Bland County, Virginia

Bland County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Bland
Year Organized: 1861
Square Miles: 359

Court House:

P.O. Box 510
County Courthouse
Bland, VA 24315-0510

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Bland is named for Virginia statesman and Founding Father Richard Bland.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Bland County, Virginia formed from Giles, Tazewell, and Wythe Counties. Giles County contributed another small portion in 1899-1900. [Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation, by Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, originally published as Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, Volume 9, January, April, July 1916, reprinted 1992 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD.]

Bland County was formed in 1861 from portions of Giles, Wythe and Tazewell Counties. The people of the area had become dissatisfied with the distance to the various county seats. The rough mountain trails did not lend themselves to the quick and pleasant conduct of necessary legal affairs. There was also great dissatisfaction with taxes paid for the benefit of those far removed from the rugged mountains and valleys of Bland. Thus an act to establish the County of Bland passed the General Assembly of the State of Virginia on March 30, 1861.The county was named after Richard Bland, a leader of Colonial Virginia whose arguments laid the intellectual foundation for freedom and independence from the mother country. County seat is Bland . All but a few record books and some chancery papers were destroyed by fire in 1888.

Geography

Bland County lies within the Appalachian Regional Commission's definition of the Appalachian region. The County is mountainous with small river valleys running through the county.

Neighboring Counties:

Giles County, VA to the northeast
Mercer County, WV to the north
Pulaski County, VA to the east
Smyth County, VA to the southwest
Tazewell County, VA to the west
Wythe County, VA to the south

Cities and Towns:

- Bland (County Seat)

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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