NRV in Full Bloom

by

Features

The story below is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Sure, there’s Virginia Tech, Metallica, research, AI, bio-tech and whatnot, but living in the New River Valley is a lot more than that.

There are distinct moments, almost seared into our memories, that give the best definition of the New River Valley.

It begins at that moment in April when the crimson of the redbud trees blooms along I-81 creating a welcoming carpet, and segues into dozens of other memory-makers:

  • The sound of a standing ovation following a concert at the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech;
  • The scene of tens of thousands of outdoor bluegrass and American music revelers at FloydFest in July and the Galax Fiddlers Convention in August;
  • The outdoor cooking smells wafting through Steppin’ Out, the Sun Drop Festival, the International Street Fair;
  • The quiet appreciation at the Summer Arts Festival, the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley, Radford University’s Visual and Performing Arts Center; 
  • A wide variety of farmers’ markets in season;
  • The silent introspection of the Floyd Yoga Jam;
  • The pristine view from cabins overlooking the New River and Claytor Lake;
  • “A good walk spoiled” (as Mark Twain would have it) at 11 golf courses;
  • Spectacular hikes on a variety of venues ranging from 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail to the Huckleberry Trail, the Cascades, Stiles Falls, Mill Creek Park Trail, Angel’s Rest, Mountain Lake Conservancy, New River Trail, Falls Ridge Reserve and a dozen others of note;
  • Pickleball everywhere;
  • Three noteworthy wineries: Beliveau Farm, New River Vineyard and Chateau Morrisette;
  • “Oh, wow!” moments at museums like the Glencoe Museum in Radford, the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation, the Wonder Universe for children at the Uptown Christiansburg Mall, the Wilderness Road Museum and the Crooked Road celebrating Americana Music throughout the NRV;
  • There is often unexpectedly multi-star dining, especially in Blacksburg, and plenty of lodging — mostly because of sports at Virginia Tech.

The entertainment and visual values in the New River Valley are undeniable, but there is a good bit more.

The 1,458-square-mile region has a high degree of economic and social integration and a total population of more than 180,000 people (600,000 within an hour’s drive). In the past five years, the NRV’s gross domestic product has grown 13.1% and more than 3,000 people moved into the area since the COVID Year of 2020.

The economy in the NRV is solidly based around the research opportunities at Virginia Tech and the educational values of Radford University and the New River Community College. Along with those educational institutions, the Valley has excellent opportunities at some of its largest employers: Volvo, Moog, Carilion NRV and BAE Systems. 

New and growing businesses, many of them technological, are based at the Corporate Research Center, which was founded on the Tech campus in 1985 and has grown to 220 companies in 40 buildings with 1.5 million square feet of office space. The CRC is host for the Smart Highway transportation research center, Artificial Intelligence, biotechnology, defense and aerospace research. New patents regularly begin at the CRC.

Virginia Tech’s size (2,600 acres, 38,000 graduate and undergraduate students, 13,000 faculty and staff) often sucks up all the oxygen in the room. But to the people of the NRV, Tech is but one element of a life away from the congestion and hurry of a city with the livability of the rural.

Jeff LeCroix is an engineer at the Corporate Research Center who “grew up in a small town,” so Blacksburg was neither a surprise nor a culture shock when he arrived in 2011. “This is a nice community that meets all [his family’s] needs. It is quiet, has low traffic and cities are nearby if we need them. There is community and I could retire here.” The only significant drawback? “A larger airport would be nice.” Still, “Every time I go on a trip and drive home, I see the mountains in the distance, and I know I am home.”

Daryl Walker, who lives in Floyd but works in Roanoke, has “been coming up here since I was a kid. I didn’t like it [initially] but began to like it when I started helping with Floyd Fest ... I moved up here to be with my dad after my mom died and loved the peacefulness. The commute isn’t that bad.”

Tara Nepper of Fairlawn has lived in the NRV since 2018. She and her husband grew up in Kentucky and Iowa in small communities and, she says, “Living in Fairlawn is a bit like being back home. The pace feels slower, the trees and open fields that surround our home give us the feeling of being on a farm without the work or worry.”

Fairlawn is the couple’s “forever home,” she says, noting that their two girls finished school in Roanoke before the move. She works in Blacksburg and husband Steve works in Roanoke, so close proximity to I-81 is an advantage. They are close to the New River and “can kayak or float there or head to McCoy Falls to spend a day” on the water.

Shelly Maycock, who works at Virginia Tech, has family in Roanoke “where I grew up and I returned in 2007 after living in North Carolina for nine years.” She has two English degrees from Tech and another from Hollins, so “I have friends old (going back to 1979) and new, and I love the gatherings for music at Rising Silo Brewery, the cultural offerings of the University, the beauty of the area and VT campus in general.”

Leadership coach Robin Weeks of Blacksburg likes the people and “I enjoy the simple lifestyle [where] we lack for nothing. People’s perception is of living out in the boonies, but I really don’t. I’m a 30-minute commute to Blacksburg. Our world is all within reach. I moved here almost 20 years ago after living in Charlotte for 20 years … Eighteen months and a region-wide search landed me in the most beautiful spot on earth, Giles County, with my horses and Great Pyrenees on 10-plus acres.”

Musician Bill Hudson sees “music as a vortex, hands down, and it’s the only reason I am in the Roanoke area so far. But I dig Floyd and when I have out-of-towners I bring them up here. I am one of the many songwriters around here and I have been blessed by my brother musicians who work with me.”

Susan Trulove has lived in the NRV through good and bad. “My husband, Garland Shinault, was an iron worker. [A noted athlete] Garland was born here and would not live anywhere else than Pulaski County. He passed away 17 years ago and I retired from Virginia Tech 13 years ago. Pulaski is friendly. People tend to stay here and are interested in each other, so you don’t disappear.”

Floyd County native Mark Hollandsworth is a former TV news professional in Roanoke and the NRV, who moved into law enforcement in 2000 with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. The lure: “I think it was just the beauty and natural resources in the NRV that we take for granted until we travel somewhere and come back home.”

 “The biggest challenge we faced up until the last couple of years is little to no cell phone coverage and no options for internet.” Citizens Internet solved that by installing a 5G cell antenna “about a half mile away.”

In his years with the Sheriff’s office, “We have experienced several horrific events that have brought the community together and bonded different groups together through tragedy. In times like those, you really learn who you can depend on to be there to help. I’ve raised a family in the Riner community, which is very similar to Floyd in its rural setting. I’m close enough to the conveniences that life offers now. While it’s nice to travel to large cities and spend time away, there’s no place at this time in my life that I’d rather be.”

All Over the World and Back to the NRV

Entrepreneur, author and movie-maker Debbie Seagle of Dublin was born in Roanoke and grew up in the NRV, “plotting to hide on a local farm when my dad suggested moving to Australia. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else — until I graduated from Pulaski County High School.”

"Fast-forward through Paris, the Middle East, Hawaii, New Orleans, Northern Virginia, among others, I drifted back to these mountains that inspired my dreams and my first book. There’s an entire chapter devoted to how we do things in these hills, and it makes people laugh.”

When friends visit, she says, “They’re amazed that I know everyone here. I don’t tell them that we’re required to wave when we pass on the back roads. It’s our culture. Culture (and relentless traffic) brought me back from D.C. to the NRV, a small world inhabited by people who rarely leave and are keenly aware of their surroundings. That’s helpful when the river floods or an ice storm leaves you without electricity. But when you run into someone you don’t recognize and they comment on the flowers you just put out, well… at least it’s less creepy and more heartfelt than being stalked on Facebook.”

And how does one pass the time beneficially? “It’s not that there’s nothing to do here. Floating or paddling down the New River is a rite of passage. A bonfire, dancing in the rain and watching the sun dip into the water at Lost Horizon Cabin on Claytor Lake refreshes the soul. Biking the New River Trail is the country version of therapy, but less expensive. Then there’s the banjo! Every other family has talented musicians with a mandolin or a fiddle, and they put Nashville to shame. My family has spoons.”

Her planned movie (and award-winning script) “Coffee Cups & Wine Glasses,” a comedy, is nearing production and will, she says, “bring the other world into ours. … Back-slappin’ humor and resilience are part of our culture in the New River Valley.”

The story above is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!