Vinton, Virginia

Vinton is a town in eastern Roanoke County, right next to the city of Roanoke. Vinton shares much of its western border with Roanoke, and that line runs straight through several neighborhoods. The ZIP code is 24179, and that ZIP reaches past the town limits into the western part of Bedford County.

Route 24 runs through town. Coming from Roanoke, Dale Avenue crosses Tinker Creek and becomes Virginia Avenue, which skirts the south side of downtown. Washington Avenue is the main street, and Route 24 follows it east to the town limit at Wolf Creek. Farther east, the highway meets the Blue Ridge Parkway at a low gap in the mountains before it crosses into Bedford County.

For a small town, the ground moves a lot. The high point is on Olney Road, with a view across to Roanoke. The south edge of town drops down a steep, wooded cliff to a lake in the Roanoke River Gorge, and the lake is out of sight from every part of town where people live.

Before it was Vinton, the place was Gish's Mill, named for a gristmill on Glade Creek, and the town grew up around the railroad depot that carried the Gish name too. Vinyard Park sits just north of town, Goode Park is to the east, and the Dogwood Festival fills downtown every spring.