The Star City Name — How Roanoke Got Its Nickname

The railroad made Roanoke in 1882, choosing Big Lick as the site for its corporate headquarters and turning a small town into a boomtown that grew by 22 times in the 1880s. When Norfolk and Western moved its headquarters out in 1982, the city lost its founding identity. By then, though, the merchants who paid for the Mill Mountain Star in 1949 had already decided to leave it up permanently, and the nickname stuck. Star City of the South outlasted the railroad as the city's primary identity marker because the star is visible from almost everywhere in the valley — it's the first thing drivers see on I-81. The overlook is free and open daily until midnight.