24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Ivanhoe Ivanhoe, VA

Ivanhoe is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in southern Wythe County, Virginia, that straddles the border of Wythe and Carroll counties.

Ivanhoe sits in the Appalachian Mountains along the New River, and the New River Trail State Park rail trail passes directly through the community.

Ivanhoe was settled before the Revolutionary War, and an iron ore furnace built there in 1886 grew the town enough to support an opera house and several hotels.

Ivanhoe was the birthplace of Robert Sayers Sheffey, the eccentric Methodist circuit rider and evangelist who became a folk legend across the southern Appalachians.

In 1917 the National Carbide Company built the first carbide plant in the United States at Ivanhoe, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; the plant operated until 1966.

Mining shaped Ivanhoe's economy for most of the twentieth century — the New Jersey Zinc Company mined in the area until 1981 — but by 2018 the nearby rock quarry and mines were no longer operating.

After the industrial jobs disappeared, Ivanhoe's residents organized the Ivanhoe Civic League, a community improvement organization that fought to keep the town alive and published an oral and pictorial history of the community.

The New River Trail at Ivanhoe crosses the New River on the 670-foot Ivanhoe Bridge and passes through a 193-foot tunnel, and the trail adjoins the remains of the Ivanhoe Blast Furnace and the old carbide plant.

Ivanhoe was first listed as a census-designated place in the 2010 census, when it had a population of 551 living in 230 occupied homes.

Ivanhoe had a population of 501 in the 2020 census, down 9.1 percent from its 2010 count.