Then it occurred to me that there's a language of landscape for Rockbridge County, including such things as all that's been written about Natural Bridge, and (by extension) the graphic language of the images of Natural Bridge. And the Blue Ridge generally (harking back to John Blackburn's comments on something he'd been reading about the time when the Blue Ridge was the western frontier), and Goshen Pass and so on.
All of those things are mappable in various interesting ways...
I did some searching in Annie and HOLLIS for books that seem as if they'd be useful in pursuing this line of thought.
John says not to forget Leo Marx and Henry Nash Smith (especially Virgin Land).