The Blacksburg Area as herein described is that portion of Montgomery County, Virginia, which comprises the north third of the Blacksburg Quadrangle. This Quadrangle is the southwest quarter of the Christiansburg topographic sheet published by the United States Geological Survey in 1890. The region is in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains. It is bounded by latitudes N. 37° 15' and N. 37° 10' and by longitudes W. 80° 30' and W. 80° 15', an area of approximately seventy-eight square miles. The east-west dimension is 13.8 miles and the north-south dimension is 5.7 miles.

The town of Blacksburg, which is the location or the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is within this area and is at longitude W. 80° 30' near the northern boundary of the area. The region is traversed in a north-south direction by state highway number 8 connecting the Lee Highway, U.S. 11, at Christiansburg, with Princeton, West Virginia, and main U.S. Highways to the west. A spur of the Norfolk am Western Railway connects Blacksburg with the main line at Christiansburg.

The town of Shawsville is located in the extreme southeastern corner of the area. The main line of the Norfolk and Western Railway as well as U.S. Highway 11 pass through this town. They both connect that portion of the area with Roanoke, Virginia, and the eastern seaboard, with East Radford, Virginia, the Pocahontas Coal Fields and other points west to the Mississippi Valley.

The main line at the Virginian Railway traverses the entire region from east to west, following the North Fork of the Roanoke River from Ironto to Ellett and from there westward by way of Merrimac. This railway, like the Norfolk and Western, is a connecting link between the Atlantic Seaboard at Norfolk, and the West Virginia Coal Fields by way of Roanoke.

The Blacksburg Area is consequently readily accessible from most any direction by rail or by road, although within the area it is quite rugged and a few localities are none too easily reached.