Shenandoah Valley - Definition and Overview

Canoeing on the Shenandoah River near Winchester, Virginia.

The Shenandoah Valley region of western Virginia, from Winchester to Roanoke, is bounded by the Blue Ridge mountains to the East and the Allegheny mountains to the West. Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, Front Royal and Lexington are among the many small cities in the Valley. The region also includes the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and the cities of Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry.

Though the Shenandoah Valley is commonly said to reach as far as Roanoke, it and Lexington are not in the Shenandoah River basin which reaches somewhat past Staunton. The Shenandoah Valley is a productive agricultural region first settled by German and Scotch-Irish emigrants from Pennsylvania, in contrast to the largely English settlement of the Virginia tidewater and piedmont regions.

The Shenandoah Valley was a major site of battles in the American Civil War.

See: Great Valley