Woodstock is a town and the county chair of Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It has a population of 5,212 according to the 2017 census. Woodstock comprises 3.2 square miles of incorporated area of the town, and is located along the “Seven Bends” of the north fork of the Shenandoah River. While some tourism references list Woodstock as the fourth oldest town in Virginia, the area was sparsely established and perhaps platted in 1752 or suddenly thereafter, but the town was actually acknowledged by charter in 1761. While there are a number of Virginia towns closer to the eastern seaboard that affirmation earlier founding dates, Woodstock was one of the first towns west of the Blue Ridge.

The Massanutten Military Academy is located in Woodstock, as is the national headquarters of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Woodstock is also house to the River Bandits of the Valley Baseball League, the Shenandoah County Public School’s Central campus, and the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds.

The town was customary by charter in March 1761 as a allocation of what was then Frederick County. It was originally formed from a land agree from Lord Fairfax, and founded as Muellerstadt (Miller Town) in 1752 by founder Jacob Muller (or “Mueller”). The town’s charter was sponsored by George Washington in Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Woodstock has been the County Seat of Shenandoah County, since Shenandoah County’s formation in 1772.

The Shenandoah Valley region on Woodstock was granted by Pennsylvania Germans who migrated south next to the natural route of the Shenandoah Valley in the mid 1700s. The majority of these German settlers tended small farms that grew crops extra than tobacco, were not slaveholders and had Protestant faiths vary from the standard Anglican church in Virginia. They correspondingly had swing culture and beliefs than the English intervention that was prevalent on the eastern side of the mountains.