Three Notch'd Road

Three Notch'd Road (also called Three Chopt Road) was a colonial-era major east-west route across central Virginia. It is believed to have taken its name from a distinctive marking of three notches cut into trees to blaze the trail. By the 1730s, the trail extended from the vicinity of the fall line of the James River at the future site of Richmond westerly to the Shenandoah Valley, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains at Jarmans Gap. In modern times, a large portion of U.S. Route 250 in Virginia follows the historic path of the Three Notch'd Road, as does nearby Interstate 64.

During the American Revolutionary War, a young Virginian named Jack Jouett is credited with an epic nighttime ride by horseback. He sounded a warning alert at Monticello and the town of Charlottesville of secretly approaching British troops seeking to capture the Governor of Virginia and key members of the Virginia General Assembly. Portions of Jouett's famous ride took place on the Three Notch'd Road.

In late May, 1781, after General Benedict Arnold, who had defected to the British, had attacked the Virginia capital of Richmond, Governor Thomas Jefferson and Virginia's legislature, including Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and Benjamin Harrison V fled to Charlottesville, Virginia, (where Jefferson's home, Monticello, was nearby). Learning of this, British General Charles Cornwallis ordered Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to ride to Charlottesville and capture them. On June 3, with 180 cavalrymen and 70 mounted infantry of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Tarleton left his camp on the North Anna River, marching his force covertly. With a fast maneuver designed to catch the politicians completely unaware, he had planned to cover the last 70 miles in 24 hours.

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