Paint Bank, Virginia

Paint Bank, Virginia
Unincorporated community
Former train station
Paint Bank Show map of Virginia Paint Bank Show map of the US
Coordinates: 37°34′8″N 80°15′43″W / 37.56889°N 80.26194°W / 37.56889; -80.26194Coordinates: 37°34′8″N 80°15′43″W / 37.56889°N 80.26194°W / 37.56889; -80.26194
Country	United States
State	Virginia
County	Craig
Elevation	1,847 ft (563 m)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	24131
Area code(s)	540
GNIS feature ID	1486039
USGS

Paint Bank is an unincorporated community in northern Craig County, Virginia, United States. It is located at the intersection of State Route 18 and State Route 311 northwest of the town of New Castle, the county seat. The village is located between Potts Mountain and Peters Mountain.

Paint Bank got its name from the iron ochre and red clay taken from the banks of Potts Creek that was used by Native Americans, notably the Cherokees, as war paint, and to make their pottery with a distinctive red color. Reportedly settled by permanent settlers in the 18th century, during the early days of the 19th century, the same red clay was later made into a commercial paint and red bricks for permanent buildings. A number of land grants were made by Lord Fairfax and the Commonwealth of Virginia, especially by the later around Paint Bank in the 1820s through the 1850s.

A few miles up the road between Sweet Springs, West Virginia and Paint Bank, is the location of the home of Anne Royall. By some accounts, she was the first professional female journalist in America.

"During the Civil War, the off-the-beaten-path community became known as the “Union hole,” a place for deserters and resisters. It was close to this area that Union General David Hunter fought his most difficult battle, a confrontation involving two of Craig County’s highest mountains, on his trek from Lynchburg, Va., to Sweet Springs, West Virginia"

The Order of the Heroes of America, also known as the "Red Strings", extended into southwestern Virginia as well. Paint Bank, Virginia was known as a Union-Hole because of the pro-Union membership in these societies. One of the members of the Order was a Christiansburg, Virginia wheelwright named Williams. It is not known if this is the same man named Williams that residents of Back Valley, Virginia spoke about as a member of the Loyal League. "Paint Bank, in Craig County, was the core of what local citizen George A. Linton called the "Union Hole"-an area with mixed loyalties that sometimes swayed heavily to the north, in this traditionally southern state."