Riner, VA

Riner is a Montgomery County census-designated place with 1,196 residents in the 2020 census, built around a five-road crossroads in the southern county. The settlement began with a sawmill around 1808 and went by Old Forks, Five Forks, and Auburn before taking the name Riner. By the 1870s, the crossroads had a store, meetinghouse, school, lumberyard, hotel, blacksmith, and small factories serving the surrounding farms. Route 8 still runs through the village, with Auburn Elementary, Auburn Middle, and Auburn High grouped along the local school corridor. The Riner Historic District preserves the old crossroads through the 1908 Methodist church, former Bank of Riner, Jonathan Hall house-store, and Surface Mill. Teel Park, just off Route 8 at the village's northern edge, adds four baseball and softball fields, multi-purpose fields, playgrounds, picnic shelters, and walking trails. Riner's present-day map pairs a preserved crossroads with a new sports complex.