Roughly one fifth of the county lies in the Virginia Piedmont region, while the rest is part of the Appalachian Mountains.

However, early settlement was slow, mostly due to the poor agricultural soil of the area.

The new county was officially named for Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, from Maryland.

[4] However, other accounts assert that John Carroll, a Virginia state legislator, had named the county in his own honor, but was blocked by a political rival who had it officially named for Charles Carroll instead.

The Blue Ridge escarpment usually defines the county lines in both North Carolina and Virginia.

The CDP community of Cana is in the Virginia Piedmont while the rest of the county is in the Appalachian Mountains.

Carroll County, like neighboring Floyd, is a historical anomaly in being a solidly Republican county in “Solid South” Virginia, due to desertions from the Confederate army during the Civil War.

Democratic Senatorial candidate Mark Warner did however carry Carroll County in his landslide 2008 victory.