The railroad named Roanoke, built it in a decade, and left in 1982 when Norfolk and Western moved its headquarters to Norfolk and the manufacturing closures followed. What remained was the valley itself — the Appalachian Trail running through the county, Carvins Cove fifteen minutes from downtown, the Blue Ridge Parkway a half-hour south, the Roanoke River threading thirty miles of greenway through the city. The city rebranded itself the Outdoor Capital of Virginia in the 2010s, and the claim holds because the geography was always there: McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs, and Dragon's Tooth all sit within thirty minutes of downtown. The Mill Mountain Star, built in 1949 by merchants who decided to leave it up permanently, gave the city its older name — Star City of the South — visible from almost anywhere in the valley. One identity the railroad made. One the merchants kept. One the mountains always offered.
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