Its usage may refer to the metropolitan statistical area or the Roanoke Valley, but it sometimes includes areas in the Allegheny Mountains and New River Valley which includes Alleghany County, Montgomery County, Covington, Clifton Forge, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford.
As defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Roanoke MSA includes four counties, two independent cities, and 21 incorporated towns and census-designated places.
[4] The same region is defined by the Commonwealth of Virginia as the Workforce Investment Area III, but also includes Craig County.
[5] The Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (RCVB), which promotes tourism in the region and provides conference and meeting services for business and visitors, excludes Alleghany County from its definition, but includes Bedford, Montgomery, and Floyd counties, although it gives less attention to these areas in its promotional materials.
[8] It has since been adopted by the majority of economic and community development organizations and businesses as well as participating local governments.
The Roanoke Region has a diverse economic base that includes finance, service, retail, transportation, manufacturing, health care and life sciences.
[10] The region serves as the medical, cultural, retail, media, and commercial center for nearly a million people, and is the largest place for employment opportunities in western Virginia.
The town of Fincastle in Botetourt served as the gateway to the American West and was the starting point for Lewis and Clark's famous exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.
It produced one of the nation's most respected leaders, eminent black educator Booker T. Washington, who was born April 5, 1856, on the Burroughs Plantation, approximately sixteen miles northeast of Rocky Mount.
After emancipation and a successful quest to educate himself, Washington established a new black school in 1881 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Known as the Tuskegee Institute, the college helped Washington achieve his goal of educating his people to provide opportunities.
The town of Salem, established in 1802, served travelers on the Great Wagon Road and was located on two stagecoach lines.
In 1847, the Virginia Institute, a boy's preparatory school, moved to Salem from Staunton and was renamed Roanoke College.
With the Great Wilderness Road and Botetourt County serving as the gateway to the American West, the Roanoke Region was always an intersection for travel and transportation.
The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) came to Big Lick, linking Lynchburg to Bristol and transforming the region.
When the Shenandoah Valley Railroad linked Hagerstown, Maryland to the AM&O in Roanoke in 1882, it became the Norfolk & Western Railway.
In Alleghany County, the Virginia Central Railroad had extended its track from Staunton to the Jackson River in 1857.
When the track to Richmond was completed in 1881, the town boomed as a railway hub and remains as the region's only stop on the Amtrak line.
Access to the coalfields of Southwest Virginia made N&W prosperous, transporting the world-famous Pocahontas bituminous coal which fueled half the world's navies.
The region combines a host of well-known nature-based attractions such as the Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Jackson and James Rivers with a growing and sophisticated business community.
The Roanoke Civic Center also regularly features traveling Broadway shows and a variety of other famous plays.