Dear Editor,
You published an interesting article by Virginia Tech Professor Ewing in the News Messenger (Jan. 7, 2026) on the history of the Luster’s Gate Cheese Factory and U.S. Bicycle Route 76. The article brought back fond childhood memories and answered questions I had long wondered about.
My grandmother, R. N. Bennett, owned a 365-acre farm called Valley View near the cheese factory. Her son-in-law, Lee Price—my uncle—was trained in cheese making by Professor Saunders of Virginia Tech. Uncle Lee later worked with Saunders traveling across Virginia and other states teaching farmers the art of making cheese.
Uncle Lee was the first—and only—cheesemaker and manager the Luster’s Gate Cheese Factory ever had. I lived with Lee and my aunt Grace during the polio epidemic when I was six or seven and “helped” him make cheese, mostly by getting in his way. He worked tirelessly: rising before dawn, milking cows by hand, collecting milk from cooperative members, making cheese, maintaining equipment, and tending his own farm. His only real rest came on Sunday afternoons.
During those years, many local families depended on the cheese cooperative for their livelihood. Neighbors supported one another, and without the factory many would have struggled.
As a teenager, I later managed my grandmother’s farm for several months, milking cows by hand morning and evening and hauling milk every other day to Route 76 for pickup to the cheese factory. It was a demanding but character-building experience.
Old-timers still speak fondly of the exceptional cheese made at Luster’s Gate. The building that housed the factory remains, standing as a reminder of a time when hard work, cooperation and local enterprise sustained this community.
Thank you,
Ben Crawford
Blacksburg
