The Morgantowner: Botetourt County, Virginia

I drove through Botetourt County on US 220 last December on my way back from Bedford County. It seemed there wasn't much to it. I stopped for gas then at a convenience store, and the clerk, probably a tenth-generation Anglo-American, didn't seem to understand English. I was ambivalent about spending two days here.

I stopped at the library in Fincastle, the county seat, on the way in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the librarian what three things I should not miss in my full day in her county. She said "The best thing to happen here is that they opened a Dollar General store." I thought I was in trouble, but on further reflection, she suggested I go to the town of Buchanan and rent a kayak on the James River. That would have been a great idea for someone, not me. Joe and I rented a kayak at a gay hotel on a canal near Ft. Lauderdale in 2006. We were so inept that people on the shore yelled at us "You are doing it wrong!"

There are twenty-six listings on The National Register of Historic Places for Botetourt County. Four are archeological sites, and their locations are not available. Before I left, I listed the remaining sites from north to south, figuring I could hit all of them in a day. There are mountain ranges running north-south through the county, making it impossible to work that way.

Most of the county is rural, and a large chunk is in George Washington National Forest in the center of the Appalachian Mountains. The Blue Ridge is in the eastern part of the county. Interstate 81 is the main north-south route, paralleled by US 11. US 220 runs north and south as well. All of these roads converge in Roanoke, which is just south of Botetourt County. The southern part of the county has become part of suburban Roanoke, with chain grocery stores, and developments of modern faux colonial and Antebellum mansions. I stayed in a chain motel where US 220, US 11 and I-81 meet up.

The headwater of the James River, which flows to Richmond and empties into Chesapeake Bay, is at the northwest end of Botetourt County, near the peaks of the Appalachians. Fincastle is the county seat, and Buchanan is the more hipster historic town to the northeast along the James.

I made plans today (July 30) to spend the day looking for history. But I thought I might go into Roanoke to see a movie, Mr. Holmes, that was playing in the art house theater in downtown Roanoke. I thought I would get lunch at the mall on the way. The weather was supposed to be unbearably hot with thunder storms between 1 P.M. and 4.

What happened is that there was some on and off rain in the morning which kept the temperature down. The thunderstorms never materialized. I drove the bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway that's in the county after lunch, and hiked fifteen minutes each way on a piece of the Appalachian Trail near there. It was much cooler and less humid up in the mountains.

I saw a flyer for "Party In The Park" in Daleville Town Center tonight. Daleville is the new suburb of Roanoke. It boasts two chain grocery stores. The "Town Center" looks like an industrial warehouse district turned into loft-style apartments. Only all of it is new, and a little jarring in this otherwise low-density county. There is an open space with a stage in the development. They fence off the area on Thursday nights and charge $6 to get in. The entertainment was something called "The Motown Legacy Tour," four soul singers, with back-up musicians, playing old Motown songs, and a few new hits like Pharrell's "Happy." They were actually good, and people got up and danced. Beer and wine were for sale, and very limited food items. My horoscope yesterday said that I could be more transgressive, so I ate a hamburger, something I haven't done in years, and had a scoop of free ice cream from a local insurance group. It had cooled down to 85 by the time I left after eight.

I managed to find a few of the places from The National Register. Some were back in the woods and difficult to see from the road. The town of Fincastle is quite small, but is its own historic district.

I had fun here. The few people I spoke with went beyond polite to friendly. There are Confederate monuments at the county courthouse and in Buchanan, and I saw at least five houses flying Confederate flags. Lots of people had American flags out, possibly as an answer to the Confederates. And the Roanoke paper had a letter today quoting the Bible against same-gender marriage. Not much different from our own paper in Morgantown.

Here are the pics: