On 24 August 1716, John fontAINE arrived at "German town" for his second visit to Germanna. He and many other men were assembling here for a proposed trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The next day they went to see the mines but Fontaine was not convinced there was a good mine. He stated that the Germans pretended it was a silver mine. He also stated that several gentlemen of the country were concerned in this work. And once again, he complained about the bed where he slept.
Among the men gathering at Germanna were two companies of soldiers, Indians and "gentlemen". Many of the gentlemen were known land speculators. And the group included two surveyors. The motivations for the trip are mixed.
Officially Spotswood said that a pass over the (Blue Ridge) mountains had been discovered and that he resolved to see it. The motivation that seemed to have carried most of the men along was the desire to look for land that they might patent. Spotswood himself was in this group as he was to patent, in conjunction with others, 60,000 acres along the Rapidan River and up to and including the present city of Culpeper. All of this land lay to the west of Germanna, toward the mountains. So it is hard to escape the conclusion that the trip was made for the purpose of scouting the land. And once again public policy was bent for private benefit.
Certainly the gathering of this many people was the biggest excitement that Germanna had seen since it was founded.
On 29 August 1716, the group left Germanna, following a route on the south side of the Rapidan River. For the first few days the route is clear enough, but then uncertainties develop. On 5 September, the group camped on the banks of the Shenandoah River (they called it the Euphrates). On the 7 September, they crossed back to the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
So the group had spent one whole day and two nights at the Shenandoah River. No maps were drawn; no reports were written. As an expedition with tangible results, there were none. The most obvious result was that several individuals were involved in future land speculation between Germanna and the mountains, including Spotswood. What we know of the trip was the result of what Fontaine wrote in his personal diary and that was not published until decades later.
On the 11th of September, the group was back at Germanna Town. Reportedly, the Governor settled his business with the Germans and accommodated the minister and the people (whatever that may mean). Fontaine continued for a while at Germanna and attempted to "run" some of the silver ore but he said he could get nothing out of it. On the way home to Williamsburg, Fontaine visited the mine again and took some of the ore with him.
History has dubbed this trans-mountain expedition as the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" after comments made by the Rev. Hugh Jones some time later. On the whole, the motivations and purposes of the trip have been badly distorted in the history books.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.