[2] Scott County was formed by an act of the General Assembly on November 24, 1814, from parts of Washington, Lee, and Russell counties and was named for Virginia-born General Winfield Scott.

Early Anglo-European settlers found evidence of a former native village at the mouth of Stony Creek on the Clinch River.

Daniel Boone commanded several forts located here in 1774 during Dunmore's War, and several more were built in successive years.

A group known by the settlers as the Chickamauga Cherokee (but they were not a separate tribe), was led by Bob Benge.

Benge was killed in 1794, years after the United States gained independence in the American Revolution.

The first public schools were not established here until 1870, years after the American Civil War and during the Reconstruction era in Virginia and other former Confederate states.

[5] The wealthy planters of Virginia paid for their own children's education but nothing for the rest of the white people.

[6] Scott County is one of the 423 counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission,[7] 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.

26.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.