Poor Mountain is a ridge of high peaks located in

Roanoke County Roanoke County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 96,929. Its county seat is Salem, but the county administrative offices are located in the unincorporated Cave ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and Montgomery County, Virginia. At 3,928 feet, Poor Mountain is the tallest mountain in the immediate area. Poor Mountain has the largest known population, by far, of piratebush ''(

Buckleya distichophylla ''Buckleya distichophylla'', commonly called piratebush, is a flowering plant in the family Santalaceae, native to the Southern United States. It is a rare plant, found only in sporadic mountainous areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia ...

)'', a plant which draws nutrients from the roots of

Eastern Hemlock ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...

trees. Piratebush is found only in limited numbers at a few other locations in Virginia,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. The Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve has been established to protect this population. Twelve O'clock Knob is located adjacent to Poor Mountain in Roanoke County directly south of Salem, Virginia. The north slope of the ridgeline formed by Poor Mountain and Twelve O'clock Knob marks the southwestern boundary of the Roanoke Valley.

Fort Lewis Mountain Fort Lewis Mountain is a mountain which stretches from Ironto in Montgomery County, Virginia to Masons Cove in Roanoke County, Virginia. The rural community of Bradshaw is located in the narrow valley between the south slope of Catawba Mounta ...

is located directly across the valley from Poor Mountain.

Communications hub

WDBJ Transmitter Complex on Poor Mountain in Roanoke Virginia

Television and Radio Tower Farm on Poor Mountain in Roanoke Virginia

Poor Mountain is the location of several broadcasting antennas for

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

stations in the

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch (1740–1820), John Lynch, the city's populati ...

Designated Market Area (DMA). On the apex of the mountain in what's referred to as an "antenna farm" are the broadcasting antennas on towers for radio stations

WVTF WVTF is the National Public Radio affiliate serving most of southwestern Virginia. The station is licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, and owned by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) through its fundraising arm, the ...

(FM) 89.1, licensed to the Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc.;

WXL60 NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Servi ...

(VHF-FM) 162.475 MHz (

NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...

), licensed to

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

; W220BD 91.9, licensed to Family Radio; and three radio stations licensed to Mel Wheeler, Incorporated,

WXLK WXLK (92.3 MHz "K92") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, serving the New River Valley and Southwest Virginia. WXLK airs a Top 40 (CHR) radio format and is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc. WXLK's studios and ...

(FM) 92.3;

WSLC-FM WSLC-FM (94.9 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia and serving the New River Valley. WSLC-FM is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc. It airs a country music radio format, using the moniker "94.9 Star Country." WS ...

94.9; and

WSLQ WSLQ (99.1 FM "Q99") is a commercial radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, serving the New River Valley and Southwest Virginia. The station airs an adult contemporary radio format and is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc. The studios ...

(FM) 99.1. Digital television stations located in the antenna farm are

WBRA-TV WBRA-TV (channel 15) is a PBS member television station in Roanoke, Virginia, United States, owned by Blue Ridge Public Television, Inc. The station's studios are located on McNeil Drive in southwest Roanoke, and its transmitter is located on Po ...

3 (

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

Channel 15),

WDBJ WDBJ (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Roanoke– Lynchburg market. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Danville-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WZBJ, chann ...

18 (PSIP Channel 7),

WSLS-TV WSLS-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving the Roanoke– Lynchburg market as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Graham Media Group, the station maintains studios on Fifth Street in Roanoke, an ...

30 (PSIP Channel 10),

WFXR WFXR (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Roanoke– Lynchburg market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Lynchburg-licensed CW owned-and-operated stati ...

17 (PSIP Channel 27),

WPXR-TV WPXR-TV (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Roanoke– Lynchburg market. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scri ...

36 (PSIP Channel 38), and WEDD-LD 26. All of these stations are licensed to Roanoke. Other telecommunication antennas and towers for local, county, state and national public service, are also located on Poor Mountain, and their flashing

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

tower lights can be seen from dozens of miles away, especially at night. The antennas for the other primary digital TV stations in the Roanoke DMA,

WSET-TV WSET-TV (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Roanoke–Lynchburg market. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and has studios on Langhorne Ro ...

13 (PSIP Channel 13) and

WWCW WWCW (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, serving the Roanoke–Lynchburg market with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Roan ...

20 (PSIP Channel 21) are located on towers on Thaxton Mountain, halfway between Lynchburg and Roanoke. Prior to the 2009 digital TV transition, WSET could not locate on Poor Mountain because of an inability to provide analog "city-grade" coverage of Lynchburg from that site, in addition to short-spacing concerns with

WOWK-TV WOWK-TV (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Huntington, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston–Huntington market as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Quarrier Stree ...

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

. The Poor Mountain broadcast antenna farm is a good example of radio and TV stations, co-locating their broadcast towers near each other on the highest point near their

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC)

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broa ...

Wind farm bid

The mountain is under consideration for the placement of a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

. Reportedly, Invenergy Wind LLC dropped the idea of putting wind turbines on Poor Mountain and neighboring

Bent Mountain Bent may refer to: Places * Bent, Iran, a city in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran * Bent District, an administrative subdivision of Iran * Bent, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Rijnwoude, the Netherlands * Bent County, Colorad ...

, as a study concluded that the potential energy would overload the existing electricity transmission lines found in the immediate area,Company drops bid to put wind farm in region - Roanoke.com
however they have not and are still trying to pass the project through state and local government venues. They already have the land leased for up to 54 of the 443-foot tall wind turbines.

References

Oct 2010 - Invenergy still trying to pass wind farm installation, never actually gave up...!

External links

* * {{Mountains of Virginia Ridges of Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains Landforms of Roanoke County, Virginia Landforms of Montgomery County, Virginia