Scott County, VA

Scott County, Virginia
Scott County Courthouse
Location in the U.S. state of Virginia
Virginia's location in the U.S.
Founded	November 24, 1814
Named for	Winfield Scott
Seat	Gate City
Largest town	Gate City
Area
• Total	539 sq mi (1,396 km2)
• Land	536 sq mi (1,388 km2)
• Water	3.1 sq mi (8 km2), 0.6%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	23,177
• Density	43/sq mi (17/km²)
Congressional district	9th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.scottcountyva.com

Scott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,177. Its county seat is Gate City. Scott County was formed by an act of the General Assembly on November 24, 1814 from parts of Washington, Lee, and Russell Counties and was named for Virginia born General Winfield Scott.

Scott County is part of the Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City–Kingsport–Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area, commonly known as the "Tri-Cities" region.

The early settlers found evidence of a former native village at the mouth of Stony Creek on the Clinch river.

Thomas McCulloch was the first white settler within the county, in 1769. Daniel Boone commanded several forts located here in 1774 during Dunmore's War, and several more were built in successive years. Even so, the Chickamauga Cherokee leader Bob Benge remained active in the area throughout this time, during the Cherokee–American wars, up until he was killed in 1794. By the times houses were built in the 1790s, the largely Scots-Irish population had increased by reason of its situation along the Wilderness Road. After Scott County was formed in 1814, the first court took place in 1815, and the first public schools in 1870.