named the southern mountains after the Apalchen or Apalachen tribe of natives (see map detail at left). How did the name progress from "Apalchen" to "Appalachia?" It almost didn't; a competing name, "Allegheny," took the forefront in the late 18th century. ("Allegheny" is a native American term meaning, roughly, "fine river.") However, by the late 19th century, the geologists and geographers had adopted the name "Appalachian Mountains" to describe the full range, with the name "Allegheny" being used for two sub-provinces, the Allegheny Mountains and the Allegheny Plateau.

]]>Frontier Culture Museum 1850 American Farmhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/28/frontier-culture-museum-1850-american-farm.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-28T17:21:02Z1850 Back Country Frontier Culture Museum Shenandoah Valley early settlers America farm log cabins log houses museum

Click on any image for a larger viewThe 1850s American Farm exhibit at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, features vintage structures including a sheathed log house. The buildings were located originally near Eagle Rock in Botetourt County, Virginia, and were moved to the Museum grounds and reconstructed as one of the original exhibits in 1988.

]]>1820 Log Farm House at the Frontier Culture Museumhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/26/1820-log-farm-house-at-the-frontier-culture-museum.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-26T13:19:14Z1820 Back Country Backcountry colonial Colonial America Colonial Back Country Colonial Virginia Frontier Culture Museum German immigrants Shenandoah Valley Virginia early settlers America farm house log cabins log houses

Click on any image for a larger versionThe 1820s American Farm at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, features a log house which incorporates an original log cabin built in 1773. The two wings of the house, which are joined by an enclosed dogtrot, demonstrate the progression in log-structure building techniques from colonial to early American times.]]>Frontier Culture Museum -- 1740 Log Cabinhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/23/frontier-culture-museum-1740-log-cabin.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-23T15:34:06Z1740 Back Country Backcountry colonial Colonial America Colonial Back Country Colonial Virginia Frontier Culture Museum Scotch-Irish cabin early settlers America log cabins museum

NOTE: Click on any image to view a larger versionThe Frontier Culture Museum's 1740s log cabin is displayed as a work in progress. The cabin is a typical peeled-log, saddle-notched settler's cabin of the kind favored by Scotch-Irish moving into the wilds of the Backcountry. The construction was simple and required few tools. This example is built with one door and no windows -- a common practice which led to laws requiring homesteader's cabins have at least one window.

Below: The settler's cabin, circa 1740, under construction. In the foreground, raw materials.

]]>Virginia Frontier Culture Museum 1700s German Farmhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/18/virginia-frontier-culture-museum-1700s-german-farm.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-18T11:15:26ZBackcountry colonial Colonial America Colonial Virginia Frontier Culture Museum German German immigrants Shenandoah Valley early settlers America settlers

The buildings comprising the 18th-century German Farm at the Frontier Culture Museum originally stood in the Rhineland-Palitinate in western Germany. At that time, Germany was a region, not a nation. Most of the region was included in the Holy Roman Empire, but it was fractionated into smaller principalities. A legal system held over from the Dark Ages, a seemingly endless series of internecine wars, religious persecutions and frequent droughts made life hard in much of Germany. Beginning in the late 17th century, an estimated one million Germans pulled up stakes and went looking for better places - - including more than 120,000 who migrated to the American colonies.

]]>Frontier Culture Museum -- 1700s Irish Farmsteadhttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/12/frontier-culture-museum-1700s-irish-farmstead.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-12T12:00:06ZBackcountry colonial Colonial America Colonial Virginia Frontier Culture Museum Irish Scotch-Irish early settlers America farm linen

Entry to Irish farmhouse. Click on any image to view a larger size.The buildings comprising the Frontier Culture Museum's Irish Farm originally stood in County Tyrone, Ulster (Northern Ireland). The Ulster Plantation was designed by the English to establish an English-dominated, Protestant colony in Ireland. The "plantation" was a large chunk of the Emerald Isle containing nine counties and many towns and farms. Its colonization began, interestingly, in 1607, the same time when other colonists were establishing Jamestown in Virginia.

]]>Frontier Culture Museum -- 1700s Irish Forgehttp://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2009/8/11/frontier-culture-museum-1700s-irish-forge.htmlJay Henderson2009-08-11T12:00:56ZBackcountry colonial Colonial Back Country Colonial Virginia Frontier Culture Museum Irish Scotch-Irish Shenandoah Valley early settlers America forge

Click on any image in this article to view a larger versionThe Irish Forge exhibit at Virginia's Frontier Culture Museum is housed in a building originally constructed in County Fermanagh, Ulster (Northern Ireland). The rustic architecture of this blacksmith's shop is typical of buildings constructed in northern and western Ireland at that time: solid stone construction, whitewashed, with a thatch roof.

Inside the Irish Forge, a Museum guide who knows what he's doing demonstrates how ironwork was made in the 18th century.]]>