{{Use American English|date=April 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} [[Image:US 11.svg|right|100px|U.S. Route 11]] '''Valley Pike''' or '''Valley Turnpike''' is the traditional name given for the Indian trail and roadway which is now approximated by [[U.S. Route 11 in Virginia|U.S. Route 11]] in the [[Shenandoah Valley]] of [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Valley Turnpike Company|url=https://www.nps.gov/cebe/learn/historyculture/the-valley-turnpike-company.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621152014/http://www.nps.gov/cebe/learn/historyculture/the-valley-turnpike-company.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 21, 2015|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|access-date=14 September 2017|language=en}}</ref>
Long before the arrival of English colonists, [[Native American (U.S.)|Native American]]s of the [[Delaware (tribe)|Delaware]] and [[Catawba (tribe)|Catawba]] tribes used this well-watered path as a migratory route and hunting grounds, moving between what is now [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[Canada]]. Beginning in the 1730s, [[Scots-Irish American|Scots-Irish]] and [[Germany|German]] immigrants coming from [[Pennsylvania]] began to move up the valley and establish settlements (“Up the Valley” in this context refers to movement to higher elevation and indicates a southward direction). As a result of the [[Treaty of Lancaster]], the [[Iroquois]] were promised a marked path up the Valley which was laid out in 1745 by [[James Patton (Virginia colonist)|James Patton]] and [[John Buchanan (Virginia colonist)|John Buchanan]]. Initially called the "Indian Road", it was later known as the "[[Great Wagon Road]]." [[File:Valley Pike, 1862.jpg|thumb|left|A drawing titled "the escape of Stonewall Jackson's Army down the valley pike at Strausburg [sic], Va." '' U.S. Library of Congress Collection'']]
On March 3, 1834, The Valley Turnpike Company was incorporated by an act of the [[Virginia General Assembly]], and the state participated in the public-private venture through the [[Virginia Board of Public Works]] with a 40% investment to build {{convert|68|mi|km}} between [[Winchester, Virginia|Winchester]] and [[Harrisonburg, Virginia|Harrisonburg]]. A similar road from Harrisonburg to [[Staunton, Virginia|Staunton]] was built by another company, and they merged. The new combined road, by then known as the "Valley Pike", was significantly improved and [[toll road|tolls]] were charged for the upkeep of its {{convert|93|mi|km|adj=on}} length. An official report made by General [[P. H. Sheridan]] published in July 1866 described the Valley Pike as follows: "The city of Martinsburg,... is on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at the northern terminus of the Valley pike--a broad [[macadamized]] road, running up the valley, through Winchester, and terminating at Staunton."<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KNMAAAAYAAJ&dq=shenandoah+valley+pike+macadamized+road&pg=PA760| title=Operations Of The Army Of The Shenandoah From August 4, 1864, To February 27, 1865.}} The United States Army and Navy Journal, Volume III, 1865-1866, p760.</ref> [[File:Valley Turnpike, Virginia (1897).jpg|thumb|right|Valley Turnpike, 1897]]
During the [[American Civil War]], the Valley Pike was a key transportation link in both [[Jackson's Valley Campaign]] of 1862 and the [[Valley Campaigns of 1864]]. The macadamized road enabled fast movement of heavy wagon trains and gun carriages even during rainy weather, when dirt roads turned into mud. [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] General [[Stonewall Jackson]] marched his infantry soldiers—nicknamed [[foot cavalry]]—up and down the Valley and through various mountain gaps, such as [[Swift Run Gap]] and [[Thornton Gap]], and make sudden appearances in front of [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops in the Piedmont region on the east side of the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]].
In 1918, The Valley Turnpike Company, which had been managed by a young [[Harry Flood Byrd]], allowed the Valley Turnpike to be one of the first roads taken over by the state. It was designated as part of [[State Route 3 (Virginia pre-1923)|State Route 3]], one of the routes of the state highway system managed by the [[State Highway Commission (Virginia)|State Highway Commission]].
The Valley Turnpike was given the [[U.S. Route 11 (Virginia)|U.S. Route 11]] designation in 1926, and remained the major north–south highway thoroughfare for the Shenandoah Valley until [[Interstate 81]] was built beginning in the 1960s. Today, the road carries much local traffic, and provides an alternative to the busy [[Interstate Highway]].
A section of the original Valley Pike runs parallel to U.S. Route 11 in Rockbridge County, 1 mile north of Lexington.
==See also== * [[Winchester and Martinsburg Turnpike]], Winchester north to [[Martinsburg, West Virginia|Martinsburg]] * [[Junction Valley Turnpike]], Staunton south to [[Buchanan, VA|Buchanan]] * [[Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike]], Staunton west to [[Parkersburg, West Virginia|Parkersburg]] on the [[Ohio River]]
==References== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20051111054212/http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/Millennium%20Edition/Millennium%20Legacy/driving_pike.asp Winchester Star Millennium Legacy article "The Road Most Traveled Drove Economy, Heritage" January 1, 2000] * [http://www.vahighways.com/route-log/us011.htm Virginia Highways Project website] * [http://www.roadstothefuture.com/ Roads to the Future] Scott Kozel's detailed Highway and Transportation History website with lots of information and maps of Virginia's highway system * [http://www.vagenweb.org/shenandoah/cem/turnpike.html The Valley Turnpike] an historical article by Don Silvius * [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/transportation/valleypike.html Virginia Places website] about Virginia's Geography
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
[[Category:Historic trails and roads in Virginia]] [[Category:Turnpikes in Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Botetourt County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Rockbridge County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Lexington, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Augusta County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Staunton, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Rockingham County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Harrisonburg, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Shenandoah County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Warren County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Frederick County, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Winchester, Virginia]] [[Category:Transportation in Stephens City, Virginia]] [[Category:U.S. Route 11]]