Harlan, first called Mount Pleasant, lies in the valley between Big and Little Black Mountain at the confluence of the three forks of the Upper Cumberland River, at the junction of U.S. 421 and U.S. 119, and serves as the county seat of Harlan County. Settled in 1819, it remained a small backwoods village for more than a century before the coming of the railroad in 1911 helped it develop into a major distribution center. Harlan County, formed in 1819 from parts of Floyd and Knox counties, is one of Kentucky's most rugged mountain counties and has historically been one of the state's leading coal-producing counties. The sixtieth county established in Kentucky, it is bordered by Bell, Leslie, Perry, and Letcher counties in Kentucky and by Lee County, Virginia. Its 469 square miles of mountainous land rank it seventeenth in size among Kentucky's 120 counties and make it one of the state's most scenic areas. The county was named for Major Silas Harlan, a native of Berkley County, Virginia, who came to Kentucky in 1774 at age 22, served under General George Rogers Clark in the Northwest Campaign in 1779, and was killed leading his men into battle against Indians at the Battle of Blue Lick on August 19, 1782.