Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition

In 1716, Governor Spotswood, with about 50 other men and 74 horses, led an expedition up the Rappahannock River valley during westward exploration of the interior of Virginia.

Fontaine recorded in his journal for September 5 that axemen had to clear the way along the path of what he called the "James River", but which was in fact a creek along the eastern slope named Swift Run, surrounded on all sides by steep mountain terrain.

There, they fired multiple volleys and drank special toasts of wine, brandy, and claret to the King and to Governor Spotswood, naming the two peaks after them.

After the journey, Spotswood gave each officer of the expedition a stickpin made of gold and shaped like a horseshoe on which he had inscribed the words in Latin "Sic juvat transcendere montes", which translates into English as "Thus, it is pleasant to cross the mountains.

Signed: Joyce Wilkinson WallaceWhen Spotswood returned to Williamsburg, he actually claimed that the intention of the Expedition was to look for a way to Lake Erie, with a view to eventually thwarting the growing French presence in the region.

Groups of Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania, and settled in the general area of present-day Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, where their descendants may still be found today.

Spotswood's expedition, which from all reports, traveled at a leisurely pace, encountered no conflict with Native Americans, and included frequent stops for celebrations and libations, earned a somewhat legendary status.

The fame was further enhanced when it was romanticized in The Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe, an early chivalric romance, authored by William Alexander Caruthers, and first published in 1845.

A commemorative plaque and pyramid-shaped stone at Swift Run Gap (at the south side of U.S. Highway 33 near the Skyline Drive overpass) mark the historic crossing of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.

It reads: On 5 Sept. 1716, in this region, it is believed Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood and his party of government officials, gentry, Native Americans, soldiers, and servants crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley.

In West Virginia, there is a competition named after the Golden Horseshoe(s), since it was previously thought that Spotswood's party had penetrated as far as the current borders of the state.

The exam tests student knowledge on West Virginia citizenship, civics and government, economics, geography, history and current events.