 Settlement of this portion of the Colony of Virginia by Europeans began around 1745.Located west of the Tidewater and Piedmont regions in Virginia and also west of the Shenandoah Valley, this area is beyond (known in old Virginia as the "Transmountaine") the Blue Ridge Mountains.Rather than cross such a formidable physical barrier, most early settlers came southerly up the Valley across the Potomac River from Maryland and Pennsylvania.