Signal Knob

Signal Knob. How Strata Shaped Strategy: The Hupp's Hill Civil War/Karst Interpretive Walking Trail. Massanutten Mountain. Directly ahead of you is Massanutten Mountain. Its highest point on the northern tip (Signal Knob) served as a strategic observation post and signal station for both sides during the Civil War. A war dispatch from Strasburg reached Richmond within an hour by using wig-wags (signal flags) to send a message from Signal Knob to successive signal stations along the length of Massanutten Mountain to the New Market telegraph station., Massanutten Mountain, which dominates the south and east of Hupp's Hill, is actually a 50-mile-long system of interlocking ridges that split the Valley corridor in two. With only one major gap across Massanutten Mountain (near New Market), the ridges comprised a near-impenetrable wall that affected tactical maneuvering during both the 1862 and 1864 Valley Campaigns., Valley Pike. Your approach to the trail was via U.S. Highway 11, which essentially follows one of the most historic roads in America. Originally called the Warrior's Path, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road led colonial settlers into the back country as far south as the Carolinas., The roadbed was later covered with a surface of crushed gravel and cement (macadam). By 1840 the "Valley Pike" stretched from Winchester to Staunton and was renowned as the first all-weather highway west of the Blue Ridge. Travelers were astonished by the clear 3-mile views along portions of this well-engineered route, which operated as a toll road until the early 20th century. Like Massanutten Mountain, the Pike and its network of auxiliary roads shaped local troop movements during both Valley Campaigns.