The Big Valley The Shenandoah Valley stretches 200 miles across
the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains. It's been nicknamed "The
Big Valley" and immortalized in song, dance, film and
television. The history and heritage of the region includes many
sites devoted to the pioneers who traveled westward, settled and
farmed - those like the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton and
Cyrus McCormick's Farm in Raphine. He invented the first reaper!
During the Civil War this region was nicknamed "The Breadbasket
of the Confederacy." In Lexington, visit Virginia Military
Institute and Washington & Lee University - where Gen. Robert E.
Lee served as president after the war and where the Lee Chapel &
Museum is located. See battlefields - New Market Battlefield
State Park and Fisher's Hill Battlefield. Other historical sites
of the region include the Birthplace of President Woodrow
Wilson, and Theater at Lime Kiln in Lexington. The Shenandoah
Valley features picture-perfect postcard farms and inns along
country roads and the