On the side of a roadway in Montgomery County sit three wooden crosses. Not much was known about how they got there until now.
Allen Williams remembers his father building a house along Peppers Ferry Road, Route 114. “In the early 80s, a man approached my dad (James Williams) and asked him if he could install crosses at the present location, 1784 Peppers Ferry Road,” he said this past week.
That man’s name was Bernard Coffindaffer, who was a wealthy oil businessman from West Virginia. After a spiritual awakening following heart surgery, he spent $3 million of his own money to build and erect thousands of roadside monuments. Research shows he liquidated his oil and other business interests and founded a nonprofit to finance the project.
Allen’s dad had built the house in 1954 and the physical structure had to be moved several times as the road expanded. Allen lived on the property while attending Virginia Tech.
His father retired in 1982 and moved back in 1983. In 2012, James Williams passed away leaving the property to Allen and his sister. He bought her out in 2016, and since then, the property has been sold to Robert Fralin. It is not known if the crosses will be taken down during that construction.
The famous clusters of three crosses seen along highways in the United States date to 1984.
Coffindaffer became a self-proclaimed Methodist minister serving seven small churches in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
Each site includes a tall center cross by two smaller side crosses and represents the Jesus Christ on the center and two thieves crucified with him on either side of the small crosses.
According to documentation, Coffindaffer’s nonprofit, “Cast Thy Bread Inc.”, has placed more than 1,800 clusters containing 5,500 crosses across 29 states, Washington, D.C. and other countries. Typically, the center cross is painted gold, and the side crosses are pale blue. Most of the crosses were built from Douglas fir.
West Virginia received the highest number. The first set was built of telephone poles and raised on a knoll along Interstate 78 at Flatwoods, West Virginia. The crosses were estimated to weigh 400 pounds each. West Virginia is home to 352 sets.
Others dot the horizon in Zambia and the Philippines and others in Virginia are visible near Interstate 81.
Country music’s Randy Travis wrote and sang about the roadside markers in his 2002 song “Three Wooden Crosses.”
Coffindaffer died in 1993. After his death, a separate organization called “Crosses Across America” was formed to carry on his mission. Today, many of the surviving crosses are maintained and cared for by local churches and property owners.
Over the years, numerous media outlets have said the three crosses serve as a testament to one man’s unwavering faith and dedication. His legacy lives on with the three crosses on the sides of America’s roadways including Christiansburg.
