Craig County, Virginia
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Craig County is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
located in the Commonwealth of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,892. Its
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is New Castle. Craig County is part of the Roanoke metropolitan area.


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 George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
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)


Major highways

* * *


Demographics


2020 census


2000 Census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 5,091 people, 2,060 households, and 1,507 families residing in the county. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 2,554 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 98.94%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.20%
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.22% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.14% from other races, and 0.35% from two or more races. 0.33% of the population were
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race. There were 2,060 households, out of which 30.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.90% were married couples living together, 7.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.80% were non-families. 23.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.88. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.60% under the age of 18, 6.40% from 18 to 24, 29.70% from 25 to 44, 26.70% from 45 to 64, and 13.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 103.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.50 males. The median income for a household in the county was $37,314, and the median income for a family was $41,750. Males had a median income of $26,713 versus $21,337 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $17,322. About 6.60% of families and 10.30% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 15.90% of those under age 18 and 10.50% of those age 65 or over.


Government


Board of Supervisors

*Craig City District: Rusty Zimmerman (Vice Chair) *Craig Creek District: Lindsey Dunne *New Castle District: Jesse Spence (chair) *Potts Mountain District: Carl Bailey *Simmonsville District: Kathi Toelke


Constitutional officers

*Clerk of the Circuit Court: Sharon P. Oliver (I) *Commissioner of the Revenue: Elizabeth Huffman (I) *Commonwealth's Attorney: Matthew Dunne (R) *Sheriff: Trevor Craddock (R) *Treasurer: Jackie Parsons (I) Craig County is represented by Republican Stephen D. "Steve" Newman in the Virginia Senate, Republican Joe McNamara in the Virginia House of Delegates, and Republican H. Morgan Griffith in the U.S. House of Representatives.


Politics


Communities


Town

* New Castle


Unincorporated communities

* Abbott * Maggie * Paint Bank *Simmonsville


See also

* National Register of Historic Places listings in Craig County, Virginia


References

{{authority control 1851 establishments in Virginia Virginia counties