The Blue Ridge, part of the Appalachian range, was created by the uplifting of the Earth’s tectonic plates 1.1 billion to 250 million years ago. At over 1 billion years of age, the Blue Ridge Mountains are among the oldest in the world, second only to South Africa’s Barberton greenstone belt. (By comparison with the Blue Ridge, the Rockies and Himalayas are young “upstarts.”) At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world. Today, as a result of age and erosion, the highest peak in the system, Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, is only 6,684 feet high – still the highest peak east of the Rockies.
Divided into Northern and Southern sections by the Roanoke River gap, the Blue Ridge traverses 8 states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, with the longest portion slicing a great crescent through all of western Virginia.
The distinctive blue that gives this range its name emanates from its mountain forests which release hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. Tens of thousands of years ago spruce and fir trees dominated much of the Eastern United States ecosystem.
Humans arrived in the Blue Ridge perhaps as early as 12,000 years ago. The Siouxan Manhouacs, Iroquois, and Shawnee all hunted and fished the Blue Ridge in Virginia, and the Cherokee lived in the Blue Ridge in what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Cherokee holy people have reported that when Andrew Jackson burned Cherokee villages and marched the inhabitants off to Oklahoma, Cherokee medicine people fled up into the Virginia Blue Ridge. Native American medicine people continue to seek out Oak Grove; one such visitor was Wallace Black Elk (of Black Elk Speaks), one of the two most pre-eminent medicine men in the U.S., who requested permission to conduct medicine ceremonies at the site.
The Blue Ridge is widely-known and highly regarded. Both George Washington, who surveyed the area for Lord Fairfax, and Thomas Jefferson were admirers. The Blue Ridge is the subject of numerous musical tributes and the popular Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile scenic drive along the ridge, connects two of the most visited parks in the National Park system: the Shenandoah in Virginia, and Great Smoky Mountains in the southern section.
The Appalachian Trail system, which follows the Blue Ridge Mountains throughout Virginia, is a major recreation destination for hikers.
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