The old community of Curtis is located in a strategic pass in the mountains with Wheats Valley road stretching eight miles westward and Gunstock Creek Road extending three and one-half miles to the notheast. These roads, paved and/or gravel, pass through the same long fertile valley lying between Jefferson National Forest, backed by the Blue Ridge Parkway and a series of mountains on the other side. Dotted throughout this passageway are many old homes and cabins, some being two hundred years old.
The community of Curtis stands at the confluence of Gunstock and Overstreet Creeks, which flow directly into Bedford County Lake, which was created in 1933 by the CCC. A country store, now known as Gunstock Creek Cooperative, was built in the Curtis intersection in 1893 and retains its original interior. As a general store it not only had a wide range of merchandise, but also was a voting precinct, had a telephone exchange and a debating society. Just up the road was a gristmill, with a water wheel powered by Gunstock Creek. During those times there was also a tanbark mill, a tanning vat and a blacksmith shop. From reading the old store ledgers, one notices that descendants of the customers still live in the surrounding countryside.