Ararat, VA

Ararat is an unincorporated community in Patrick County, Virginia, United States, south of the Blue Ridge Parkway and north of Mount Airy, North Carolina. Ararat is located near the Virginia–North Carolina state line about five miles (8.0 km) north of Mount Airy and about 25 miles (40 km) west of Stuart, Virginia. The community's name comes from the Ararat River which flows through the area. The River takes its name from the Jefferson Fry Map of 1751, which calls Pilot Mountain part of the "Mountains of Ararat." The Saura Indian name for nearby Pilot Mountain across the state line in Surry County, North Carolina is "The Pilot" and the mountain reverted to that. The large monadnock mountain was thought to resemble a bullfrog and the Native Americans named it "Ratratrat," after the sound the animal makes. Early white settlers thought what they were saying sounded like "Ararat," the mountain which, according to the Bible, was the landing point of Noah's Ark. Blue Ridge Elementary School is located in the community. Several famous people were born in the community, such as the Reverend Bob Childress; "The Man Who Moved A Mountain," and James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, the Major General of Cavalry for Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. Also, First Lieutenant Levi Barnard, eulogized by the band Old Crow Medicine Show in their song, "Levi". The J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace, the Laurel Hill Farm, is a preserved private park in the community that is open for self-guided tours daily and holds a Civil War encampment the first full weekend of October each year.