Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Fort Chiswell, VA

Fort Chiswell is a census-designated place in Wythe County, Virginia, located at the junction of Interstates 77 and 81 in the southwestern part of the state.

Fort Chiswell had a population of 876 in the 2020 census, down from 939 in 2010 and 911 in 2000.

The community takes its name from a frontier fort built in 1758 by William Byrd III during the French and Indian War and named for his business partner, Colonel John Chiswell, with whom he operated lead mines in the area.

The original fort guarded a lead deposit whose ore was used to mold bullets during the American Revolution, and it stood at the junction of the Great Trading Path and the Richmond Road near the New River.

Fort Chiswell became an important stop on the Great Wilderness Road, and at least 60,000 settlers are estimated to have passed through it by 1800.

Irish immigrant James McGavock first paid £100 toward purchasing the Fort Chiswell property in September 1771, beginning his family's long association with the site.

The Fort Chiswell Mansion was built in 1839-1840 by brothers Stephen and Joseph Cloyd McGavock, a house of more than 10,000 square feet built with roughly 300,000 bricks on a limestone foundation three feet thick, with 18 rooms; it remained in the McGavock family until 1918 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

The fort's remaining foundations were completely covered over during construction of Interstate 77 in the 1970s, and a pyramid-shaped sandstone historical marker now stands about 200 yards west-northwest of the original fort site.

Local students attend Fort Chiswell Middle School and Fort Chiswell High School, which have been merged into a single shared building.