Bell Co. was formed in 1867, and by 1990, the population was 31,506, in a land area of 360 sq. miles. The county seat is Pineville. On our county's border is the Cumberland Gap, where Daniel Boone (pictured here in George Bingham's painting Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through The Cumberland Gap, 1851-52) led those settlers to the ford on the Cumberland River near The Narrows, and onto the West.