Qualla: Christiansburg, Virginia

Christiansburg, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AstaPro5, CC BY-SA 3.0. Daniel Boone was once arrested in Christiansburg. The warrant, dated 1774, was for an unpaid debt. The deputy sent to execute it marked the document with a single laconic phrase that has survived in the courthouse records: Not executed - Gone to Kentucky. Boone, true to form, eventually paid the debt. But the moment is a fair summary of what Christiansburg was in its first century: a place that famous people kept passing through, on their way to somewhere else.

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Image: AstaPro5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Christiansburg, Virginia: Pioneers on the Great Wagon Road

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AstaPro5, CC BY-SA 3.0. The town grew up at the southwestern end of the Great Wagon Road - present-day US Route 11 - on the Eastern Continental Divide. From the founding hill, water on one side flows toward the Atlantic; on the other, toward the Gulf of Mexico. The settlement was first called Hans Meado...

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Image: AstaPro5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Christiansburg, Virginia: Christiansburg Institute

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AstaPro5, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1866, Captain Charles S. Schaeffer of the Freedmen's Bureau founded the Christiansburg Normal Institute as a primary school for Black children, on Zion Hill between the town and the Cambria depot. The school did not stay small. Booker T. Washington served as its superintendent...

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Image: AstaPro5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Christiansburg, Virginia: The Duel of 1808 and the Civil War

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AstaPro5, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 9, 1808, downtown Christiansburg hosted the Lewis-McHenry Duel - a rifle duel between Thomas Lewis and John McHenry that killed both men. The attending surgeon was Dr. John Floyd, who would later become governor of Virginia. The killings led directly to the Barbour Bill of...

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Christiansburg, Virginia: Fires of the 1950s, Growth Today

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cburgva, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 1950s nearly burned Christiansburg out of business. Roses' 5 and 10 and Cavalier Furniture both burned in 1954. A single 1956 fire consumed the City Market, Royal Cafe, Smith and Jones, Jennings Barber Shop, and Interiors by Richard. 1957 took Simmons Shoe Shop, the Blue Moon...

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Image: Cburgva | CC BY-SA 4.0

Christiansburg, Virginia: Eastern Continental Divide

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The town's geography is the unifying fact. Christiansburg sits at the crossroads of three major highways - I-81, US 460, and US 11 - because it has always been a crossing point on the divide. From the top of Christiansburg Mountain on the eastern edge of town, rain rolls east int...

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Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0