The story below is from our May/June 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
It is the largest locality at Smith Mountain Lake, so why don’t the residents say they live there?
Karen DeBord
What is Moneta? Exactly.
Basically, the definition is simple. Moneta is an unincorporated, 85-square-mile ZIP Code at Smith Mountain Lake with 11,348 residents according to the 2020 census. It is the largest locality on the lake. It is larger than any town on the lake. If you want an equivalent, think of Cave Spring and Glenvar to Roanoke County. They are neighborhoods. Big neighborhoods, for sure, but not cities or towns. They don’t have a government like Vinton, Rocky Mount or Bedford. Moneta doesn’t have a government. Or its own Chamber of Commerce. Or its own school system.
Andrew Bruns, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce (office in Moneta) answers the question thusly:
“Moneta exists more in the post office world than it does in real life. The boundaries are on both sides of the lake and in both Franklin and Bedford counties.
“Locals wouldn’t likely even describe where they live (to each other anyway) with the term ‘Moneta.’ They would likely describe the cove they live on (up Becky’s Creek) or the road they live off (off Hendricks Store Road). ‘I live in Moneta’ wouldn’t mean a lot to someone who lives at the lake.” Or somebody who doesn’t.
“I was just talking to one of our volunteers here in the office [recently]. We both live in Moneta. It’s a five-minute boat ride, but a forty-minute car drive between our houses. Obviously, the lake is the draw to live here.”
There is the prevailing notion—from outsiders mostly—that those who live at the lake are rich. Some are, many are anything but. “We have three generations of housing,” says Bruns. “Some were already old when the lake was built. It was a poor farming area before that.” Within Moneta proper are million-dollar lake-front homes, mobile homes, duplexes, chalets and old farmhouses. They don’t just co-exist from an economic standpoint, but the residents mingle cheerfully, according to those same residents.
Realtor Joan Griffith calls Moneta “a melting pot from all over the country, and not always what you’d expect. I live here.” Moneta has become a red-hot real estate market, Griffith says, so hot in fact, that finding houses to sell is difficult. At one point in January, she had 10 clients waiting for something to become available so they could buy. Those were high-end buyers.
The demographics are changing, Griffith insists, including more people investing in rental property, which is inviting people who aren’t wealthy to live at the lake. COVID and good WiFi have opened up the work-at-home ethic. “There is a small-town feel to Moneta,” says Griffith. “That’s why people are coming out here. It’s an easy drive to Roanoke, Charlottesville, Lynchburg.”
Chris and Pat Belcher run the Crazy Horse Marina, a bustling center for food, boating and entertainment in the winter months. They live at the marina and use its boats occasionally for their own recreation. “We’ve lived here for 10 years,” says Chris. “It’s the best place to live that I’ve been. I like the pace of life here; it’s laid back, slower. And there’s a lot to do, more than people realize.”
Since COVID struck, Belcher says, “it’s really been busy here. Most of the lake houses are owned by people from the outside and they’re coming here and working from home now. Our best year financially was 2020.” He calls Moneta “a little country town,” and says, “if you’re happy with city life, you won’t be happy here.”
JoAnne and Larry Haymore live part of the year at the lake and part at The Villages, a red-hot Florida development. “I live at Smith Mountain Lake, but the address is Moneta,” even though she lives off Scruggs Road. Scruggs, like Moneta, is another locality within a locality, that is within a locality, which is the lake. Got that?
The Haymores’ lake house is back a ways. “We’re on the waterfront, but not on the water,” JoAnne says. “It is much quieter. The lake is a noisy place, especially on the main channel.” And the living is easy, especially for the social butterfly, especially if that social butterfly is artistic. Like Linda Kay Simmons, a novelist and retired flight attendant, who loves the story of the origin of the name Moneta.
Her ancestors were farmers in Franklin County. She recalls, “When I was a young girl, I remember my elders questioning if the lake would take my grandparents’ farm. It did not.”
A retired flight attendant, she is “a member of a thriving arts community, which I love.” She adds that “Moneta is my goddess of inspiration. Many have moved here, falling under her spell, and an artistic community has formed.”
She explains: “One story of the origin of the name Moneta is that the wife of the postmaster, Mildred Thaxton, was asked to name the area. She suggested Moneta from a book she was reading at the time, likely John Keats’ ‘The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream.’”
Regardless of its origin, says Simmons, it is artistic. “Under the Smith Mountain Lake Arts Council’s many branches, numerous art worlds exist. There is something here for those willing to search it out.”
Indeed, it is an artistic ZIP Code, one featuring impromptu live theater, considerable music performance, art shows, a big writers’ group with a number of published authors, several book clubs, wine tastings, a weekend for Pirates. Something always going on during the warm months.
Gills Creek District Supervisor Lorie Smith says that 63% of Franklin County’s revenue is generated from five percent of Franklin County’s residents, the five percent living in Moneta (mostly on the lake). Beth Simms, Franklin County’s Economic Development Director, says it’s more complicated than those simple numbers, but Moneta is “one of the top two economic commercial areas. It is a bustling area and people appear to like living there.” It’s where she grew up, in fact.
Jane Boney is one Moneta’s residents who lives a more modest life. She is retired and occupies a duplex. She says, “I don’t think any new resident of the lake chooses Moneta [as an address]. They choose the community based on their tastes and needs. Since I moved here, I have lived in Huddleston, Wirtz and Moneta. Don’t forget Goodview, Glade Hill, Union Hall and Penhook [lake communities]. Even though my address is Moneta, I chose my current two-bedroom duplex because it is near Westlake and everything I need. Cost of housing here is comparable to every lake community. Of course, this duplex is far less expensive than huge lake homes.
“What keeps me here? Not only is the area beautiful, but once folks get here and experience the sense of community, no matter what their mailing address is, they stay and love it. There are tons of organizations that fit so many interests.”
Bruns emphasizes that “there is a ‘Downtown Moneta’ on the Bedford County side of the lake with shopping and restaurants. There is also an ‘Old Moneta’ that the road skipped and is not utilized much any longer, although it was used for the ‘town’ when they filmed the movie ‘What About Bob? (at the lake). The demographic profile of Moneta is likely changing post-COVID. We are seeing younger folks, many of them remote workers, make the lake home, and a lot of folks with school-age children as well. Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy [in Moneta] has experienced explosive growth in the last few years.”
Ron Willard developed what has become the economic center of Moneta—Westlake—some years ago and his son, Ron, Jr., continues the tradition today. He points out that Franklin County was once part of Bedford County and when he was a boy, there was a sometimes-difficult peace waged among the younger residents. If the Bedford boys “heard you were from Franklin County, you were a sumbitch.”
Willard grew up on Scruggs Road and recalls old Moneta as having a car dealership, feed store, grocery store and a smattering of other businesses. The buildings remain but aren’t occupied. Most of the people are gone, as well. He says the demographics of Moneta have changed dramatically: “10 years in [the last] 20 months.” It is getting younger, of course.
His primary regret, and the regret of many officials in the area: “Roanoke has not yet figured out how valuable the lake is to the Roanoke area.”
That is likely to have to wait until they all figure out what Moneta is.
Moneta at a Glance
Much about Moneta is difficult to understand or to explain. The following, however, are clear facts.
- Status: Unincorporated Community
- Location: Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford and Franklin counties
- Population in 2020: 11,348 (by comparison, Bedford is 6,500, Vinton, 8,000, Rocky Mount, 4,700)
- Land area: 94.9 square miles
- Water area: 10.5 square miles
- Median age: 51 (the U.S. is 37.8)
- Elderly population: Age 65-74, 17.7% (U.S. is 8.4%)
- People per household: 2.3 (U.S. is 2.6)
- Marital status: 70.3% married; 8.8% divorced
- Families: 20% married with children; 7.1% single parents
- Median home price: $326,000 (Virginia, 258,400; U.S. $231,200)
- Ethnicity: 90.4% white; 3% African American; 1.9% Hispanic
- Politics: Very conservative
- Schools: Moneta Elementary, Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy, Staunton River High School and Middle School. (Students also attend high school at Franklin County High in Rocky Mount.)
(Sources: various, including the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce)
Origin of Moneta
Author Jim Morrison of Moneta, writing in Cooperative Living, gave this account of the origin of Moneta’s name:
“In 1857, Jordan Lipscomb and others purchased farmland around what was to become the village of Moneta. Lipscomb established a tanyard there, and the area was first known as Lipscomb’s Tanyard.
“In 1880, John Thaxton built the first store in the area. The Thaxton family wanted a post office in their store, and, searching for a name, Mrs. Thaxton suggested “Moneta,” a name she had come across in a book she was reading [John Keats’ The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream]. The Moneta post office was officially established in 1886.”
The story above is from our May/June 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!