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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.’”
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