Mountain Lake is situated in Giles County, and is a well-known summer resort. It is also of interest for the wide range of plant life found in its vicinity. Members of the University of Virginia's Biological Department maintain a field station there and in the summer study the wide variety of plants growing nearby.
Giles County was named in honor of William B. Giles who in 1800 was prominent in Virginia politics. He later served as Governor 1827-1830.
In 1808 Amherst County was divided according to its parish lines, the western or upper part of the county which lay in Lexington Parish retained the name of Amherst, and the lower or more eastern part took the name of Nelson. This as will be recalled was the second attempt to honor Governor Thomas Nelson, whose Yorktown home still holds buried in its eastern wall two cannon balls, grim mementoes of the battle of Yorktown.
Virginia has believed in honoring the men who have held the gubernatorial office, nineteen having been thus commemorated, and Cabell County formed in 1809 carried on the tradition. It honored William H. Cabell, who served from 1805 until 1808 when he was chosen judge of the General Court. It later fell into West Virginia, and lies along the Ohio River.
1810-1820, DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES, FIVE NEW COUNTIES
In 1814, a Virginia county was formed from parts of Lee, Russell and Washington and named Scott. This name was selected because of General Winfield Scott, a native of Virginia who achieved fame because of his successes in the War of 1812. Later in the Mexican War he decisively defeated the Mexicans at Chapultepec, entering Mexico City as conqueror. As a result of this war some 850,000 square miles became United States territory.
The bounds of Scott County are as follows: "Beginning at the head of Reedy creek where the wagon road crosses the same in the county of Washington thence down the Tennessee line to the south fork of Clinch river thence northward passing the Flag Pond to the top of Powell's mountain in Lee County and along it to the county of Russell and with it to the Kentucky line, thence along Cumberland mountain to the head of Guese's river thence down the Clinch mountain thence to the western end of Samuel Hensley's plantation and thence to the beginning."