Stokes County is located in northwest North Carolina and is considered to be part of the Piedmont Plateau. The Sauratown Mountains rise from the southwest edge of the County, and run northeast for over half the width of the County. The Sauratown Mountains contain many interesting destinations for the visitor. Such places as Moores Springs, Piedmont Springs, Cascade Falls, Tories Den, Hanging Rock State Park, the Rock House, Moratock Iron Furnace, and the Dan River. All are easily accessible by automobile.
The Dan River begins in Patrick County, Virginia near Buffalo Knob and eventually flows to the Roanoke River in Halifax, Virginia. The river enters the northwest corner of Stokes County, near the community of Asbury, flowing diagonally across the County toward the community of Pine Hall, dropping approximately 500 feet in elevation on its course through Stokes. In addition to the unique features created by the Sauratown Mountains and the Dan River, Stokes County conceals another geologic oddity. In the Sauratown Range can be found deposits of Itacolumite, commonly known as “limbergrit”, bending rock, or flexible sandstone. This is one of the very few deposits in the world, and believed to be the only deposit in the United States.
Hanging Rock State Park is home to clear, sparkling mountain streams, waterfalls and cascades, a lake for swimming and fishing is nestled in the mountains surrounded by mountain laurel, rhododendron, stewartia and many other flowering shrubs. From the highest elevation in the park, on Moore’s Knob (elevation 2,572 MSL) can be seen the valley of the Dan River, the patchwork of tobacco fields, and the distant Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. Today, Hanging Rock State Park is one of the most popular parks in the North Carolina State Park System. Located four miles northwest of Danbury, it can be reached by NC Highways 89 and 66. In recent years the park has attracted well over 400,000 visitors annually.
