Roanoke

Roanoke is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Southwest Virginia along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains, approximately 50 miles north of the Virginia–North Carolina border and 250 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., along Interstate 81. At the 2020 census, Roanoke's population was 100,011, making it the largest city in Virginia west of the state capital Richmond. It is the principal municipality of the Roanoke metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 315,251.

The Roanoke Valley was originally home to members of the Siouan-speaking Tutelo tribe, but in the 17th and early-to-mid 18th centuries those Native Americans were gradually driven out of the area by Scotch-Irish and later German American farmers as the American frontier pressed westwards.