Roanoke, VA news and local guide

The railroad built its depot just south of the small town of Gainesborough but named it for Big Lick, a nearby community named for the salt deposits that had long drawn game. Roanoke County voted 850 to 0 for secession and lost many men in the Civil War. Tobacco helped the area recover, and within a decade of the war there were at least six tobacco factories near the depot. The community there was chartered as the Town of Big Lick in 1874. In 1882 town boosters won Big Lick the junction of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad and the Norfolk and Western Railway, and both companies moved their headquarters there, building shops, offices, a hotel and housing almost from scratch. Residents voted to rename the town Kimball for Frederick J. Kimball, an executive of both railroads, but he declined, saying, "On the Roanoke River in Roanoke County, name it Roanoke." The town became Roanoke on February 3, 1882, and annexed nearly 2.5 square miles, including Gainesborough. Sources Wikipedia: Roanoke, Virginia