John Farmer

Once upon a time there was an old Colonial road in Virginia called Three Notch’d Road; sometimes Three Chopt Road. Its route followed an 18th century trail between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley, most likely replacing an earlier pathway used by Native Americans. The road became a mainstay for east-west settlement patterns in Central Virginia from approximately 1730 onward. By the time of the Revolution its use as a major travel route was a well-established Colonial asset as the war came to a close. Later years saw its roadbeds improved, paved, straightened and shaped for U.S. Route 250 today. Regardless, the name and trace of the old colonial road have survived west of Richmond and on U.S. Geological Survey maps. Interstate-64 mostly followed the same path except for a diversion crossing the Blue Ridge at Rockfish Gap instead of Jarman Gap. Nevertheless, the route of the Three Notch’d Road remains virtually intact and in service from Henrico County through Central Virginia and Charlottesville to Augusta County west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.