Craig County, part of the Roanoke metropolitan area, is a rural, mountainous county located on the western border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is New Castle, which is also the only town in the county. As of the 2020 census, the Craig County population was only 4,892, making it one of the least populated counties in Virginia.
Craig County was formed in 1851 from parts of several adjacent counties, and was named in honor of Robert Craig, a longtime congressman from Southwest Virginia. More than half of the county remains federally protected land, forming a major part of the Jefferson National Forest.
History
Nestled in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, Craig County was named for Robert Craig, a 19th-century Virginia congressman. The initial outpost in the area was called "Craig's Camp," and it is claimed that George Washington visited it in 1756 during his travels to the frontier. Formed from parts of Botetourt, Roanoke, Giles, and Monroe (in present-day West Virginia) counties in 1851, Craig was later enlarged with several subsequent additions from neighboring counties.
The secluded, mountainous town of New Castle, the county seat, has one of the commonwealth's antebellum court complexes, including a porticoed courthouse built in 1852. Craig Healing Springs, a collection of well-preserved early-20th-century resort buildings representative of the architecture of Virginia's more modest mountain spas, is located here.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.3%) is water. More than 112,000 acres of the county is national forest
. Craig County is one of the 423 counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission, and it is identified as part of "Greater Appalachia" by Colin Woodard in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.
Adjacent counties
- Alleghany County – north
- Botetourt County – east
- Roanoke County – southeast
- Montgomery County – south
- Giles County – southwest
- Monroe County, West Virginia – west
National protected area
- Jefferson National Forest (part)