by Vickie Holt

When most people think of Floyd, Virginia, they think of the charming downtown district with its shops, music venues, and art galleries.  But there is so much more to be found in the wider community of the county.  Floyd County contains the towns of Check, Copper Hill, Indian Valley, and Willis.
It’s in the town of Willis, Virginia, that S. Peter Willis and Silas Garrett Conduff got together to open a general store for the community.  This was around 1883, and the wooden-built shop could be found just about eleven miles southwest of downtown Floyd along Floyd Highway South.
Originally, this little community was called Greasy Creek, but in 1880, the name was changed to Hylton.  This was to honor the Helton family who operated a store and post office there.  It was around this time, however, that the Willis family settled in the area and began operating businesses in the community.  Because of their influence, and because the Hylton Post Office was getting confused with the Hilton Post Office in another part of Virginia, the name of the town was changed to Willis in 1894.  S. Peter Willis was a member of that influential family, and his partner, Silas G. Conduff, was the first postmaster under the town’s Willis name.
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From left to right: Daniel Sowers & Derek Wall

Budding interest in hemp and cannabis in Virginia has led to healthy growth for The Buffalo Hemp Company.  Having already established the Floyd location in 2019, TBHC has been so successful that it was not only able to open the second location at 1110 Main Street in Roanoke but has recently opened a third location at 208-A N. Main Street in Blacksburg!  They are also pleased to announce that they have outgrown the original Floyd location at 315 East Main Street and relocated to a more spacious, historic building at 710 East Main Street.  Co-owner Derek Wall attributes the company’s success to local relationships, persistence, and commitment to continuous evolution.
“We were fortunate to begin with our own crop, our products, and our own brand,” says Wall.  But Wall and his business partner, Daniel Sowers, soon found that there were a lot of people growing excess hemp.  This led to TBHC growing less of their own crop every year and opting instead to support local farmers who could grow hemp that met the company’s needs for quality and safety.
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by Vickie Holt

American Pie Restaurant is one of Floyd’s newest eateries, taking up residence in a building recently vacated by one of its oldest.  After thirty years, Ray’s Restaurant had become a legendary fixture in the Floyd community, located at 1041 Floyd Highway, North.
The structure itself was built in 1910.  In the 1940’s, Ray’s father, Donald Hatcher, owned it, running the location as a grocery store and gas station.  Its eventual evolution to becoming a restaurant, however, is thanks in part to Ray’s mother, who started cooking for some of the local workers in the 1940’s.  After some time, Ray took the reigns of the business and it operated as his restaurant from around 1990.  In 2020, however, Ray Hatcher decided to retire.
Even while Ray was thinking about retirement, Bill Taylor was sitting in Palm Beach, Florida, already bored with his retirement from the medical industry.  “I didn’t enjoy it,” says Bill.  “All that sitting around.”  To make matters worse, the hurricane season in Florida was getting more and more serious, year after year.  Bill didn’t want to wait around for a storm to destroy his home.
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by Vickie Holt

Originally from Oregon, David Larsen received a degree in Business and Technology in Electronics from Oregon State University.  After working for a few years in the industry as an engineer, David became a teacher in electronic instrumentation at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia – a position from which he retired after thirty-one years in 1998.  But it wasn’t all academics and electronics.  During his tenure at Virginia Tech, David also assisted the Office of International Development.  For many of those years, he worked with land and farming, starting up a Christmas tree farm and marketing organization.
With his hands in the land as early as the mid-sixties, David was able to establish the Laurel Creek Farms corporation (LCF) in 1968.  Named for the first area of land developed.
David was later joined in the business by his wife, Gaynell.  In February of 2002, they were also joined by Dee Wallace, who completed the three-person group.  Originally from Nebraska, Dee came to Virginia in 1992 for college.  Once working with LCF, she was also creator of Floyd Virginia Magazine!  Wallace tells us the original idea was to have a publication that would help promote LCF.
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In 2015, Pat Sharkey was the first recipient of the Business Leader of the Year award from Floyd Chamber of Commerce. From left to right: John McEnhill, Executive Director of the Floyd Chamber of Commerce; Pat Sharkey, Tourism Director; and Joy Gardner, 2015-17 Chamber President.
Floyd County’s very first Tourism Director, Pat Sharkey, retired from her position at the end of July after serving for eight years.  Jewelry-maker and owner of Earth Dance Jewelry and Gems, Pat was also active and involved in the arts, as well as Floyd community-building efforts.  This included community service with multiple nonprofit organizations such as The Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Sustain Floyd, and the Blue Ridge Center for Chinese Medicine.  She also worked for the state’s Round the Mountain program which resulted in the development of art tourism trails in the organization’s Southwest Virginia coverage area.  And finally, Pat also served as the Program Manager for a federally funded, employability enhancement program in Floyd.
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