Biohazard Cleanup Near Foxfire Vinton, VA

Vinton is an incorporated town in eastern Roanoke County, Virginia, and is part of the Roanoke metropolitan area.

Vinton began as Gish's Mill, after the Gish family established a gristmill on Glade Creek in 1797, and the settlement grew up around that mill site.

As the railroad expanded into the Roanoke Valley, Gish's Mill became a stop on the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad.

After a mass meeting in 1883, the area was incorporated as the Town of Vinton in 1884, and its name was perhaps inspired by the Vinyard family, the largest landowners in the area at the time.

The population of Vinton was 8,059 at the 2020 census, nearly unchanged from 8,098 in 2010.

Vinton sits in the Roanoke Valley between the city of Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake, and its downtown is less than three miles from downtown Roanoke.

Vinton students attend Herman L. Horn Elementary School or W. E. Cundiff Elementary School, William Byrd Middle School, and William Byrd High School through Roanoke County Public Schools.

The original William Byrd High School, known as 'the school on the hill,' was built in 1933 in a Classical Revival style and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

During its final four years of service, the old William Byrd High School integrated one grade per year before closing in 1969, when a new, fully integrated William Byrd High School opened just outside town in 1970.

The Vinton Dogwood Festival has been held each spring since 1956, when it began as a fundraiser for the high school marching band, and it celebrates the American dogwood, which is both Virginia's state flower and state tree; the town celebrated the festival's 70th anniversary in April 2025.