Time seems to stop in the small mountain hamlet of Paint Bank, Virginia. Perhaps it's the one or two hour drive from surrounding towns and cities, separated by a couple of mountains.
Paint Bank was a bustling railroad depot nearly a hundred years ago, and remained a small town with a baseball field and a few small businesses into the 1950s, but as the boys came home from WW2, soon followed by the younger brothers returning from the Korean Conflict, it became obvious that most of them only came home to visit. Just a fortunate few remain full time residents, but hundreds more consider it home.
Today, Paint Bank remains as a stroll back into another time, and is appreciated as a homecoming place for the generations descended from the founding families, as well as a popular destination for a Sunday drive.
Nearby sites of interest include the following:
Paint Bank General Store, beautifully restored
The Swinging Bridge Restaurant, inside the Store
Depot Lodge, an authentic lodge in the original railroad depot
The Paint Bank Hotel, currently in renovation
Tingler's Mill
Paint Bank Community Cemetery
Humphrey's Chapel
Steel Bridge Recreation Area--picnics and trout fishing in national forest
Paint Bank Fish Hatchery
There's a saying you may have seen on t-shirts: "I survived Route 311" to reach "the end of the world--Paint Bank, Virginia." This is both a humorous and a serious warning. Route 311 West, driving out of Roanoke or Salem, first crosses Catawba Mountain, and remains a winding, two-lane drive that offers risky encounters with deer, falling rocks, and hair pin turns for which signage will wisely advise speeds as low as 20 miles per hour. While you must be cautious to watch for "falling rock" in the road, you won't find bathroom facilities along the way, and those inclined towards motion sickness may be drooling by the time you top Potts Mountain. The view down the Paint Bank side of the mountain is glorious, but gear down and don't overheat your brakes. Keep a sharp eye for wild turkey, deer and perhaps even the occasional black bear. As you approach the hair pin turn at the bottom, you may notice a small road intersects there. Route 311 will straighten out for a couple of miles and hidden in the next curve, you will see the fish hatchery on your left.
Paint Bank proper awaits, around a couple more turns and just a few minutes further on. Don't daydream, or you will drive right through it and soon be headed up Peter's Mountain into West Virginia.
By the time you arrive in Paint Bank, you will welcome the opportunity to stretch your legs and enjoy the scenery of Potts Creek and the sweet potato fries in The Swinging Bridge restaurant.
Please enjoy your visit, and add your own memories here of the quiet beauty of this place, where time slows almost to a stop.
