Page 2 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

to the flowing waters. They used the trails made by the animals, marching single file
keeping the width of the trail to only 18 inches. The site became a favorite camping
ground for the Indians, and for thousands of years the lick remained the meeting place of
both beast and Indian. From North and South, East and West they came, following the
padding feet of the beasts with the light tread of leather moccasins.
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European immigrants, leaving Pennsylvania, followed a network of paths formed along
high ground and shallow river fords and valleys crossing into the South by wagon. Part of
their journey eventually used the trails created by the animals and Indians in Virginia.
The path has been called the Great Road or The Wilderness Road, and it would play a
major role later in the life of the area. In time, The Road became the genesis of U.S.
Route 11.

To bring perspective as to the location of this particular Salt Lick, it was located between
a river and the northeast side at the foot of a smallish mountain, just over 1,000 feet high.
The area was flat and fertile. It was known by one and all as the Great Salt Lick, The Lick,
and most commonly Big Lick. Now it is known as the city of Roanoke, near the Botetourt
County Line. I have a map of Botetourt County drawn in 1820, but showing all the
landmarks from 1770. The map shows a frontier fort built in 1755 just over the Botetourt
line in what would later be Roanoke County.

In 1910 an English firm opened a synthetic silk manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania.
They had perfected a method of making a new product named 'rayon'. In 1917 they
opened their second plant in Roanoke which by 1920 employed over 5,000 workers.
They even built dormitories for some of the women employees. The name of the
company was the American Viscose Corporation, familiarly called the “Silk Mill”. the
massive plant was situated just across the river, north of the site of the salt lick. It later
had eight plants in the eastern states. Eventually new products and methods made the
plant obsolete and a money-losing proposition, so it decided to close it’s doors. The
Roanoke plant closed in 1958. They were Roanoke's largest employer. The plant site is
now the Roanoke Industrial Center.

As for the salt lick site, the last time I was through the area there was a supermarket on
part of the property. As I remember, at a point in time, archaeological digs were
performed on the site to verify the chronology of the property, and when the Indian
encampments were there. As I vaguely remember, they dated the Indian encampment as
4,000 years old. (Subsequent research has showed that Native American encampments in
the area have been dated back to 8,000 B.C.)

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Because of its popularity and prodigious salt deposits, the area became known as Big
Lick. Being far from the Atlantic Ocean, certain items from the sandy shores of the sea
became valuable as trade items, or if you will, money. Of particular value were certain
sea shells, rare in the Big Lick area for obvious reasons, and rarity means valuable.

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