Volume 11 , Issue 43

The Valley of Virginia

NW Okie's Warwick ancestor's were from the "Valley of Virginia," in which Augusta county is situated.

It is a part of the great connected belt of Silurian limestone valleys that extend for 1,500 miles from the mouth of the St. Lawrence through Canada, Vermont, New york, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the Virginias, Tennessee and Georgia into Alabama, forming not only one of the most beautiful, fertile, populous, and everyday desirable portions of the States it crosses, but is the "garden of America," as Washington called it.

In the grand plateau of the Virginian Valley, and about midway between Harper's Ferry and Bristol, lies Augusta county. Its surface is entirely above the plane of 1,000 feet of altitude above the sea level. Its valley portions, proper, range from near 1,000 to 2,000 feet in elevation, and its mountain lands range to 4,456 feet in Elliott's Knob.

The general aspect of the country is animated and inviting. In the scenery there is a union of romantic and rural beauty, a bold variety of broken ground, plain, and mountain peak, harmonized by congenial groves and clambering vines; intervening marks of cheerful cultivation, and the quiet presence of herds of cattle, horses and sheep grazing on the luxuriant pastures.

The climate of Augusta is noted for its salubrity, the air being dry, pure and bracing, altogether without grossness. No Malaria exists, and none of those fevers so common to less favored regions. The causes which modify the climate are in Winter the mountain ranges, which shelter the country from cold winds, and print, at every season, those cyclones and tornadoes which sweep the Atlantic coast, and are so destructive on the prairies of the West.

The elevation of the Valley and the lofty mountains prevent excessive heats in Summer, and give cool and pleasant nights. Thousands resort to this section annually in pursuit of health and a delightful Summer residence. The mean January temperature of Staunton, in the heart of the county, is 41F. The rainfall is 44 to 56 inches, and the rains are well distributed throughout the year.
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