This site was the Gilley family farm, settled by John and Mary Barger Gilley about 1790, with the family cemetery located just south at the end of Graveyard Alley. When a town was laid out on parts of the Gilley, Horton, and Flanary farms, it was named Imboden after Brig. Gen. John D. Imboden. The town was incorporated on 7 Apr. 1882 as Mineral City, and its name was changed to Big Stone Gap on 23 Feb. 1888 when the town boundaries were enlarged. Soon afterward, several railroads converged here, and the town grew because of the importance of the iron and coal mining industries.