By the 1730s, the Three Notch'd Road 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. Around this time, Governor William Gooch promoted settlement of the Virginia backcountry as a means to insulate the Virginia colony from Native American and New France settlements in the Ohio Country In response, a wide variety of settlers traveled southward on the Indian Trail later known as the Great Wagon Road along the Shenandoah Valley from Pennsylvania. Many, including German Palatines and Scotch-Irish American immigrants, settled along former Indian camps. According to Encyclopedia Virginia, "By 1735 there were as many as 160 families in the backcountry region, and within ten years nearly 10,000 Europeans lived in the Shenandoah Valley."