The history of the Shenandoah region that spans the spine of Appalachia in the state of Virginia from the West Virginia border to Carolina is a varied lot. It is the history of a people who, for the most part, have endured a specific mountain culture, even though located only a short distance from the metropolitan areas of Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. It is a history of nature, such a spectacular nature now evidenced within the confines of Shenandoah National Park and the awesome ride down Skyline Drive with its viewshed across the valleys on both sides of the roadbed below.

Almost from the moment the streets of Washington, D.C. were laid out by L'Enfant and the stones for the foundation of the White House placed, you could feel the history of the United States forming from the soil that surrounded each building. Rising along the Potomac River would come the Capitol Building, the Smithsonian Institution, the Washington Monument, and the myriad of other monuments, memorials, museums, and government buildings both around the National Mall and beyond.