Raleigh County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 78,859. Its county seat is Beckley. The county was founded in 1850 and is named for Sir Walter Raleigh.Raleigh County is included in the Beckley, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistoryRaleigh County was formed on January 23, 1850 from portions of Fayette County, then a part of Virginia.Alfred Beckley (1802–1888) said he gave Raleigh County its name in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618), the "enterprising and far-seeing patron of the earliest attempts to colonize our old Mother State of Virginia", according to Raleigh County: West Virginia by Jim Wood.The county was the scene in 1914 of the Eccles Mine Disaster, the second-worst coal mining disaster in West Virginia history. The death toll was at least 180. More recently, the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010, which killed 29, also occurred in Raleigh County.Longtime Senator Robert Byrd's home town was Sophia.
