ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996                   TAG: 9605100004
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1    EDITION: METRO 

DID YOU KNOW...? CLARE WHITE'S TOP 10 LIST OF INTERESTING ROANOKE FACTS

She isn't boastful about her knowledge of Roanoke's history. But occasionally, she will drop a piece of trivia into the conversation. ``Did you know that, once upon a time, Salem Avenue was home to no less than 46 saloons?'' So, when pressed for her favorite fun, historical footnotes in Roanoke's past, it was no surprise that she was ready with a quick list:

1. There were really two salt licks with a claim on Roanoke. There was Big Lick, where Orange Avenue now intersects Hollins Road, and there was Long Lick, along Campbell Avenue downtown.

2. Many of the main roads we follow today - U.S. 460, U.S. 11, etc. - were the same routes traveled by the Indians and buffalo centuries ago. ``Well,'' White explained, ``the buffalo and the Indians took the best grades.''

3. Roanoke was once a central hunting ground. Indians drove buffalo and other wild game into the salt licks and marshes of what is now the Roanoke Valley. This slowed the animals, making it easier to hunt them.

4. Years later, the boggy landscape posed a problem for European settlers, particularly sheep farmers on Bent Mountain who found that it was too expensive to bring their sheep to market in Roanoke. Either they lost too many in the marsh trying to herd them there themselves or they had to pay wagon drivers extravagant amounts of whiskey in shipping costs.

5. Hemp was an early cash crop. It was exported to England to make rope.

6. Downtown Roanoke once had more hills, some similar in stature to the perch where St. Andrew's Catholic Church sits today. But these crests were leveled off to make expansion and building easier.

7. Flowing beneath downtown is essentially an underground river below Campbell Avenue. It is a holdover from Roanoke's marshy past. White described the waterway as a ``large mud pie with large boulders floating in it.''

8. The original Norfolk and Western passenger train station in town was located between the eastbound and westbound railroad tracks directly in front of the Hotel Roanoke. ``The newspapers of the day just carried on about its marvels,'' White said.

9. In South Roanoke, a building was built to cover Crystal Spring during World War I. Crystal Spring was the source of much of the city's water supply, and the community feared the Germans might try to poison it.

10. Also in South Roanoke, Avenham Avenue was a favorite route for bootleggers running moonshine from Franklin County into Roanoke during Prohibition. Who knows? Maybe it still is.

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LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: The original Norfolk and Western passenger train station,
          downtown, 1895.