Radford, Virginia¶

Radford, Virginia is a quaint small town of about 16,000 in the woods of southwest Virginia, a paranatural hotspot and the setting of both Radford arcs: The Radford Horror (1992) and The Radford Horrors (1993).


Type	Town
Aliases	Radford
Region	Southwest Virginia, near Roanoke and Salem, bordering Jefferson National Forest
Population	About 16,000 (including the surrounding area)
First appearance	Radford Horror 01
Arcs	The Radford Horror; The Radford Horrors

Description¶

On their first trip from Washington, D.C., after a four-hour, sixteen-minute drive, the team passes signs for Roanoke and Salem, then pulls off for Radford, where a sign reads "Population 16,000." Andre describes the town as "almost offensively quaint": colonial revival kitsch, train tracks and a river, and an old main street with Old West facades (Radford Horror 01). A local credits the town's unexpectedly educated population to the university and its college. The sheriff explains that the 16,000 includes the surrounding metro area (Radford Horror 02). The town borders a national forest, and the woods are a recurring focus of the story.

Roanoke is the nearest city. Its airport, about 45 minutes from Radford, is where the light aircraft that sometimes wake the town at night are flown from (Radford Horror 02; Radford Horror 07), and in 1993 its hospitals do the testing and psychiatric care that Radford cannot (Radford Horrors 03; Radford Horrors 04). The sheriff's department fields a fair number of "quack" call-ins about UFOs, and the town sells "Radford, Virginia, UFO USA" flying-saucer T-shirts at its thrift store (Radford Horror 05). Much of the land around Radford is privately owned and had long been open to hikers and hunters, until in 1993 a company, the Safe Environment Fund, bought up large tracts, fenced them and began bringing in construction equipment (Radford Horrors 02).

The first case file ranks Radford as a hotspot on the Atolean Paranatural Index (Radford Horror 01).

The Pay n' Stay clerk in the first arc warns that the town has missing people, lights in the sky, and "people walking around who haven't even been born," and says his father believed the town was cursed because the local armory made the guncotton for the atom bomb (Radford Horror 01; see Radford Arsenal).

Notable places within¶

Lodging: Ferry Lodge and the Pay n' Stay face each other across the street; the team later moves into the lodge in 1992 and, in 1993, finds the lodge upgraded.
Eating: Lonely Mountain Diner, where Sheila waits tables; Arby's; a McDonald's; Quest Coffee, a rival coffee shop; and later a Blockbuster Video where clerk Harold works.
Law and medicine: the Radford Sheriff's Department with its small morgue, the Radford ER, Dr. Lori's office, the Radford pharmacy, and a family-medicine clinic run by Dr. Harvey Mauden.
Homes: the Lucky house, the Whateley house, the Augustine house and barn, and the Lawson cabin in Stately Acres.
The woods: Jefferson National Forest, the Alpine Lodge water tower, the mountain road site, the highway crime scene and the old-town church.
1993 additions: the Douglas Pinball Emporium, the Safe Environment Fund fenced site and the Sportsman RV Campground.

History of events there¶

The Radford Horror (1992)¶

The task force arrives on a case file reporting that 17-year-old Amanda Lucky vanished from a locked third-story bedroom and that an insomniac four-year-old saw a spaceman. A neighbor, Mrs. Whateley, had also walked off into the night (Radford Horror 01). Local dogs are disappearing, a man watches from the post office roof, and the team learns that the Whateley family's son Abe had once robbed a store in a homemade spacesuit (Radford Horror 02; see Radford Moth and Radford's missing dogs).

Over the next episodes Kurt is badly burned in an encounter with Agent Murphy on a mountain road (Radford Horror 03), Amanda's crucified body is found beside the highway (Radford Horror 05), and the team raids the Whateley house cellar (Radford Horror 06). The finale takes place in an abandoned church in the woods, where the team fights the car-sized blue moth creature and rescues Phoebe Augustine and Wilbur Whateley; the church burns, and the team is rescued by Deputy Molly Underhill (Radford Horror 07; Radford Horror 08). The police close the case with Dr. Lori and Derek Augustine imprisoned for abusing Amanda, Wilbur suspected as a serial killer, and a cartel link guessed from the heroin; the team lets the story stand (Radford Horror 08).

The Radford Horrors (1993)¶

By early 1993 more people have gone missing in Radford, and a separate FBI task force sent to look has vanished. The team returns in April 1993, about a year after the first case, with new boss Daniel Webster, but without the Biz, who is held in Russia (Radford Horrors 02). Molly Underhill is now sheriff. The Ferry Lodge has been upgraded and is raided by IRS agents; the Pay n' Stay has a new teenage clerk; the Safe Environment Fund has fenced the woods; and a gray van crew is cleaning up after something at the Pinball Emporium (Radford Horrors 02; Radford Horrors 03; Radford Horrors 04). The team wakes Wilbur Whateley at a Roanoke mental hospital and camps beside the missing agents' tents (Radford Horrors 04).

The Radford Horrors 01 opens with a cold open of FBI agents chased through snowy woods by a flying thing, then moves to Moscow and Washington before turning toward Radford (Radford Horrors 01).

Inhabitants¶

Sheriff Frank Roosevelt, Molly Underhill, the Whateley family (Abelforth, Wilbur, Yobiah and Irene), Dr. Lawrence Lori, the Augustines (Derek, Maybelline and Phoebe), Dean Lawson, Matt McCready, Douglas Douglas, Charm, and Billy Thornton. More are listed on Minor characters: Radford.

Trivia¶

The first arc is set in spring 1992 (the task force first assembles on May 24, 1992); the return arc begins in early April 1993 (Radford Horror 01; Radford Horrors 01).
Dante, cutting off a table discussion about where to find a clue, dismisses the town with "They don't have shit in Radford" (Radford Horror 05).