Michel's 1704 map of his
epic exploration along the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers into the Appalachians

Opened England's American Colonies
to Settlement Beyond the Atlantic Coast

A Half Century Before Anyone Else

Between 1702 and 1716, Frantz Michel's pioneering westward expeditions from the Atlantic coast and his founding of refugee colonies where he explored opened the way to European settlement into the North American piedmont and the Appalachians. The range's next great explorer would be Daniel Boone but not until 1759.