Volume 14 , Issue 45

History of Rockbridge County, Virginia

There is a book entitled History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, compiled, written around 1918, published in 1920, Oren F. Morton. The position of the county is nearly midway in the longer direction of the Valley of Virginia. Rockbridge is an irregular rectangle, the longer direction being nearly northeast and southwest. The length of the county is nearly 32 miles, and the extreme breadth is nearly 26 miles. The area is officially stated as 593 square miles, which is considerably more than is true of the average county in Virginia.


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The curving eastern boundary follows for forty miles the crest of the Blue Ridge, and is therefore a natural geographic line. The western line begins on Camp Mountain,and passes to North Mountain, then to Mill Mountain, and finally to Sideling Hill. The short lines by which the boundary crosses from one to another of these elevations are determined by valley-divides, so that the western boundary may likewise be regarded as natural. But the northern and southern boundaries of the county are straight lines, entirely artificial and they set it off as a cross-section of the Valley of Virginia.

The Blue Ridge is not a single well-defined mountain range. Looking from the high ground along the Valley Railroad, there is seen in the east a succession of bold elevations. The nearest are heavy foothill ridges. Beyond are the higher fragments of interior ridges, marked off from one another by depressions more or less deep. These intermediate heights afford only occasional glimpses of the central range. The general appearance of the mountain wall is that of a labyrinth of long and short elevations occupying a considerable breadth of country. But on the western side of Rockbridge, the ranges are single and well-defined, and present sky-lines that are fairly regular. For several miles east of the axis of North Mountain, much of the surface is occupied by short parallel ridges of much the same character as North Mountain itself. Some of these are the House mountains, Camp Mountain, Green Mountain, Little North Mountain, the Jump, and the Loop. The most eastern is the uplift known as the Short Hills. These break down rather abrupttly near the course of Buffalo Creek, but beyond they reappear under the name of the Brushy Hills.

In general the contour of the county is mountainous. The Blue Ridge section is interrupted only by such narrow depressions as Arnold's Valley and the valleys of irish Creek and the Little Mary. The surface of the Central Lowland is heavily rolling.

The highest point in the Rockbridge section of the Blue Ridge appears to be Bluff Mountain with an altitude of 3250 feet. The northern point of the Short Hills has a height of 2565 feet. Adcock's Knob in North Mountain has a height of 3325 feet, and the Jump of 3190 feet high, and seem to be the most elevated ground in the county.

The entire area of Rockbridge lies in the basin of the James. The James courses ten miles through the southeast of the county. North River, which joins it immediately above Balcony Falls, flows not less than fifty miles within the confines of Rockbridge and drains seven-eights of its area. It rises in Shenandoah Mountain, and as the Great Calfpasture it flows southwardly to Goshen pass, just above which it is joined by the Little Calfpasture, also running in the same direction.

next week we will get into the story of the world's progress, the American Republic as a colonial extension of Europe. Its history has a European background that needs to be study if the development of our country is to be properly understood.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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