Blacksburg

History

In the mid-1600s, English colonists were still uncertain of what lay beyond the Allegheny Mountains, whose topography and possession by native inhabitants, Tutelo-speaking tribes, were a barrier to expanded settlement by the Colony of Virginia. Abraham Wood, who commanded Fort Henry on the frontier (now the site of Petersburg, Virginia), and operated an Indian trading post nearby, organized several expeditions to explore farther west. A passage over the ridge was finally found in 1671 when explorers Batts and Fallam, sent by Wood, reached the present-day location of Blacksburg, Virginia. Their expedition followed Stroubles Creek, through the current locations of the town and campus of Virginia Tech, to what they named Wood's River. They reported the area as inhabited by the Monacan and Moneton, Siouan-speaking groups, but the Virginian colonial legislature had authorized Wood to claim it. Accordingly, on September 17, 1671, the Batts and Fallam party claimed all of the lands comprising the river's drainage basin for King Charles II. However, the region was not yet open to English patent. In 1700, Seneca warriors of the Iroquois Confederacy based in New York and Pennsylvania, overran the entire area, driving out the other bands. As early as 1718, the Seneca had agreed to sell the parts they had conquered east of the Blue Ridge to the Colony of Virginia. Following another cession at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster, however, there was a dispute between the tribe and colonists over whether the new boundary was the Alleghenies or the Ohio River. The site of Blacksburg lay just within this disputed zone. By the 1740s, the Wood's River Land Company, represented by Colonel James Patton, gained a large tract of land within present-day southwest Virginia. Part of the tract became…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of of which is land and , or 0.10%, is water. At 2,080 feet (634 m) above sea level, Blacksburg is located in the New River Valley and also sits astride the Eastern Continental Divide. It is the 15th largest municipality The Eastern Continental Divide traverses the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport. The tallest building in Blacksburg is Slusher Tower, a twelve-story residence hall on the Virginia Tech campus. The building with the highest elevation is actually Hoge Hall (formerly Lee Hall), another residence hall, which until May 17, 2009, was home to the transmitter of campus radio station WUVT. The tower for WUVT now sits atop Price Mountain. Due to its elevation, the climate of Blacksburg is a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfa), being cooled down from the lowland areas of Virginia, all of which possess a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). Summers are humid with warm to hot temperatures, although the area sees significantly cooler temperatures than places of lower elevation at the same latitude, with only 5 days of + highs annually. }}

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• BLACKSBURG HIGH
  High · Blacksburg · 1,321 students · 15.7:1 ratio
• CHRISTIANSBURG HIGH
  High · Christiansburg · 1,116 students · 13.4:1 ratio
• BLACKSBURG MIDDLE
  Middle · Blacksburg · 946 students · 12.8:1 ratio
• CHRISTIANSBURG MIDDLE
  Middle · Christiansburg · 752 students · 11.6:1 ratio
• Falling Branch Elementary
  Elementary · Christiansburg · 576 students · 13.4:1 ratio
• Prices Fork Elementary
  Elementary · Blacksburg · 440 students · 13.3:1 ratio
• Christiansburg Elementary
  Elementary · Christiansburg · 407 students · 14:1 ratio
• CHRISTIANSBURG PRIMARY
  Elementary · Christiansburg · 405 students · 11.9:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.57 — 2023-07-08
  Virginia-North Carolina border region
• M 2.71 — 2023-07-06
  5 km S of Hillsville, Virginia
• M 2.55 — 2023-06-17
  2 km N of Pembroke, Virginia
• M 2.59 — 2022-10-25
  Virginia-North Carolina border region
• M 2.56 — 2021-09-27
  4 km N of Lafayette, Virginia
• M 2.76 — 2021-07-15
  10 km S of Narrows, Virginia