The Appalachians

The other night my husband and I attended an event at the library about the mountains of our area.

We live in the Appalachian chain, which extends along the eastern part of the United States. We live in what is called the Valley and Ridge area in Virginia, located between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghany Mountain chains.

The Appalachian Mountains first formed roughly 500 million years ago. They formed when Africa hit the North American eastern coast and things sort of slowly (like over a million years) smashed up. This created the mountains, which once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains. Then they began to erode. The Appalachian mountains were a barrier to east-west travel, as the mountains create a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east-west.

That means that for a long time, the area where I live was the wild west (1700-1800s).

Anyway, to my east is the Blue Ridge Mountains, and to my west are the Alleghenies. Out my office window, which faces west, I see North Mountain, Caldwell Mountain, and Price Mountain. Tinker Mountain is also visible, though it is a bit to my south.

I have always called our mountains the Blue Ridge Mountains even though the Alleghenies are what I see every day. Blue Ridge just sounds more romantic, doesn't it?

 

A topographic view of the James River

A simple version of the areas of Virginia.

This is what the world looked like when things smashed together.

A topography map that shows our property.

Same map without my pointing anything out.

The same map except not close up. You can see Tinker to the southwest but not the
other mountains.
 

One of the fascinating facts about the Appalachian chain is that it actually goes all the way to Scotland. It runs under the ocean. Maybe that is why so many Scots-Irish folk settled here. It looks like home.

A nice generic shot of our farm with North Mountain in the background.