University of Virginia Library

First White Men to Visit the Roanoke Valley

In 1726 two frontiersmen, John Marlin and Thomas
Salling by name, proceeded up the Shenandoah Valley,
crossed the James River and reached the Roanoke
River, where Salling was captured by a band of Cherokee
Indians, Marlin however escaping.

These two adventurous pioneers were the first white
men who are known to have visited the Roanoke
Valley.

After several years of captivity Salling secured his
release and returned to Williamsburg, where he met
John Lewis and his sons, and also John Mackey, an
Irish immigrant, to whom he gave glowing descriptions
of the section of country he had visited and in which
he had spent his captivity.

Mackey later settled on Middle River above Staunton
near Buffalo Gap, while Salling, who was of a more
venturesome nature, located at the forks of James
River.

His cabin was the outpost of civilization, but the
result of his reconnoitering expedition with Marlin was
that within the next few years the pioneers pressed
forward into the fertile Roanoke Valley, and the work
of settlement and reclamation from the wilderness
began.