ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

The Rugby Gully Jumpers' Wayne Henderson (from left), Helen White and Herb Key play during a ceremony honoring The Crooked Road.

For a few hours Wednesday, men and women in suits and dress clothes filled a dance floor usually reserved for mountain cloggers.

At the Floyd Country Store, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named The Crooked Road -- a heritage trail linking towns and music venues in Southwest Virginia -- one of 2010's Dozen Distinctive Destinations.

"This is where America learned to be America," Joe Wilson, co-founder of The Crooked Road and chairman of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, said into a microphone still warm from the Rugby Gully Jumpers playing old-time music minutes before. "The Blue Ridge was a great mixer of people, and it can still be a great mixer of people."

This is the first time the National Trust has named a region rather than a town or city as a Distinctive Destination, and the award will give The Crooked Road a platform for marketing on the National Trust's Web site and in other publications. It doesn't include a cash award.

"We want other regions in the country to look at The Crooked Road and see how to take regional character and, in effect, build sustainable economic development," said Rob Nieweg, director of the southern field office for the National Trust.

Cultural heritage tourists spend more than $190 billion on travel a year, and the recognition will help Southwest Virginia further attract those travelers, Nieweg said.

The Crooked Road has already improved the stature of downtown Floyd, centered at the intersection of Virginia 8 and U.S. 221, beneath the town's only stoplight. Since the trail's conception in 2003, Woody Crenshaw expanded the Floyd Country Store and built a hotel and a cluster of storefronts in a building across the street.

Travel expenditures in Floyd County ballooned 28 percent from 2003 to 2008, with almost $18 million spent by tourists in 2008 alone, according to Virginia Tourism Corp. research.

"The Crooked Road has changed the focus from a specific place to an entire region," said Crenshaw, owner of the Floyd Country Store, a century-old building that has hosted the Friday Night Jamboree for about 25 years. "The region has more to offer than just one town or one village or city."

The Crooked Road is actually a network of highways and back roads that stretches from Rocky Mount to Dickenson County coal country. The trail stitches together 10 counties, 10 towns and three cities, as well as multiple planning districts, state agencies, tourism organizations and music venues.

Funded primarily by the Appalachian Regional Commission in addition to other local and state sources, The Crooked Road features eight primary music venues and scores of "affiliated partners" not directly located on the route. Points of interest include everything from large gatherings -- such as the Carter Fold in Scott County -- to intimate bluegrass jam sessions, including one at the Rocky Mount Dairy Queen.

Anecdotally, some officials along the road say they have seen a steady increase in tourists coming to Southwest Virginia to soak up the sounds of bluegrass and old-time music. A 2008 economic impact study released by Sustainable Development Consulting International of Lebanon, Va., estimated a $23 million annual impact along the route.

"We do see people come by here who are traveling the road," said Roddy Moore, director of the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College, one of the road's major venues. "There's no question they are coming here because of the road. It still works."

All 12 destinations are eligible for the "Fan Favorite" award to be voted on by the public. Voting continues through Feb. 28 at www.PreservationNation.org/ddd. One voter will be picked for a two-night stay at any one of the National Trust-sanctioned Historic Hotels of America.