WI: Independent republic and U.S. state in Shenandoah Valley?

Could the Shenandoah Valley have become a separate U.S. state from the rest of Virginia?

Perhaps at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the settlers of the Shenandoah Valley could proclaim their independence as a separate government, similar to the Vermont Republic. The narrow entrances to the Shenandoah Valley could have been defended with a few forts. Charging for passage along the Great Wagon Road could have provided an income source for the small republic during its brief time of independence.

After the American Revolutionary War is over, the Shenandoah Republic would soon join the United States, but distinct from Virginia, similar to Vermont's separation from New York.

How would a Shenandoah state affect the development of the United States interior? And if it had been independent as a largely Quaker-Mennonite-yeoman farmer settled area, would the Shenandoah Valley side with the Union in the American Civil War?

Shenandoah_watershed.png
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
This would cut off Virginia from most of West Virginia. Wouldn't Shenandoah expand westwards and absorb most of what became OTL WV?
 
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Philip

Donor
I think this is difficult without an earlier POD. By the time of the Revolution, Harper's Ferry was already being viewed as a vital area. George Washington was involved with the development of the area after the war. Control of the Shenandoah River would follow.
 
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