On March 9, 1669, John Lederer set out from Virginia for the Appalachian mountains on the Commission of Governor William Berkeley to find a passage to the west and the Indian Ocean.
Lederer’s expedition was the first Virginian expedition into the frontier and greatly expanded the colonists understanding of the continent, especially that part of Virginia we call Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge mountains.
There were actually a total of three expeditions, each to find a path to new riches for the Virginian colony. Governor Berkeley had heard stories of the Spanish expeditions to California, and with a limited knowledge of the interior of the North American Continent, many believed the riches of what is now the Golden State lay just beyond the Appalachian obstacles.
On his first expedition, he acquired the guide services of local Indian tribes, and set out from an Indian village near modern-day Yorktown. For just over two weeks, Lederer and his band of three Indian guides explored the Pamunkey river westward, ascending into the piedmont of Central Virginia.
He was at once blocked by the Blue Ridge mountains. The Alleghenies seemed insurmountable to him – at least this far north. Finding no clear passage through after wandering through strange forests, and accompanied by some bad weather, Lederer returned shortly to the settled parts of Virginia with little success.
But this first journey – while a failure by Berkeley’s standards – helped Lederer understand what he needed for a more successful journey. His second journey, begun just over a year later, was much more successful. With twenty-five instead of four in his expedition, including soldiers and more Indian guides, Lederer set out on a more south-westerly course, hoping to find an ironed plain in the wrinkled ranges of the frontier.
Lederer found the south fork of the James River, but his military commander, Major Harris, thought it an arm of the “Lake of Canada,” around which was thought to be a futile expedition. Major Harris and his soldiers went home, but Lederer, with a single Indian guide, pressed on southward through today’s Carroll and Grayson counties, into North Carolina. He learned from local tribes that if he continued he would encounter the Spanish (whom he very much wished to avoid). He thus decided to return.
He had also learned from these tribes that there was a way through the Appalachian in the north, “at a place called Zynodoa.” This is probably the earliest reference to Shenandoah, and it was from this information that Lederer began his third expedition into the northern parts of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains.
Even after his third expedition, Lederer never did find a way to penetrate the frontier. By commercial standards and expectations, his journeys were a failure, and he was criticized back in Virginia for wasting a year’s worth of public monies.
But the significance of Lederer’s daring excursion into the unknown served later pioneers with information integral to their navigation and settling of the interior. After being disgraced in Virginia, Lederer published an account of his expedition from Maryland, along with a map of the land he had traced for two years. He included the names of local Indian tribes, as well as legends among those tribes that provided more cultural competency than any previous record had.
John Lederer, a German immigrant to Virginia, is rightly viewed today as an important figure in the explorations and history of Virginia. And while he did not succeed in finding California or the Pacific Ocean, nor did he secure commerce with the locals of the west, he did provide later explorers with a foundation of knowledge that contributed greatly to the westward expansion.
