Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Official name	Roanoke, Virginia
Settlement type	City
Nickname	''The Star City of The South'' or ''Magic City''
Blank emblem type	Logo
Image seal	City Seal of Roanoke, VA.jpg
Map caption	Location in Virginia
Coordinates region	US-VA
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision name1	Virginia
Government type	Council-Manager
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	David A. Bowers
Area total sq mi	43
Area total km2	111.1
Area land sq mi	42.9
Area land km2	111.1
Area water sq mi	0.0
Area water km2	0.1
Population as of	2010
Population total	97,032
Population metro	302,200
Population density km2	873.1
Population density sq mi	2,261.8
Timezone	Eastern (EST)
Utc offset	-5
Timezone dst	EDT
Utc offset dst	-4
Elevation m	269–530
Elevation ft	883–1740
Elevation footnotes
Website	www.roanokeva.gov
Postal code type	ZIP Codes
Postal code	24001–24020, 24022–24038, 24040, 24042–24045, 24048, 24050, 24155, 24157
Area code	540
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	51-68000
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	1499971
Footnotes	}}

Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010. It is the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia, and is the principal municipality of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). In 2009 the Roanoke MSA had an estimated population of 303,418 residents and is composed of the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem and the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke. Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the commercial and cultural hub of much of the surrounding area of Virginia and southern West Virginia.

History

Incorporation

The town first called Big Lick was established in 1852 and chartered in 1874. It was named for a large outcropping of salt which drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River. In 1882 it became the town of Roanoke, and in 1884 it was chartered as the independent city of Roanoke. The name ''Roanoke'' is said to have originated from an Algonquian word for shell "money". This was also the name of the river that bisected it (probably where shells had come from) and the county. The city grew frequently through annexation through the middle of the twentieth century. The last annexation was in 1976. The state legislature has since prohibited cities from annexing land from adjacent counties. Roanoke's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth.

Colonial influence

During colonial times the site of Roanoke was an important hub of trails and roads. The Great Wagon Road, one of the most heavily travelled roads of eighteenth century America, ran from Philadelphia through the Shenandoah Valley to the future site of the City of Roanoke, where the Roanoke River passed through the Blue Ridge. The Roanoke Gap proved a useful route for immigrants to settle the Carolina Piedmont region. At Roanoke Gap, another branch of the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, continued southwest to Tennessee.

Railroads and coal

In the 1850s, Big Lick became a stop on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T;) which linked Lynchburg with Bristol on the Virginia-Tennessee border.

After the American Civil War (1861–1865), William Mahone, a civil engineer and hero of the Battle of the Crater, was the driving force in the linkage of 3 railroads, including the V&T;, across the southern tier of Virginia to form the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O;), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia in 1870. However, the Financial Panic of 1873 wrecked the AM&O;'s finances. After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control. At the foreclosure auction, the AM&O; was purchased by E.W. Clark & Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia which controlled the Shenandoah Valley Railroad then under construction up the valley from Hagerstown, Maryland. The AM&O; was renamed Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W;).

Frederick J. Kimball, a civil engineer and partner in the Clark firm, headed the new line and the new Shenandoah Valley Railroad. For the junction for the Shenandoah Valley and the Norfolk and Western roads, Kimball and his board of directors selected the small Virginia village called Big Lick, on the Roanoke River. Although the grateful citizens offered to rename their town "Kimball", at his suggestion, they agreed to name it Roanoke after the river. As the N&W; brought people and jobs, the Town of Roanoke quickly became an independent city in 1884. In fact, Roanoke became a city so quickly that it earned the nickname "Magic City".

Kimball's interest in geology was instrumental in the development of the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and West Virginia. He pushed N&W; lines through the wilds of West Virginia, north to Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio, and south to Durham, North Carolina and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This gave the railroad the route structure it was to use for more than 60 years.

The Virginian Railway (VGN), an engineering marvel of its day, was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers. Following the Roanoke River, the VGN was built through the City of Roanoke early in the twentieth century. It merged with the N&W; in 1959.

The opening of the coalfields made N&W; prosperous and Pocahontas bituminous coal world-famous. Transported by the N&W; and neighboring Virginian Railway (VGN), local coal fueled half the world's navies. Today it stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe.

The Norfolk & Western was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house. It was N&W;'s Roanoke Shops that made the company known industry-wide for its excellence in steam power. The Roanoke Shops, with its workforce of thousands, is where the famed classes A, J, and Y6 locomotives were designed, built, and maintained. New steam locomotives were built there until 1953, long after diesel-electric had emerged as the motive power of choice for most North American railroads. About 1960, N&W; was the last major railroad in the United States to convert from steam to diesel power.

The presence of the railroad also made Roanoke attractive to manufacturers. American Viscose opened a large rayon plant in Southeast Roanoke in October 1917. This plant closed in 1958, leaving 5,000 workers unemployed. When N&W; converted to diesel, 2,000 railroad workers were laid off.

Cultural hub

EventZone was created in 2003 by the merger of various existing event organizers. EventZone is also charged with assisting in the creation of new festivals and activities in the Downtown Roanoke "event zone," which is defined as all areas bound by Williamson Road, 6th Street, SW, the Roanoke Civic Center, and Rivers Edge Park.

Local Colors is a multi-cultural program which recognizes people of diverse origins, races and ethnic backgrounds and sponsors the annual Local Colors Festival in the third weekend of May.

Roanoke's festivals and cultural events include the Chili Cook-Off, Festival in the Park, Local Colors Festival, Henry Street Festival, Big Lick Blues Festival, Strawberry Festival, and the large red, white, and blue illuminated Mill Mountain Star (formerly illuminated in red following drunk driving fatalities in the Roanoke Valley; temporarily illuminated in white on April 22, 2007 in remembrance of the Virginia Tech Massacre of April 16, 2007) on Mill Mountain, which is visible from many points in the city and surrounding valley.

Government

Roanoke has a weak mayor-city manager form of government. The city manager is responsible for the day to day operation of the city's government and has the authority to hire and fire city employees. The mayor has little, if any, executive authority and essentially is the "first among equals" on the city council. The mayor, however, has a bully pulpit as Roanoke media frequently cover the mayor's appearances and statements. The current mayor of Roanoke is David A. Bowers and the current city manager is Christopher P. Morrill. City council has six members, not counting the mayor, all of whom are elected on an at-large basis. A proposal for a ward based council, in which the mayor and vice mayor would continue to be elected at-large, was rejected by Roanoke voters in 1997, but ward system advocates still contend that the at-large system results in a disproportionate number of council members coming from affluent neighborhoods and that electing some or all council members on a ward basis would result in a more equal representation of all areas of the city. The four year terms of city council members are staggered, so there are biannual elections. The candidate who receives the most votes is designated the vice mayor for the following two years.

The city's African-American and professional class voting blocs have made the Democratic Party the city's leading party in recent years.

Independent candidate David A. Bowers, a former Democrat, defeated incumbent Democrat Nelson Harris for Mayor in the May 2008 election with 53% of the vote. In both the 2000 election, Republican Ralph K. Smith and in the 2004 election Nelson Harris won with less than 40% of the vote in competitive three way races.

In the May 2008 council elections, Democrats Court Rosen, Anita Price, and Sherman Lea defeated a slate of loosely allied independent city council candidates including incumbent Brian Wishneff. In the May 2006 council elections, a slate of three former Democrats running on an independent slate backed by Harris defeated the candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties. This election ended the city's long running debate about the fate of Victory Stadium.

Roanoke is represented by two members of the Virginia House of Delegates, Onzlee Ware (D-11th) and William Fralin (R-17th), and one member of the Virginia Senate, John Edwards (D-21st). Former Roanoke mayor Ralph Smith won the 2007 election in the neighboring 22nd Senate district after defeating incumbent Brandon Bell for the Republican nomination in the primary election and Democrat Michael Breiner in the general election.

The City of Roanoke lies within the 6th Congressional District of Virginia, which also includes Lynchburg and much of the Shenandoah Valley. Current representative Bob Goodlatte resides in Roanoke as have many of those who have held the seat. The 9th Congressional District of Virginia, represented by Rick Boucher, has traditionally covered southwest Virginia but has expanded into parts of Roanoke County and counties to the north of Roanoke to make up for population losses in the rest of the district. Tom Perriello represents much of the area to south and east of Roanoke, including nearby Franklin County, in the 5th Congressional District of Virginia, which also stretches north to Charlottesville. There is speculation that the lines of the three districts could be significantly redrawn in the next redistricting cycle after the 2010 Census, especially if Democrats gain control of the Virginia General Assembly, to account for rapid growth in the northern parts of the 5th and 6th districts and slower growth in the southern parts of the districts and population loss in much of the 9th.

Politics

+ Presidential election results
! Year	Democratic Party (United States)>DEM	Republican Party (United States)>GOP	! Others
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Geography

Roanoke is located in the valley and ridge province of Virginia immediately west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and east of the Allegheny Mountains

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 42.9 square miles (111.1 km²), of which, 42.9 square miles (111.1 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.07%) is water.

Within the city limits is Mill Mountain, which stands detached from surrounding ranges. Its summit features the Roanoke Star, Mill Mountain Zoo, the Discovery Center interpretive building, and an overlook of the Roanoke Valley. The Appalachian Trail runs through the northern section of Roanoke County several miles north of the city, while the Blue Ridge Parkway runs just to the south of the city. Carvins Cove, the second-largest municipal park in America at , lies in northeast Roanoke County and southwest Botetourt County. Smith Mountain Lake is several miles southeast of the city. The Jefferson National Forest is nearby. Roanokers and visitors to the area enjoy hiking, mountain biking, cross-country running, canoeing, kayaking, fly fishing, and other outdoor pursuits.

The city is located in the North Fork of Roanoke winemaking region. The "North Fork of Roanoke" appellation is a designated American Viticultural Area, recognizing the unique grape growing conditions present in the area. Valhalla Vineyards is located just outside the city limits of Roanoke.

The Roanoke River flows through the city of Roanoke. Some stretches of the river flow through parks and natural settings, while others flow through industrial areas. Several tributaries join the river in the city, most notably Peters Creek, Tinker Creek, and Mud Lick Creek.

Climate

Being located along the Blue Ridge Mountains, Roanoke lies in the transition zone between the Humid subtropical climate zone and the Humid continental climate zone, with four distinct, but generally mild, seasons. Temperatures may reach over in summer or dip below in winter, but neither occurs in a typical year. Roanoke's all time record high of 105 °F (40.5 °C) occurred on August 21, 1983, and the all time record low of ) occurred on January 21, 1985.

The city averages of snow per winter. Roanoke experienced something of a snow drought in the 2000s until December 2009 when 17" of snow fell on Roanoke in a single storm. Roanoke's snowiest winter on record occurred in 1986−1987 when fell. The largest single storm dumped approximately three feet from December 16, 1890 through December 18, 1890.

Flooding is the primary weather related hazard faced by Roanoke. Heavy rains, most frequently from remnants of a hurricane, drain from surrounding areas to the narrow Roanoke Valley. The most recent significant flood was in the fall of 2004, caused by the remains of Hurricane Ivan. The most severe flooding in the city's history occurred on November 4, 1985 when heavy storms from the remnants of Hurricane Juan stalled over the area. Ten people drowned in the Roanoke Valley, and others were saved by rescue personnel.

Many residents complain that they are prone to allergies because of pollen from trees in the surrounding mountains. Most famously, the family of Wayne Newton moved from Roanoke to the dry climate of Phoenix, Arizona because of his childhood asthma and allergies. However, there have not been clinical studies to establish that these conditions are more prevalent in Roanoke than other cities with similar vegetation and climate.

The following table shows Roanoke's average monthly temperatures and rainfall totals.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/winter-storm-aiming-for-mid-atlantic_2009-12-17

Neighborhoods

Within its boundaries, Roanoke is divided into 49 individually defined neighborhoods.

Transportation

Roads

Interstate 581 is the primary north-south roadway through the city. It is also the only interstate highway as Interstate 81 passes north of the city limits. Interstate 581 is a concurrency with U.S. Route 220, which continues as the Roy L. Webber Expressway from downtown Roanoke, where the I-581 designation ends, south to State Route 419. Route 220 connects Roanoke to Martinsville, Virginia and Greensboro, North Carolina. The proposed Interstate 73 would generally parallel Route 220 between Roanoke and Greensboro and would likely be a concurrency with I-581 through the city. The primary east-west roadway is U.S. Route 460, named Melrose Avenue and Orange Avenue. Route 460 connects Roanoke to Lynchburg. U.S. Route 11 passes through the city, primarily as Brandon Avenue and Williamson Road, which was a center of automotive based commercial development after World War II. Other major roads include U.S. Route 221, State Route 117 (known as Peters Creek Road), and State Route 101 (known as Hershberger Road). The Blue Ridge Parkway also briefly runs adjacent to the city border.

Roanoke is divided into four quadrants: Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southwest (SW), and Southeast (SE). The mailing address for locations in Roanoke includes the two letter quadrant abbreviation after the street name. For example, the Center in the Square complex in downtown Roanoke has the address "1 Market Square SE."

Airports

Roanoke Regional Airport is located in the northern part of the city and is the primary passenger and cargo airport for Southwest Virginia.

Rail

Ironically for a city known for its rail history, Roanoke has not had passenger rail service since 1979. Amtrak stops in Lynchburg and Clifton Forge, Virginia. Roanoke would be a stop in the proposed Transdominion Express passenger rail system currently under study by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Roanoke remains a major hub in Norfolk Southern's freight rail system. In 2006, the railroad announced plans to construct an intermodal rail yard in the community of Lafayette, Virginia of neighboring Montgomery County; however, opposition by local residents prompted Norfolk Southern to consider other potential sites. In 2007, former Roanoke mayor David A. Bowers urged Roanoke to offer a site for the yard. Shortly thereafter, neighboring Salem proposed a site in an industrial area of the city. In 2008, Norfolk Southern determined that the Lafayette location was the only practical site. The Commonwealth of Virginia may also upgrade Norfolk Southern's rail line parallel to Interstate 81 from Roanoke through the Shenandoah Valley to encourage more freight to be shipped by rail.

Buses

The Valley Metro bus system serves the city of Roanoke and surrounding areas. Nearly all routes originate or terminate at the Campbell Court bus station in downtown Roanoke, which is also served by Greyhound. Valley Metro also offers bus service to Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Virginia Tech.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 94,911 people, 42,003 households, and 24,235 families residing in the city. By 2006, the city's population was estimated to be 92,328 by the census bureau; however, the Cooper Center of the University of Virginia projected the city's population at July 1, 2007, to have increased to 93,504. By 2009, the city had grown close to its 2000 level, with 94,482 residing within the city. The population density was 2,213.2 people per square mile (854.6/km²). There were 45,257 housing units at an average density of 1,055.3 per square mile (407.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 69.38% White, 26.74% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.15% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.72% from other races, and 1.78% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.48% of the population.

There were 42,003 households out of which 25.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.1% were married couples living together, 16.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.3% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.86.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.6% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 88.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,719, and the median income for a family was $37,826. Males had a median income of $28,465 versus $21,591 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,468. About 12.9% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.4% of those under age 18 and 11.3% of those age 65 or over.

Crime

The studies of Dr. Isaac Van Patten, a criminologist from Radford University discovered that Roanoke’s rates of rape and aggravated assault were the highest in the state of Virginia in 2004. Roanoke had seen a total increase in violent crimes from 1985 until 2003, surpassing every Virginia city, only Portsmouth had seen a larger increase in crime. Van Patten is not suggesting that Roanoke's overall violent crime rate was the highest in the state over the 18-year period, just that it saw the largest total increase. According to the FBI data, the crime rates in Roanoke for murder, rape, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft all decreased from 2006 to 2007, while the rates of robberies and burglaries increased. In 2007, Roanoke was ranked as Virginia’s second most dangerous city; in 2008 the city was ranked as the fifth worst city in Virginia.

Gangs

The presence of genuine gang activity in Roanoke is a strongly debated subject. While some neighborhoods have gang-like organizations, many of which are engaged in drug distribution, like the Lincoln Terrace Posse and Villa Heights 1, some law enforcement officers say that they are "mostly for show" as compared to the more militant and dangerous gangs that have a presence in multiple cities.

Part of the argument in favor of acknowledging Roanoke's neighborhood groups as gangs comes from state politicians, like former attorney general Jerry Kilgore, part of it comes from the groups themselves who actively proclaim their legitimate existence as criminal and violent gangs in a DVD released for sale in the local area. In 2007, a DVD titled "Real Talk" appeared in Roanoke convenience stores depicting gang life in Roanoke. The 95-minute video includes references to the "Lincoln Terrace Posse" ("LTP"), "Villa Heights", and "Southwest" ("SW"). The local NAACP president, while outraged by the content of the DVD, disagreed that there were "full-fledged" gangs in Roanoke and felt that the presence of a camera played a big part in encouraging the behavior displayed.

Education

The local public school division is Roanoke City Public Schools. The two general enrollment public high schools in Roanoke City are Patrick Henry High School, located in the Raleigh Court area, and William Fleming High School, located in Northwest Roanoke. The six public middle schools in Roanoke City are Woodrow Wilson, James Madison Middle School, and Stonewall Jackson, that feed into Patrick Henry High School; and Lucy Addison, William Ruffner, and James Breckinridge, that feed into William Fleming High School. The Noel C. Taylor learning academy is a combined middle and high school that serves students with individual educational needs.

Private non-parochial schools in Roanoke City include Community High School, that provides classes from ninth to twelfth grade; and New Vista Montessori, that provides classes from third through ninth grade. Private non-parochial schools outside of Roanoke City, but in the Roanoke Metropolitan Area, include North Cross School, which provides education from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade.

Private parochial schools in Roanoke City include North Cross and Roanoke Catholic, that provide classes from kindergarten through twelfth grade; and Roanoke Adventist Preparatory, that provides classes from kindergarten through eighth grade. Private parochial schools outside of Roanoke City, but in the Roanoke Metropolitan Area, include Roanoke Valley Christian Schools, Faith Christian School, Mineral Springs Christian School, Parkway Christian Academy, and Life Academy, all in Roanoke County.

Two four-year private institutions are situated in neighboring localities - Roanoke College in the city of Salem, and Hollins University in Roanoke County. Virginia Tech is located in neighboring Montgomery County. It has opened a higher education center in downtown Roanoke in cooperation with other colleges and universities, and the Virginia Tech Foundation owns the Hotel Roanoke. Virginia Tech is also opening a new medical school in South Roanoke in cooperation with Carilion Clinic, the regional non-profit health care organization based in Roanoke. Virginia Western Community College is located in the city of Roanoke, as is the Jefferson College of Health Sciences.

Economy

Roanoke's economy developed around the Norfolk and Western Railroad, with a strong emphasis on manufacturing. Roanoke's economic history also includes Sun Belt characteristics as it was once a center for the garment industry. Surrounding areas have traditionally relied on traditional industries of the rural South such as textiles and furniture manufacturing, which have lost jobs to offshore outsourcing. Despite Virginia's being a right to work state, unions have traditionally represented workers at many large employers in the Roanoke area and southwest Virginia.

Roanoke was formerly the headquarters of Norfolk and Western Railway until its merger with the Southern Railway created the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982. Norfolk Southern continues to operate its marketing headquarters and some maintenance facilities in Roanoke. Wachovia Bank, then known as First Union, acquired Roanoke based Dominion Bank in 1993 and maintains an operations and customer service center in Roanoke. Other firms such as Roanoke Electric Steel and architectural and engineering firm Hayes, Seay, Mattern and Mattern, (HSMM) have also been acquired by companies headquartered elsewhere. Roanoke's rates of economic and population growth have been less than the state and national averages since the 1960s. The immediate Roanoke area has a low unemployment rate, but a brain drain of workers unable to find satisfactory employment and underemployment are sometimes cited as explanations.

The City of Roanoke has created initiatives to address the brain drain of the region such as a database to match job seekers who wish to reside in the Roanoke area with employers looking for candidates. Additionally, a career and lifestyle fair has been held shortly after Christmas in recent years to show the professional and social opportunities in the area to those visiting family for the holidays. Also, organizations of young professionals such as Valley Forward and Newva Connects have emerged.

However, Roanoke's economy has areas of strength. The city is the health care and retail hub of a large area, driving the expansion of Carilion Health System and Valley View Mall. Advance Auto Parts is headquartered in Roanoke and has expanded through the acquisition of other chains to become one of the largest auto parts retailers in the country. Norfolk Southern remains a major employer. FreightCar America hired several hundred persons to assemble rail cars in shops leased from Norfolk Southern and has closed a plant in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in part because of the lower costs for the Roanoke facility. Recently though, the company laid off its Roanoke employees and said it plans to temporarily close the plant. The corporate office of Virginia Transformer Corporation (the leading transformer manufacturing company of USA) is situated in this city. General Electric and TMEIC GE manufacture large drive systems for electrical generation stations and factories at their joint facility in Salem. ITT manufactures night vision goggles at its plant in Roanoke County, and some of its employees have started other firms such as Optical Cable Corporation. The proximity of automotive assembly plants in the South has attracted manufacturers including Dynax, Koyo, Metalsa, and Yokohama, formerly Mohawk Tire. Roanoke's location allows for delivery within one day to most markets in the southeast, northeast, mid-atlantic, and Ohio Valley, which has made it a distribution center for such companies as Orvis, Elizabeth Arden, and Hanover Direct. United Parcel Service (UPS) maintains a major facility at the Roanoke Regional Airport. While the city of Roanoke has lost population, suburbs in Roanoke County, southern Botetourt County, and areas of Bedford County and Franklin County near Smith Mountain Lake have grown.

Kroger operates its Mid-Atlantic regional offices at 3631 Peter's Creek Road NW in Roanoke.

Top employers

According to Roanoke's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

! #	! Employer	! # of Employees
1	Carilion Clinic	1,000+
2	Roanoke City Public Schools	1,000+
3	City of Roanoke	1,000+
4	Carilion Professional Service	1,000+
5	United Parcel Service	500 to 999
6	Advance Auto Parts	500 to 999
7	Wal-Mart	500 to 999
8	United States Postal Service	500 to 999
9	Anthem (insurance)	500 to 999
10	[[Virginia Western Community College	500 to 999

Media

Print

Roanoke is the media hub for much of Southwestern Virginia and parts of Southern West Virginia.

The city's daily newspaper, ''The Roanoke Times'', has been published for 120 years and edited for many years in the twentieth century by famed editor John W. Eure. The newspaper's current owner is Landmark Communications. Weekday circulation averages a little over 90,000 with Sunday circulation around 103,000. In 2002, it was designated the best-read daily newspaper in the country, according to the 2002 Scarborough Report. Of 162 newspapers in top U.S. metropolitan areas, ''The Roanoke Times'' ranked first in the percentage of adults who read their daily newspaper. It ranked first again in 2006. ''The Roanoke Times'' established a web site in 1995 and has developed a web portal at Roanoke.com.

''The Roanoke Times'' also owns the ''Blue Ridge Business Journal'' which publishes 25 issues per year that focus on the business community in Roanoke and the surrounding region. The weekly ''Roanoke Tribune'' covers the city's African-American community. Main Street Newspapers publishes weekly newspapers for surrounding communities such as Salem, Vinton, southwest Roanoke County, and Botetourt County.

''The Roanoke Star-Sentinel'' is a weekly newspaper which covers the city of Roanoke. ''The South Roanoke Circle'' is an independent monthly newspaper for the neighborhood of South Roanoke.

''The Roanoker'' is the area's bi-monthly lifestyle magazine and is published by Leisure Publishing, which also publishes the bi-monthly ''Blue Ridge Country'' magazine.

Broadcast

Television

Roanoke and Lynchburg are grouped in the same television market, which currently ranks #67 in the United States with 440,398 households. There are affiliates for all networks as well as independent stations. Local CBS affiliate WDBJ-7, led by its 6 PM newscast, has been the traditional ratings leader, regardless of the national ratings for CBS, although local NBC affiliate WSLS-10 has gained ratings in recent years. While WDBJ-7 and WSLS-10 are in Roanoke, local ABC affiliate WSET-13 is in Lynchburg and its news coverage focuses on the eastern portion of the market.

Other stations in the market include Fox affiliate WFXR Fox 21/27 in Roanoke, PBS affiliate WBRA-15 in Roanoke, Liberty University's WTLU-19 in Lynchburg, independent WDRL-24 in Pelham, North Carolina, and ION Television affiliate WPXR-38 in Roanoke.

Radio

The following is a partial list of radio stations in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, which has a population of 412,300 and is ranked #115 in the US. For a more complete list see radio stations in the Roanoke area.

''format'' 89.1 90.3 91.3 92.3 93.5 94.9 96.3 99.1 100.1 101.5 102.7 101.7 106.1 104.9 107.9

colspan=5	FM stations
''call letters''	''frequency''	|	''location''	''Owner''
WVTF	|	Public Radio	Roanoke	Virginia Tech Foundation
WRXT	|	Christian Contemporary	Roanoke	Positive Alternative Radio
WPAR	|	Christian Contemporary	Salem	Positive Alternative Radio
WXLK-FM	WXLK	|	Top-40 Radio	Roanoke	Wheeler Broadcasting
WSNV	|	Adult Contemporary	Salem	Clear Channel
WSLC-FM	WSLC	|	Country	Roanoke	Wheeler Broadcasting
WROV-FM	WROV	|	Classic Rock	Martinsville/Roanoke	Clear Channel
WSLQ	|	Adult Contemporary	Roanoke	Wheeler Broadcasting
WVBE-FM	WVBE	|	Urban Adult Contemporary	Lynchburg	Wheeler Broadcasting
WZZI-FM	WZZI	|	Rock	Vinton	Centennial
WJJX	|	Rhythmic Top-40	Lynchburg	Clear Channel
WSNZ	|	Adult Contemporary	Appomattox/Lynchburg	Clear Channel
WSFF	|	Adult Contemporary	Roanoke	Clear Channel
WJJS	|	Rhythmic Top-40	Vinton	Clear Channel
WYYD	|	Country	Amherst	Clear Channel

{| class=wikitable |- ! colspan=5 | AM stations |- |''call letters'' || ''frequency'' || ''format'' || ''location'' || ''Owner'' |- |WVBE || 610 || Urban Contemporary || Roanoke || Wheeler Broadcasting |- |WWWR || 910 || Gospel Music || Roanoke || Perception Media |- |WFIR || 960 || News/Talk || Roanoke || Wheeler Broadcasting |- |WGMN || 1240 || Sports || Roanoke || Clear Channel |- |WRIS || 1410 || Religious || Roanoke |- |WTOY || 1480 || Urban Contemporary || Salem |}

Arts, history, and culture in Roanoke

Roanoke is the home to several artistic, cultural, and historical organizations.

Museums

Center in the Square was opened in downtown Roanoke on December 9, 1983 near the city market as part of the city's downtown revitalization effort. The Center, a converted warehouse, houses the History Museum of Western Virginia, which contains exhibits and artifacts related to the area's history and has a library of materials available to scholars and the public. The Center also houses the Science Museum of Western Virginia and the Hopkins Planetarium. The Science Museum maintains a permanent installation of neon sign art featuring the work of local Mark Jamison, the subject of Slash Coleman's PBS special "The Neon Man and Me."

Formerly housed in Center in the Square, the Taubman Museum of Art has now vacated the Center and opened a new facility at 110 Salem Avenue SE. The art museum features nineteenth and twentieth century American art, contemporary and modern art, decorative arts, and works on paper, and presents exhibitions of both regional and national significance. The new facility was designed by Los Angeles based architect Randall Stout, who earlier in his career worked under Frank Gehry. The new space opened on November 8, 2008. The facility's design sparked debate in the community between those who feel it is a bold, refreshing addition to Roanoke and those who feel its unusual, irregular design featuring sharp angles contrasts too strongly with the existing buildings. Some are also concerned about the facility's cost at a time when many Roanoke area artistic organizations face financial challenges. The Taubman Family, which established Advance Auto Parts contributed $15.2 million to the project. As a result, the museum was renamed The Taubman Museum of Art.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation houses many locomotives that were built in Roanoke, including the Norfolk and Western J class #611 and Norfolk & Western 1218 steam engines, and other locomotives and rolling stock. The museum also houses exhibits covering aviation, automobiles, and buses.

Roanoke's landmark former passenger rail station hosts the O. Winston Link Museum dedicated to the late steam-era railroad photography of O. Winston Link since 2004.

The Harrison Museum of African-American Culture is dedicated to the history and culture of Roanoke's African-American community and is currently located at a former school in the Gainsboro section of Roanoke. Gainsboro, originally Gainesborough for founder Major Kemp Gaines, was originally a separate community that petitioned for township status in 1835. The Harrison Museum will move to Center in the Square when the Art Museum of Western Virginia occupies its new facility.

Arts

Roanoke Children's Theatre is Roanoke's professional children's theatre. It can be found within the new Taubman Museum of Art in downtown Roanoke. The theatre delivers four shows a year that are geared towards a family audience. The theatre extends their programming in various arts outreach programs throughout the valley and surrounding areas.

Mill Mountain Theatre, a regional theatre, is located on the first floor of Center in the Square. As the name implies, the theatre was originally located on Mill Mountain from 1964 until 1976 when its original facility was destroyed by fire. The theatre has both a main stage for mainstream performances and a smaller black box theatre called Waldron Stage which hosts both newer and more experimental plays along with other live events. The best known events are an annual festival of new plays and the "No Shame Theatre" every Friday at 11 PM which is open to any performance that is "original, five minutes or less, and doesn’t break anything – people, the space, or laws." Mill Mountain Theatre has an atelier for visiting actors in a former downtown hotel. The Theatre is currently closed, citing mounting debts and flagging donations, however, it will re-open in December 2009 with a production of Annie Jr.

The Roanoke Civic Center's auditorium and newly renovated theatre, now known as the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, host concerts, touring Broadway theatre performances, the Miss Virginia pageant, and other events. The City's first permanent artwork funded by the Percent for Art ordinance stands before the theater. Dedicated in 2008, the stainless steel sculpture, "In My Hands," by Baltimore artist Rodney Carroll is one of more than 100 works in the City's public art catalogue.

The Shaftman Performance Hall, which opened in May 2001 and is located at the Jefferson Center, has become a prominent part of Roanoke's performing arts scene. Shaftman Hall hosts a regular season of concerts and other performances from the fall through the spring as well as other entertainment events and lectures. The Jefferson Center formerly served Roanoke as Jefferson High School and now also houses offices and display spaces for cultural organizations.

In November 2006, the former Dumas Hotel was reopened as the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development. The hotel is located on a segment of First Street NW commonly known as Henry Street. Located literally across the railroad tracks from the center of downtown Roanoke, Henry Street served as the commercial and cultural center of Roanoke's African American community prior to desegregation. The Dumas Hotel hosted such guests as Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole when they performed in Roanoke. The renovated Dumas Center houses an auditorium with more than 180 seats, the Downtown Music Lab: a recording studio and music education center for teens, the Dumas Drama Guild, and the offices of Opera Roanoke.

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra has performances at Shaftman Hall, the Salem Civic Center, and the Roanoke Civic Center. Current conductor David Wiley and his predecessor Victoria Bond have made the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra nationally respected.

The Grandin Theatre in the Grandin Village of Southwest Roanoke regularly screens art house films, family features, and mainstream movies. The Grandin Theatre was the home of Mill Mountain Theatre from 1976 until 1983.

Virginia Western Theatre has performances in Whitman Auditorium at Virginia Western Community College, and has been performing original and well known theatrical productions since 1968.

Roanoke has also been home to the Showtimers Community Theatre since 1951. The Star City Playhouse began performances in 2007 at its theatre on Williamson Road.

Sports in Roanoke

Professional

The 1971-1972 Virginia Squires of the ABA were the only major league sports team to regularly play home games in Roanoke. During the 1971-1972 season, the Squires split home games between Richmond, Norfolk, Hampton Roads, and Roanoke. Julius Erving played his professional rookie season with the Squires in 1971-1972.

Minor league baseball has been more successful in building and maintaining a fan base than have the Roanoke Valley's other minor league sports teams. In the 1940s and early 1950s, Roanoke was home to a class B farm team of the Boston Red Sox. Since 1955, neighboring Salem has hosted the local minor league baseball team, currently the Salem Red Sox of the high Class A Carolina League. The team had previously been affiliated with the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies and known as the Avalanche until becoming an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, whose ownership group purchased the Avalanche in 2007, for the 2009 season.

Minor league hockey has a history in the Roanoke Valley dating to the 1960s. It reached a zenith of popularity in the mid- to late-1990s with the Roanoke Express of the ECHL. The team's attendance declined due to a lack of post-season success and management turmoil. The Express folded after the 2003-2004 season.

The 2005-2006 revival by the UHL's Roanoke Valley Vipers failed after one season. The team had a losing record and the midwestern-based league was unable to rekindle the interest of the local fanbase. The team was formed to provide a travel partner for a UHL franchise in Richmond which also folded after the 2005-2006 season. The southeastern-based Southern Professional Hockey League, nearly all of whose teams are located in cities with former ECHL teams, may bring hockey back to the Roanoke Valley.

The Roanoke Dazzle of the NBDL and the Roanoke Steam of the af2 (Arena Football) folded after never developing consistent followings. The Dazzle's attendance was similar to other inaugural franchises in the league. It was one of the last two teams to remain in its original city. Over the years, Roanoke has also had teams in soccer and men's and women's semi-professional football.

Amateur

College

For a number of years, Roanoke, with Richmond and Norfolk, was one of the nominally neutral sites for the annual basketball game between the Virginia Cavaliers and Virginia Tech Hokies. During most of the 1970s through 1990s, the University of Virginia dominated the rivalry and as such tended to have significantly greater fan representation, despite Roanoke's closer proximity to Virginia Tech's home in Blacksburg. In the late 1990s, the schools started holding these games in their own campus facilities.

The Virginia Tech Hokies ice hockey team has used the Roanoke Civic Center as its regular season home venue, from 2006 to the present season. In 2010, the Roanoke College ice hockey team began using the Roanoke Civic Center as its home venue as well.

From the 1940s through the late 1960s, Roanoke's Victory Stadium hosted an annual Thanksgiving Day game between Virginia Tech and the Virginia Military Institute and other high profile college football games. From 1946 to 1950, Victory Stadium also hosted the South's Oldest Rivalry between the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina.

Preps

Patrick Henry High School is a member of the AAA Western Valley District. The Patriots won Group AAA state titles in men's basketball in 1988 and 1992, football in 1973, and men's tennis in 2004. George Lynch and Curtis Staples are among the athletes who have attended the school.

William Fleming High School is also a member of the AAA Western Valley District. The Colonels have established strong programs in men's basketball and football with a Group AA state championship in men's basketball in 2007 and two state runner-up seasons in both sports over the last 15 years. Lee Suggs graduated from Fleming.

Roanoke Catholic High School is a member of the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association. The Celtics won a VISAA football state championship in 1994 and have recently fielded strong men's basketball teams, often with foreign players, and have produced college players such as Virginia's J.R. Reynolds. The Celtics have won 3 VIS Basketball championships in the past years.

North Cross School is also a member of the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association. The Raiders won a VISAA soccer state championship in 2007, a VISAA football state championship in 2008, and a VISAA wrestling state championship in 2009. The Raiders have won 3 basketball championships, 4 football championships, and many other state awards in the past years.

The city has constructed separate on-campus football stadiums at the schools to replace Victory Stadium, which was demolished in summer 2006. Patriot Stadium was opened for the 2007 season and a currently unnamed stadium on the William Fleming campus will open for the 2008 season. The field at Patriot Stadium was named after Merrill Gainer, who coached Patrick Henry to the 1973 state championship.

Festivals

Roanoke and surrounding communities host the annual Commonwealth Games of Virginia, an Olympic-style amateur sports festival. Beginning in 2010, the Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway is scheduled to be held in the city.

Economic statistics: Roanoke MSA

The Roanoke, VA MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Virginia as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of June, 2003.

''Note: Since a state constitutional change in 1871, all cities in Virginia are independent cities and they are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents for the purpose of defining MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order, and not by size.''

The Roanoke, VA MSA includes:

Botetourt County

Craig County

Franklin County

Roanoke County

City of Roanoke

City of Salem

Town of Vinton

Nicknames

Many businesses and organizations adopted Star City in their names, after the Mill Mountain Star. The older Magic City is still used, most prominently by Roanoke's Ford dealership. The city's original name of Big Lick is often used in whimsical contexts.

Roanoke's status as the largest city in a mountainous area led to the nickname Capital of the Blue Ridge.

Sister cities

Roanoke has seven sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:

Florianópolis, Brazil Kisumu, Kenya Lijiang, Yunnan, China Pskov, Russia Saint-Lô, France Wonju, South Korea Opole, Poland

Notable residents

Born in Roanoke: Astrophysicist and Nobel laureate John C. Mather, one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2009

United States Ambassador to Romania Nicholas Taubman

American artist John Alan Maxwell

Wrestler Tony Atlas

Twin NFL players Ronde Barber and Tiki Barber (Roanoke County)

MLB outfielder Billy Sample

model and actress Tai Collins

Singer Ross Copperman (Roanoke County)

Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler

Entrepreneur Cameron Johnson

Former United States Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson

Durell Coleman, Star Search Winner, recording artist & bandleader

Famous medical patient Henrietta Lacks

NBA basketball player George Lynch (city)

Actor John Payne

Former Basketball player Curtis Staples (city)

Former NHL Defensemen Eric Weinrich

NFL football player Lee Suggs

Former Arsenal FC soccer player Daniel Karbassiyoon

Former Tennis Professional K. J. Hippensteel

NFL football player John St. Clair

Raised in Roanoke:

Singer Wayne Newton

McAfee founder John McAfee

NBA basketball player J. J. Redick (Roanoke County)

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association

One-time resident:

Former South African Tennis Professional Johan Kriek

Former Miss America Nicole Johnson Baker

Author Nelson S. Bond

Civil rights attorney Oliver Hill

Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon

Playwright Kermit Hunter

Mathematician and Nobel laureate John Forbes Nash

Movie actress Debbie Reynolds (metro area)

American National Socialist Workers' Party Commander (neo-Nazi) Bill White

Opera Soprano Elizabeth Futral (metro area)

Early 20th century African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux

Landmarks and points of interest

Blue Ridge Parkway

Grandin Village

Hollins University

Hotel Roanoke

Mill Mountain Star

Mill Mountain Zoo

O. Winston Link Museum

Old Southwest Neighborhood

Roanoke Historic Farmers Market

Roanoke Weiner Stand

Roanoke's Historical Fire Station #1

St. Andrews Catholic Church, State and National Landmark

Taubman Museum of Art

Texas Tavern

Virginia's Explore Park

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Roanoke, Virginia

References

Further reading

Dotson, Rand. ''Roanoke, Virginia, 1882-1912: Magic City of the New South'' (2008)

External links

AIR Temporary Exhibition

The History of the Roanoke Fire Department in progress from the 1880s to present, with current news and links

A modern history of Roanokers sharing their connection with the Star City

Old Roanoke - A photographic history of Roanoke Virginia

Old Roanoke Pictures catalogued by a local family

The Lendy's Web Page

Roanoke - Star City

The 1240 WROV History Site

The Kenney's Web Page

Center in the Square

Brief history and modern panoramic photos from the Roanoke Civil War Round Table

Roanoke Wants U!

Taubman Museum of Art

Category:Cities in Virginia * Category:Roanoke metropolitan area

ang:Rōƿrenoc, Virginia de:Roanoke (Virginia) es:Roanoke (Virginia) fr:Roanoke (Virginie) it:Roanoke (Virginia) ht:Roanoke, Vijini mr:रोआनोक, व्हर्जिनिया nl:Roanoke (Virginia) ja:ロアノーク (バージニア州) nds:Roanoke (Virginia) pl:Roanoke (Wirginia) pt:Roanoke (Virgínia) ru:Роанок (Виргиния) simple:Roanoke, Virginia fi:Roanoke (Virginia) sv:Roanoke, Virginia vi:Roanoke, Virginia vo:Roanoke (Virginia) zh:羅阿諾克 (維吉尼亞州)

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
conventional long name	Roanoke Colony
common name	Roanoke
continent	North America
region	New add
country	United States of America
status	colony
empire	England
government type	Monarchy
title representative	Governor
legislature	General Court
common languages	English
religion	Church of England
year start	1585
year end	Unknown
event1	Birth of Virginia Dare
date event1	18 August 1587
image map caption	A map of the Roanoke area, by John White
s1	}}

The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island in Dare County, present-day North Carolina, United States was a late 16th-century attempt to establish a permanent English settlement in what later became the Virginia Colony. The enterprise was financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh and carried out by Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville, Raleigh's distant cousin. The final group of colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. The settlement is known as "The Lost Colony," and the fate of the colonists is still unknown.

Raleigh's charter

On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the colonization of the area of North America known as Virginia. This charter specified that Raleigh had seven years in which to establish a settlement in North America, or lose his right to colonization. Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World and a base from which to send privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain. Raleigh himself never visited North America, although he led expeditions in 1595 and 1617 to South America's Orinoco River basin in search of the legendary golden city of El Dorado.

First voyages to Roanoke Island

On April 27, 1584, Raleigh dispatched an expedition led by Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the Eastern coast of North America. They arrived on Roanoke Island on July 4, and soon established relations with the local natives, the Secotans and Croatans. Barlowe returned to England with two Croatans named Manteo and Wanchese, who were able to describe the politics and geography of the area to Raleigh. Based on this information, Raleigh organized a second expedition, to be led by Sir Richard Grenville.

Grenville's fleet departed Plymouth on April 9, 1585, with five main ships: the ''Tiger'' (Grenville's), the ''Roebuck'', the ''Red Lion'', the ''Elizabeth'', and the ''Dorothy''. Unfortunately, a severe storm off the coast of Portugal separated the ''Tiger'' from the rest of the fleet. The captains had a contingency plan if they were separated, which was to meet up again in Puerto Rico, and the ''Tiger'' arrived in the "Baye of Muskito" (Guayanilla Bay) on May 11. While waiting for the other ships, Grenville established relations with the Spanish there while simultaneously engaging in some privateering against them, and also built a fort. The ''Elizabeth'' arrived soon after the fort's construction. Eventually, Grenville tired of waiting for the remaining ships, and departed on June 7. The fort was abandoned, and its location remains unknown.

When the ''Tiger'' sailed through Ocracoke Inlet on June 26, it struck a shoal, ruining most of the food supplies. They were able to repair the ship and in early July, were reunited with the ''Roebuck'' and ''Dorothy'', both of which had arrived in the Outer Banks some weeks previous. The ''Red Lion'' had been with them, but had merely dropped off its passengers and left for Newfoundland for privateering.

After the initial exploration of the mainland coast and the native settlements there, the natives of the village of Aquascogoc were blamed for stealing a silver cup. In retaliation, the village was sacked and burned. English writer and courtier Richard Hakluyt's contemporary reports of the first voyage to Virginia, compiled from accounts by various financial backers including Sir Walter Raleigh (Hakluyt himself never traveled to the New World) also describes this incident.

Despite this incident and a lack of food, Grenville decided to leave Ralph Lane and 107 men to establish the colony at the north end of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with more men and fresh supplies. They disembarked on August 17, 1585. Lane built a small fort on the island and ordered the surrounding areas to be explored. There are no surviving pictures of the Roanoke fort, but it was likely similar in structure to the one in Guayanilla Bay.

As April 1586 passed, there was no sign of Grenville's relief fleet. Meanwhile in June, bad blood from the stolen cup incident spurred an attack on the fort, which the colonists were able to repel. Soon after the attack, when Sir Francis Drake paused on his way home from a successful raid in the Caribbean and offered to take the colonists, including the metallurgist Joachim Gans, back to England, they accepted. On this return voyage, the Roanoke colonists introduced tobacco, maize, and potatoes. The relief fleet arrived shortly after Drake's departure with the colonists. Finding the colony abandoned, Grenville returned to England with the bulk of his force, leaving behind a small detachment both to maintain an English presence and to protect Raleigh's claim to Virginia.

Additional voyages to Roanoke Colony

In 1587, Raleigh dispatched another group of 150 colonists to establish a colony somewhere on Chesapeake Bay. They were led by John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh's who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke. John White was later appointed Governor and Raleigh appointed him 12 assistants to aid in Roanoke's colonization. They were ordered to travel to Roanoke first to gather Grenville's men, and they arrived there on July 22, 1587. They found nothing except a skeleton that may have been the remains of one of the garrison. They were counting on these men to help with the affairs of the new colony, but when all of their efforts turned up nothing, they gave up without hope of ever seeing Grenville's men living. At this point, the fleet's commander, Simon Fernandez, refused to let the colonists re-board the ships, insisting that they establish the colony on Roanoke. His motive for doing so remains unclear.

With no choice but to make do, White re-established relations with the neighboring Croatans and tried to re-establish relations with the tribes that Ralph Lane had battled with a year previously. The aggrieved tribes refused to meet the new colonists. Shortly thereafter, a colonist named George Howe was killed by natives while searching for crabs alone in Albemarle Sound. Knowing what had happened during Ralph Lane's tenure in the area and fearing for their lives, the colonists persuaded Governor White to return to England to explain the colony's situation and ask for help. There were approximately 115 colonists—the 114 remaining men and women who had made the trans-Atlantic passage and White's new infant granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas—when White returned to England.

White returns to England

In late 1587, White sailed for England. Crossing the Atlantic as late in the year as White did was a considerable risk, as evidenced by Fernandez's claim that their vessel barely made it back. Plans for a relief fleet were initially delayed by the captain's refusal to sail back during the winter. Then, the coming of the Spanish Armada led to every able ship in England being commandeered to fight, which left White with no seaworthy vessels available to return to Roanoke. He did manage, however, to hire two smaller vessels deemed unnecessary for the defense and set out for Roanoke in the spring of 1588. This time, White's attempt to return to Roanoke was foiled by human nature and circumstance; the two vessels were small, and their captains greedy. They attempted to capture several Spanish ships on the outward-bound voyage to improve the profitability of their venture, but were captured themselves and their cargo taken. With nothing left to deliver to the colonists, the captains returned to England.

Return to the Lost Colony

Because of the continuing war with Spain, White was not able to mount another resupply attempt for three more years. He finally gained passage on a privateering expedition that agreed to stop off at Roanoke on the way back from the Caribbean. White landed on August 18, 1590, on his granddaughter's third birthday, but found the settlement deserted. His men could not find any trace of the 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children, nor was there any sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort and "Cro" carved into a nearby tree. All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, which meant their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. As there was no cross, White took this to mean they had moved to "Croatoan Island" (now known as Hatteras Island), but he was unable to conduct a search. A massive storm was brewing and his men refused to go any further. The next day, they left.

Thomas Harriot

Born in 1560, Thomas Harriot entered Raleigh's employment in the early 1580s, after graduating from Oxford University. While he did not accompany them on the first voyage, Harriot may have been among the men of Arthur Barlowe's 1584 expedition of the colony. He trained the members of Raleigh's first Roanoke expedition in navigational skills and eventually sailed to Roanoke with the second group of settlers, where his skills as a naturalist became particularly important along with those of painter and settlement leader John White. Between their arrival in Roanoke in April 1585 and the July of 1586, Harriot and White both conducted detailed studies of the Roanoke area, with Harriot compiling his samples and notes into several notebooks that unfortunately did not survive the colony's disappearance. However, Harriot also took descriptions of the surrounding flora and fauna of the area, which survive in his work ''A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia,'' written as a report on the colony's progress to the English government on the request of Raleigh. Viewed as propaganda for the colony by modern historians, this work has become vastly important to Roanoke's history not only because of Harriot's observations on wildlife, but also because of his depictions of Indian activities at the time of the colony's disappearance. In the text, Harriot reports that relations between the Roanoke Indians and the English settlers were mutually calm and prosperous, contradicting other historical evidence that catalogues the bloody struggles between the Roanoke Indians and both of Raleigh's commanders, Sir Richard Grenville and his successor Ralph Lane. Harriot recounts little to none of these accounts in his report to England and does not mention the disorderly state of the colony under either Grenville's or Lane's tenure, correctly assuming these facts would prevent Roanoke from gaining more settlers. Ironically, Harriot's text did not reach England, or the English press, until the year of 1588, by which time the fate of the "Lost Colony" was sealed in all but name.

Investigations

Twelve years passed before Raleigh decided to find out what happened to his colony. Led by Samuel Mace, this 1602 expedition differed from previous voyages in that Raleigh bought his own ship and guaranteed the sailors' wages so that they would not be distracted by privateering. However, Raleigh still hoped to make money from the trip, and Mace's ship landed in the Outer Banks to gather aromatic woods or plants such as sassafras that would generate a decent profit back in England. By the time they could turn their attention to the colonists, the weather had turned bad and they were forced to return without even making it to Roanoke Island. Having been arrested by King James I for treason, Raleigh was unable to send any further missions.

Meanwhile, the Spanish had different reasons for wanting to find the colony. Knowing of Raleigh's plans to use Roanoke as a base for privateering, they were hoping to destroy it. Moreover, they had been getting mostly inaccurate reports of activities there, and as such they imagined the colony to be far more successful than it really was. In 1590, they found the remnants of the colony purely by accident, but assumed it was only an outlying base of the main settlement, which they believed was in the Chesapeake Bay area (John White's intended location). But just as the Anglo-Spanish War prevented White from returning in a timely manner, Spanish authorities in the New World could not muster enough support back home for such a venture.

Hypotheses regarding the disappearance of Roanoke

The end of the 1587 colony is unrecorded, leading to it being referred to as the "Lost Colony", and there are multiple hypotheses as to the fate of the colonists. The principal hypothesis is that they dispersed and were absorbed by either the local Croatans on Hatteras Island, or another Algonquian people; it has yet to be established if they did assimilate with one or other of the native populations.

Integration with local tribes

In her 2000 book ''Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony,'' historian Lee Miller postulated that some of the Lost Colony survivors sought shelter with the Chowanoke, that was attacked by another tribe, identified by the Jamestown Colony as the "Mandoag" (an Algonquian name commonly given to enemy nations). The "Mandoag" are believed to be either the Tuscarora, an Iroquois-speaking tribe, or the Eno, also known as the Wainoke.

The so-called "Zuniga Map" (named for Pedro de Zúñiga, the Spanish ambassador to England, who had secured a copy and passed it on to Philip III of Spain), drawn circa 1607 by the Jamestown settler Francis Nelson, also gives credence to this claim. The map states "four men clothed that came from roonock" were living in an Iroquois site on the Neuse. William Strachey, a secretary of the Jamestown Colony, wrote in his ''The historie of travaile into Virginia Britannia'' in 1612 that, at the Indian settlements of Peccarecanick and Ochanahoen, there were reportedly two-story houses with stone walls. The Indians supposedly learned how to build them from the Roanoke settlers. There were also reported sightings of European captives at various Indian settlements during the same time period. Strachey wrote in 1612 that four English men, two boys, and one maid had been sighted at the Eno settlement of Ritanoc, under the protection of a chief called Eyanoco. The captives were forced to beat copper. The captives, he reported, had escaped the attack on the other colonists and fled up the Chaonoke river, the present-day Chowan River in Bertie County, North Carolina. For four hundred years, various authors have speculated that the captive girl was Virginia Dare.

John Lawson wrote in his 1709 ''A New Voyage to Carolina'' that the Croatans living on Hatteras Island used to live on Roanoke Island and that they claimed to have had white ancestors:

A farther Confirmation of this we have from the Hatteras Indians, who either then lived on Ronoak-Island, or much frequented it. These tell us, that several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book, as we do; the Truth of which is confirm'd by gray Eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians, and no others. They value themselves extremely for their Affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly Offices. It is probable, that this Settlement miscarry'd for want of timely Supplies from England; or thro' the Treachery of the Natives, for we may reasonably suppose that the English were forced to cohabit with them, for Relief and Conversation; and that in process of Time, they conform'd themselves to the Manners of their Indian Relations.

From the early 17th century to the middle 18th century European colonists reported encounters with gray-eyed American Indians who claimed descent from the colonists (although at least one, a story of a Welsh priest who met a Doeg warrior who spoke the Welsh language, is likely to be a hoax). Records from French Huguenots who settled along the Tar River in 1696 tell of meeting Tuscaroras with blond hair and blue eyes not long after their arrival. As Jamestown was the nearest English settlement and they had no record of being attacked by Tuscarora, the likelihood that origin of those fair-skinned natives was the Lost Colony is high.

In the late 1880s, North Carolina state legislator Hamilton McMillan discovered that his "redbones" (those of Indian blood) neighbors in Robeson County claimed to have been descended from the Roanoke settlers. He also noticed that many of the words in their language had striking similarities to obsolete English words. Furthermore, many of the family names were identical to those listed in Hakluyt's account of the colony. Thus on February 10, 1885, convinced that these were the descendants of the Lost Colony, he helped to pass the "Croatan bill", that officially designated the Native American population around Robeson county as Croatan. Two days later on February 12, 1885, the ''Fayetteville Observer'' published an article regarding the Robeson Native Americans' origins. This article states:

"...They say that their traditions say that the people we call the Croatan Indians (though they do not recognize that name as that of a tribe, but only a village, and that they were Tuscaroras), were always friendly to the whites; and finding them destitute and despairing of ever receiving aid from England, persuaded them to leave [Roanoke Island], and go to the mainland... They gradually drifted away from their original seats, and at length settled in Robeson, about the center of the county..."

However, the case was far from settled. A similar legend claims that the now-extinct Saponi of Person County, North Carolina, are descended from the English colonists of Roanoke Island. Indeed, when these Native Americans were last encountered by subsequent settlers, they noted that these Native Americans already spoke English and were aware of the Christian religion. The historical surnames of this group also correspond with those who lived on Roanoke Island, and many exhibit European physical features along with Native American features. However, no documented evidence exists to link the Saponi to the Roanoke colonists.

Other tribes that claim partial descent from surviving Roanoke colonists include the Catawba (who absorbed the Shakori and Eno people), and the Coree and the Lumbee tribes. The Lost Colony DNA Project was established to test all of these claims.

Furthermore, Samuel A'Court Ashe was convinced that the colonists had relocated westward to the banks of the Chowan River in Bertie County, and Conway Whittle Sams claimed that after being attacked by Wanchese and Powhatan, the colonists scattered to multiple locations: the Chowan River, and south to the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers.

Other theories

Chesepians

Historian David Beers Quinn hypothesized that the colony moved wholesale and was later destroyed. When Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in Virginia in 1607, one of their assigned tasks was to locate the Roanoke colonists. The weroance Chief Powhatan told Captain Smith about his Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy, and went on to say that he had wiped out the Roanoke colonists just prior to the arrival of the Jamestown settlers because they were living with the Chesepian, a tribe living in the eastern portion of the present-day South Hampton Roads sub-region who, besides having refused to join Chief Powhatan's Powhatan Confederacy, were also prophesied to rise up and destroy his empire.

Chief Powhatan reportedly produced several English-made iron implements to back his claim, but no bodies were found and no archaeological evidence has been found to support this claim, however, and that which was found at a Chesepian village site in Great Neck Point in present-day Virginia Beach suggests that the Chesepian tribe was related to the Pamlico in Carolina, rather than the Powhatans. There were also reports of a Native American burial mound in the Pine Beach area of Sewell's Point in present day Norfolk, Virginia, where the principal Chesepian village of Skioak may have been located.

Lost at sea, starvation

One possibility is that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England on their own, and perished in the attempt. When Governor White left in 1587, he left the colonists with a pinnace and several small ships for exploration of the coast or removal of the colony to the mainland.

Cannibalism

Archaeologist Lawrence Stager has suggested that the colony might have been attacked and its members eaten by cannibals.

Spanish

Another theory is that the Spanish destroyed the colony. Earlier in the century, the Spanish did destroy evidence of the French colony of Fort Charles in coastal South Carolina and then massacred the inhabitants of Fort Caroline, a French colony in present-day Jacksonville, Florida. However, this is unlikely, as the Spanish were still looking for the location of England's failed colony as late as 1600, ten years after White discovered that the colony was missing.

Dare Stones

From 1937 to 1941 a series of stones were discovered that claimed to have been written by Eleanor Dare, mother of Virginia Dare. They told of the travelings of the colonists and their ultimate deaths. Most historians believe that they are a fraud, but there are some today that still believe the stones are genuine.

Archaeological evidence

In 1998, East Carolina University organized "The Croatoan Project", an archaeological investigation into the events at Roanoke. The excavation team sent to the island uncovered a 10 carat (42%) gold 16th century English signet ring, gun flints, and two 16th century copper farthings at the site of the ancient Croatoan capital, 50 miles (80 km) from the old Roanoke colony. Genealogists were able to trace the lion crest on the signet ring to the Kendall coat of arms, and concluded that the ring most likely belonged to one Master Kendall who is recorded as having lived in the Ralph Lane colony on Roanoke Island from 1585 to 1586. If this is the case, the ring represents the first material connection between the Roanoke colonists and the Native Americans on Hatteras Island.

It is also believed that the reason for the extreme deficiency in archaeological evidence is due to shoreline erosion. Since all that was found was a rustic looking fort on the north shore, and this location is well documented and backed up, it is commonly believed that the settlement must have been nearby. The northern shore, between 1851 and 1970, lost 928 feet because of erosion. If in the years leading up to and following the brief life of the settlement at Roanoke, shoreline erosion was following the same trend, it is likely the site of dwellings is underwater, along with any artifacts or signs of life.

Lost Colony DNA Project

The Lost Colony DNA Project is an ongoing effort underway by the Lost Colony of Roanoke DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA of Houston, TX. The project will use DNA testing to help determine whether some Lost Colony survivors assimilated with the local Native American tribes either through adoption or enslavement. The project will attempt to locate and test as many potential descendants as possible. Testing is also planned for some of the recovered remains.

Climate factors

Also in 1998, a team led by climatologist David W. Stahle, of the University of Arkansas, Department of Geography, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and archaeologist Dennis B. Blanton, of the Center for Archaeological Research at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, used tree ring cores from 800-year-old bald cypresses taken from the Roanoke Island area of North Carolina and the Jamestown area of Virginia to reconstruct precipitation and temperature chronologies.

The researchers concluded that the settlers of the Lost Colony landed at Roanoke Island in the summer of the worst growing-season drought in 800 years. "This drought persisted for 3 years, from 1587 to 1589, and is the driest 3-year episode in the entire 800-year reconstruction," the team reported in the journal ''Science''. A map shows that "the Lost Colony drought affected the entire southeastern United States but was particularly severe in the Tidewater region near Roanoke [Island]." The authors suggested that the Croatan who were shot and killed by the colonists may have been scavenging the abandoned village for food as a result of the drought.

Portrayals and re-enactments

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green wrote ''The Lost Colony'' in 1937 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare. The play presents a conjecture of the fate of Roanoke Colony. It has played at Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island nearly continuously since, with the only interruption being during World War II. Alumni of the cast include Andy Griffith (who played Sir Walter Raleigh), William Ivey Long, Chris Elliott, Terrence Mann, and ''Daily Show'' correspondent Dan Bakkedahl.

See also

Timeline of the colonization of North America

References

;Notes

;Further reading This volume contains practically everything known about the Croatan language spoken on Roanoke Island.

Miller, Lee, ''Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony'' Retrieved April 2011

Critically acclaimed account, based on contemporary travel accounts from 1497–1611, of attempts to establish a colony in the Roanoke area.

External links

The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research

Category:Algonquian loanwords Category:British colonization of the Americas Category:Former English colonies Category:Dare County, North Carolina Category:Missing people Category:Ghost towns in North Carolina Category:Pre-state history of North Carolina Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies Category:Lost cities and towns Category:Unexplained disappearances Category:States and territories established in 1585

bg:Роаноук (колония) de:Roanoke (Kolonie) es:Roanoke (colonia) eo:Kolonio Roanoke fr:Colonie de Roanoke ko:로어노크 식민지 it:Colonia di Roanoke he:מושבת רואנוק mk:Роанок nl:Roanoke (kolonie) ja:ロアノーク植民地 pl:Roanoke (kolonia) pt:Colônia de Roanoke ro:Colonia Roanoke ru:Роанок sv:Roanoke-kolonin

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Bill Monroe
background	solo_singer
birth name	William Smith Monroe
alias	Bill Monroe |"The Father of Bluegrass Music"
birth date	September 13, 1911
death date	September 09, 1996
origin	Rosine, Kentucky, USA
instrument	Mandolin
genre	bluegrass, bluegrass gospel
occupation	Bluegrass artist
years active	1930s–1996
label	|
associated acts	|
website	|
current members	Country Music Hall of Fame International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |
past members	Grand Ole Opry (1939 – 1996) The Monroe Brothers Blue Grass Boys |
notable instruments	Mandolin '''Gibson F5 }}

William Smith Monroe (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as The Father of Bluegrass.

Early life

Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill Monroe was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin. He recalled that his brothers insisted he remove four of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly.

Monroe's mother died when he was ten, followed by his father six years later. As his brothers and sisters had moved away, after bouncing among uncles and aunts, Monroe settled in with his, now disabled, uncle Pendleton Vandiver, often accompanying him when Vandiver played the fiddle at dances. This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen," recorded in 1950 and released on the 1972 album, "Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen." On that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Uncle Pen has been credited with giving Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones." Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.

Professional career

In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch and Charlie. Together with a friend Larry Moore, they formed a musical group, the Monroe Brothers, to play at local dances and house parties. Birch Monroe and Larry Moore soon left the group, and Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo, eventually winning spots performing live on radio stations— first in Indiana and then, sponsored by Texas Crystals, on several radio broadcasts in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and North Carolina 1934 to 1936. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936. They scored an immediate hit single with the gospel song "What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul?" and ultimately recorded 60 tracks for Victor's Bluebird label between 1936 and 1938.

After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months. Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia, to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and bassist Amos Garren. In October 1939, he successfully auditioned for a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry, impressing Opry founder George D. Hay with his energetic performance of Jimmie Rodgers's "Mule Skinner Blues". Monroe recorded that song, along with seven others, at his first solo recording session for RCA Victor in 1940; by this time, the Blue Grass Boys consisted of singer/guitarist Clyde Moody, fiddler Tommy Magness, and bassist Bill Wesbrooks.

While the fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity characteristic of bluegrass music are apparent even on these early tracks, Monroe was still experimenting with the sound of his group. He seldom sang lead vocals on his Victor recordings, often preferring to contribute high tenor harmonies as he had in the Monroe Brothers. A 1945 session for Columbia Records featured an accordion, soon dropped from the band. Most importantly, while Monroe added banjo player David "'Stringbean" Akeman to the Blue Grass Boys in 1942, Akeman played the instrument in a relatively primitive style and was rarely featured in instrumental solos. Monroe's pre-1946 recordings represent a transitional style between the string-band tradition from which he came and the musical innovation to follow.

The "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star

A key development occurred in Monroe's music with the addition of North Carolina banjo prodigy Earl Scruggs to the Blue Grass Boys in December 1945. Scruggs played the instrument with a distinctive three-finger picking style that immediately caused a sensation among Opry audiences. Scruggs joined a highly accomplished group that included singer/guitarist Lester Flatt, fiddler Chubby Wise, and bassist Howard Watts, who often performed under the name "Cedric Rainwater." In retrospect, this lineup of the Blue Grass Boys has been dubbed the "Original Bluegrass Band," as Monroe's music finally included all the elements that characterize the genre, including breakneck tempos, sophisticated vocal harmony arrangements, and impressive instrumental proficiency demonstrated in solos or "breaks" on the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. By this point, Monroe had acquired the 1923 Gibson F5 model "Lloyd Loar" mandolin which became his trademark instrument for the remainder of his career.

The 28 songs recorded by this version of the Blue Grass Boys for Columbia Records in 1946 and 1947 soon became classics of the genre, including "Toy Heart," "Blue Grass Breakdown," "Molly and Tenbrooks", "Wicked Path of Sin," "My Rose of Old Kentucky," "Little Cabin Home on the Hill," and Monroe's most famous song, "Blue Moon of Kentucky". The last-named was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1954, appearing as the B-side of his first single for Sun Records. Monroe gave his blessing to Presley's rock-and-roll cover of the song, originally a slow ballad in waltz time, and in fact re-recorded it himself with a faster arrangement after Presley's version became a hit. Several gospel-themed numbers are credited to the "Blue Grass Quartet," which featured four-part vocal arrangements accompanied solely by mandolin and guitar — Monroe's usual practice when performing "sacred" songs.

Both Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe's band in early 1948, soon forming their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys, which met with notable commercial success in the 1950s and 1960s with such hits as "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", "Cabin on the Hill," and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett". In 1949, after signing with Decca Records, Monroe quickly regrouped, entering the "golden age" of his career with what many consider the classic "high lonesome" version of the Blue Grass Boys, featuring the lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Jimmy Martin, the banjo of Rudy Lyle (replacing Earl Scruggs), and fiddlers such as Merle "Red" Taylor, Charlie Cline, Bobby Hicks and Vassar Clements. This band recorded a number of bluegrass classics, including "My Little Georgia Rose," "On and On," "Memories of Mother and Dad," and "Uncle Pen," as well as instrumentals such as "Roanoke", "Big Mon", "Stoney Lonesone", "Get Up John" and the mandolin feature "Raw Hide." Carter Stanley joined the Blue Grass Boys as guitarist for a short time in 1951 during a period when the Stanley Brothers had temporarily disbanded.

On January 16, 1953 Monroe was critically injured in a two-car wreck. He and "Bluegrass Boys" bass player, Bessie Lee Mauldin, were returning home from a fox hunt north of Nashville. On highway 31-W, near White House, their car was struck by a drunken driver. Monroe, who had suffered injuries to his back, left arm and nose, was rushed to General Hospital in Nashville. It took him almost four months to recover and resume touring. In the meantime Charlie Cline and Jimmy Martin kept the band together.

By the late 1950s, however, Monroe's commercial fortunes had begun to slip. The rise of rock-and-roll and the development of the "Nashville sound" in mainstream country music both represented threats to the viability of bluegrass. While still a mainstay on the Grand Ole Opry, Monroe found diminishing success on the singles charts, and struggled to keep his band together in the face of declining demand for live performances.

The folk revival

Monroe's fortunes began to improve during the "folk revival" of the early 1960s. Many college students and other young people were beginning to discover Monroe, associating his style more with traditional folk music than with the country-and-western genre with which it had previously been identified. The word "bluegrass" first appeared around this time to describe the sound of Monroe and similar artists such as Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, Jim and Jesse, and the Osborne Brothers. While Flatt and Scruggs immediately recognized the potential for a lucrative new audience in cities and on college campuses in the North, Monroe was slower to respond. Under the influence of Ralph Rinzler, a young musician and folklorist from New Jersey who briefly became Monroe's manager in 1963, Monroe gradually expanded his geographic reach beyond the traditional southern country music circuit. Rinzler was also responsible for a lengthy profile and interview in the influential folk music magazine Sing Out! that first publicly referred to Monroe as the "father" of bluegrass. Accordingly, at the first bluegrass festival organized by Carlton Haney at Roanoke, Virginia in 1965, Bill Monroe was the central figure.

The growing national popularity of Monroe's music during the 1960s was also apparent in the increasingly diverse background of musicians recruited into his band. Non-southerners who served as Blue Grass Boys during this period included banjo player Bill Keith and singer/guitarist Peter Rowan from Massachusetts, fiddler Gene Lowinger from New York, banjo player Lamar Grier from Maryland, banjo player Steve Arkin from New York, and singer/guitarist Roland White and fiddler Richard Greene from California.

Later years

Even after the folk revival faded in the mid-1960s, it left a loyal audience for bluegrass music. Bluegrass festivals became common, with fans often traveling long distances to see a number of different acts over several days of performances.

In 1967 Monroe himself founded an annual bluegrass festival at Bean Blossom in southern Indiana, a park he had purchased in 1951, which routinely attracted a crowd of thousands; a double LP from the festival featuring Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Lester Flatt, and Jim and Jesse was released in 1973. The annual ''Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival'' is now the world's oldest continuously running annual bluegrass festival.

Monroe's compositions during his later period were largely instrumentals, including "Jerusalem Ridge", "Old Dangerfield", and "My Last Days on Earth"; he settled into a new role as a musical patriarch who continued to influence younger generations of musicians. Monroe recorded two albums of duets in the 1980s; the first featured collaborations with country stars such as Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, and the Oak Ridge Boys, while the second paired him with other prominent bluegrass musicians. A 1989 live album celebrated his 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry. Monroe also kept a hectic touring schedule. On April 7, 1990, Monroe performed for Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Indiana along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and with many other artists.

Death

Monroe suffered a stroke in April 1996, effectively ending his touring and playing career. He died on September 9, 1996, only four days before his 85th birthday. Emmylou Harris said of Monroe after his death:

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Awards and legacy

Bill Monroe was made an honorary Kentucky colonel in 1966. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as an "early influence") in 1997. Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams Sr., and Johnny Cash are the only other performers honored in all three. As the "father of bluegrass," he was also an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995. His well-known song "Blue Moon of Kentucky" has been covered not only by bluegrass but also rock and country artists, most notably Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, and Patsy Cline. In 2003, CMT had Bill Monroe ranked #16 on ''CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country Music''. Artists that claimed to be influenced by or to be playing the bluegrass genre were often bullied by Bill Monroe. He always considered himself the father and caretaker of bluegrass. He would often say of new bands that did not perform to his standards, "That ain't no part of nothin'." Even those who question the scope of bluegrass refer to Monroe as a "musical giant" and recognize that "there would be no bluegrass without Bill Monroe."

Artists influenced by Monroe

More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the nearly 60 years of Monroe's performing career. Monroe tended to recruit promising young musicians who served an apprenticeship with him before becoming accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Monroe's band members who went on to greater prominence include singer/guitarists Clyde Moody, Lester Flatt, Jack Cook, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Roland White, Roland Dunn and Doug Green; banjo players Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, Sonny Osborne, and Bill Keith; and fiddlers Tommy Magness, Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Gordon Terry, and Glen Duncan. Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso Doc Watson.

Modern bluegrass singer and mandolin player Ricky Skaggs was influenced by Monroe. Skaggs was only six years old when he first got to perform on stage with Monroe and his band. He stated, "I think Bill Monroe's importance to American music is as important as someone like Robert Johnson was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential: I think he's probably the only musician that had a whole style of music named after his band".

Pseudonyms used by Monroe as a composer

Joe Ahr; Rupert Jones; Wilbur Jones; Albert Price; James B. Smith; James W. Smith

Discography

References

Bibliography

Rumble, John (1998). "Bill Monroe". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 350–2.

Smith, Richard D. (2000). ''Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass.'' Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-80381-2.

Rosenberg, Neil V., and Charles K. Wolfe (2007). ''The Music of Bill Monroe.'' University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03121-0.

External links

Country Music Hall of Fame profile

International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor profile

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame profile

Recording of "Wayfaring Stranger" from the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (available for public use from the State Archives of Florida)

Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music (documentary video)

Category:1911 births Category:1996 deaths Category:People from Ohio County, Kentucky Category:American country musicians Category:American country singers Category:American bluegrass musicians Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Grand Ole Opry members Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor inductees Category:Musicians from Kentucky Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:Peabody Award winners Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:American bluegrass mandolinists

cs:Bill Monroe da:Bill Monroe de:Bill Monroe et:Bill Monroe es:Bill Monroe fr:Bill Monroe it:Bill Monroe nl:Bill Monroe ja:ビル・モンロー pl:Bill Monroe sv:Bill Monroe uk:Біл Монро

Toubab Krewe is an American instrumental band which fuses the music of Mali with American musical styles (particularly those of the Southern United States). The group's instrumentation includes kora (21-string harp-lute), ''kamelengoni'' (12-string harp-lute), ''soku'' (Malian horsehair fiddle), two electric guitars, electric bass guitar, drum set, and African percussion. The group, which is based in Asheville, North Carolina, was founded in early 2005 and has traveled to West Africa several times, working with local musicians. The band released their self-titled debut album in 2005, which was recorded by Steven Heller at Upstream Records in Asheville, North Carolina. The band released their second album "TK2" on September 7, 2010 on the Nat Geo Music label. Again, it was produced by Steven Heller).

In several West African languages, including Bambara and Wolof, ''Toubab'' means "foreigner." "Krewe" is a reference to the New Orleans region's spelling of the word "Crew."

Live performances

Toubab Krewe has performed at some of the largest attended music festivals in the United States, including the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, MerleFest, MagnoliaFest, High Sierra Music Festival, 10,000 Lakes Festival, Vegoose, Lotus World Music and Art Festival among countless others. Toubab Krewe also performed in January 2007 at the Desert Music Festival in Essakane, Mali, Music on the Mountaintop in Boone, NC and at the 2009 Rothbury Music Festival, in Rothbury, MI, the 2009 Bear Creek Music Festival in Live Oak, FL. as well as their most recent performance on board Jam Cruise 8.

In October 2010 Toubab Krewe performed at Voodoo Experience in New Orleans.

Toubab Krewe recently performed at All Good Music Festival in Masontown, West Virginia, July 15, 2011.

Members

Teal Brown - drum set (2005 - 2011)

Vic Stafford - drum set (2011)

Drew Heller - electric guitar and ''soku''

Justin Perkins - kora, ''kamelengoni'', and electric guitar

David Pransky - electric bass guitar

Luke Quaranta - percussion

Notes

External links

Toubab Krewe's Official Website

Toubab Krewe on MySpace

Download Live Toubab Krewe Performances

Toubab Krewe Interview

Toubab Krewe at the Festival of the Desert in Mali

Toubab Krewe Interview March 2009

Toubab Krewe: Somewhere Between Worlds By Tim Newby, from HonestTune.com.

Category:Musical groups established in 2005 Category:American instrumental musical groups Category:People from Asheville, North Carolina Category:American world music groups Category:Musical groups from North Carolina