The museums in this region represent many different periods of history – with Smithfield being the earliest (having been built in 1773), the Wilderness Road Museum in Newbern being the next oldest (1810), then Montgomery Museum (1850s), the Christiansburg Institute (1860s), Glencoe Museum (1870s), and the Alexander Black House (1890s), but we are discovering that our history often overlaps. In 1755, this part of Virginia was in Augusta County – a huge territory that stretched from Staunton to the Mississippi. With all our modern divisions (as in Pulaski or Montgomery County, the Towns of Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Newbern, and the City of Radford), it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we all share a common frontier history. It seems appropriate to join forces in celebrating our common history, and to find ways to collaborate together.

This section will include information about how the families, places, and buildings link together in history, how each property is not an insular history but contributes to the history of the region, and how the New River contributes to this history.