About Mercer County
Mercer County is in the southern part of the state located south of Beckley and about 232 miles southwest of Washington, DC. Its southern boundary line is a part of the West Virginia state border with Virginia. It was formed in 1837 from parts of Giles and Tazewell counties, Virginia. The county is named after Hugh Mercer (1725-1777), a Scottish immigrant who served as a surgeon for the Highlanders in their defeat at the Battle of Culloden before settling in America where he was a combat officer in the British colonial forces during the French and Indian War. In that war, he commanded Ft. Duquesne after its recapture by the forces of Gen. John Forbes. In the American Revolutionary War he was a Brigadier General, recommended by Gen. George Washington, who lost his life in the combat vanguard at the Battle of Princeton.
Its present territory is 420 square miles with a population of 61,589. Its county seat is Princeton (pop. 6,347) in the south central part of the county. Its major city is Bluefield (pop. 11,451) in the extreme southern part of the county. Other towns are Athens (pop. 1,102); Bramwell (pop. 426); Matoaka (pop. 317); Montcalm (pop. 885); and Oakvale (pop. 142). The county is drained by the Bluestone River and its tributaries. Within the county are Camp Creek State Forest and Camp Creek State Park (in the northern part of the county), Pinnacle Rock State Park (in the southwest part of the county), and part of Pipestem State Park (in the northeast part of the county). Interstate 77 runs north to south through the east central part of the county. There is an airport near Bluefield and the county has rail connections.
Major employment is in health care and social assistance, retail, accommodation and food services, manufacturing, finance and professional, newspaper publishing, and telecommunications including television broadcasting. Over one-half of health care and social assistance employment is in hospitals. About one-fourth of health care and social assistance employment is in ambulatory health care services. Nearly half of the manufacturing employment is in mine machinery and the making of fabricated metal products. The rest of manufacturing employment is in commercial bakeries and hardwood veneer and plywood making. Most coal mining employees work in neighboring counties since there is not much coal production in the county which is about evenly divided between surface and underground tonnage. There is noticeable economic activity and some employment in education. Athens is the site of a public school of higher education, Concord University. Located in Bluefield is Bluefield State College, a historically black, public school of higher education. Agriculturally there is some notable production in eggs and the raising of horses, but the major products are livestock and forage.
