Central Depot (Radford) station on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, 1856
Source: Library of Congress, W.W. Blackford map, Map & profile of the Virginia & Tennessee Rail Road
Central Depot (Radford) station on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, 1856
Source: Library of Congress, W.W. Blackford map, Map & profile of the Virginia & Tennessee Rail Road
Native Americans lived alongthe New River for perhaps 15,000 or more years before the first English explorers to see the site of modern-day Radford. Those explorers may have been Thomas Batte and Robert Hallom in 1761. They were sent by fur trader Abraham Wood to seek out opportunities to increase business at Wood's fort, now the site of Petersburg. The river was originally named after Abraham Wood, though later "New River" replaced "Wood River."
Batt and Fallom encountered towns of the Siouan-speaking Totero. By the time colonists came to settle in the area in the 1740's, the towns were gone. Raiding parties from the Cherokee and Catawba going north and Iroquois coming south may have depopulated the area.1
Radford started as a spot for colonial travelers to cross over the New River. James Patton asked for the Woods River land grant in 1743. The Iroquois ceded their claims to the area, except for north-south passage through the New River valley, in the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster.
The Governor's Council granted Patton 100,000 acres in 1745. It was the first land grant in the Mississippi River watershed. The Governor's Council was aware that the French also claimed the territory, and were less concerned about the rights of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Cherokee, and Catawba to the land.1 Colonists started to settle on the New River he Wilderness Road stretched further souh ,
grid established by Radford Land & Improvement Company
Source: Library of Virginia, "We Are Not Saved:" The Land Boom & Real Estate Speculation in Montgomery County, VA
Norfolk Southern still uses Radford as a rail yard and crew change station
during the Civil War, a boat ramp at Central Depot was used to transfer goods from the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad for shipment down the New River to Narrows
Source: Library of Virginia, Montgomery County In The Civil War