Lee County, the western-most county in Virginia, was formed from Russell County in 1792, with part of Scott County added later, and was named for Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and a former American Revolutionary War officer. Cumberland Gap National Historic Park lies partly in Lee County and in Kentucky and Tennessee, and the Cumberland Gap was the principal route through the mountains used by Native Americans and early European settlers traveling west and south. The county seat is Jonesville. Wise County was formed in 1856 from Lee, Scott, and Russell counties and was named for Henry Alexander Wise, governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. Its county seat is the town of Wise. After the Civil War, the town of Wise grew and the county's industry expanded because of railroad growth and increased coal mining in the region. Novelist John Fox Jr. lived for part of his life in Big Stone Gap and wrote the best-selling novels The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come.