Thaxton, Virginia
Thaxton is an unincorporated community in Bedford County, Virginia, United States. The transmitter for the Lynchburg-Roanoke market ABC television network affiliate WSET-TV is located approximately 2.8 miles SSE of the town center. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Thaxton was the site of a deadly train accident on July 2, 1889 that killed at least 18 and injured 21. The accident, caused when a passenger train derailed over a section of track that had been washed away by unusually heavy rains, was one of the deadliest railroad  accidents in Virginia's history. A memorial was erected later that year in Cleveland, Tennessee in memory of three of the victims, all from prominent families in that city, who were on their way to attending the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. A historical marker was placed near the site of the accident in 2015.