Hanging Rock has long been a landmark in Roanoke County and a geologic feature whose overhang was once said to shelter the road before it was removed for safety. The area also recalls a Confederate victory during a skirmish. The Hinchee family became important to the community through its local businesses and work on the mountain. Their general store, later known as Hinchee and Hinchee, served the community from the 1920s to the 1960s with gas, groceries, supplies, employment, and local news, while Hanging Rock Garage provided needed automotive repairs despite repeated damage from fast-moving vehicles at the turn. When Route 311 was moved to its current location, brothers Lloyd and Jim Hinchee concentrated on their explosives business, storing explosives in magazines at mountain landings on land later donated for Hinchee Park. The nearby Hinchee Trail, a fire road running 12 miles from Timberview to Carvins Cove, is labeled on some maps as CCC Road, and many of its stone-walled culverts suggest Civilian Conservation Corps work.